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April 2005 Report
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"April is the cruelest month;" in mid month we lost Hamal, our very old mare. She had been left on the farm with her stallion as they were inseparable. She was well into her 20's and not part of the breeding group. She was dead for two days before we were notified, too late to do a necropsy. One hind leg was draped over a lightweight metal framework of some sort, but the death appeared peaceful, there were no signs of a struggle. Her skull and forelegs have been saved from scavengers. The skull will give us her age and the forelegs may give us some clues about how she survived for so long on two forelegs that had been severely injured years ago.
The death points up yet again the need to get all the horses into the Preserve. We had anticipated a lot of activity in this direction. Unfortunately both bulldozer and promised materials deliveries were 'forgotten' by the providers and nothing happened.
Haitians set five fires in one day, hundreds of acres burned, many of them on the east side of our Preserve. Fortunately a front came through, rains poured down, the winds shifted and the Preserve was spared. During the fires our east gate was vandalized and the stolen middle bar has been replaced with chain.
Mare Spica scared us, one of the men found her lying down and had trouble getting her up. She was with the other mares, showed no signs of any difficulty. She was given an anti inflammatory and a call was made to Dr. Mautino. She has been known to lie down for a snooze in the past and so far she shows no signs of having problems. The rest of the mares look good, their coats are shining. The four stallions outside the Preserve have formed a band now that Hamal is no longer a focus of contention. All are plump and moving well.
We are hoping that May will bring long awaited progress. |
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