Evitaa

Evitaa

(*Nabytek x Seranade by *Serafix)

bay, arabian mare, 3/30/80-2/3/01

In the fall of 1999, my then business partner, & still close friend Tammy, called me about a *Serafix granddaughter for sale in San Diego County. If I remember right, she was priced at $1500.00. I had been wanting a mare of *Serafix breeding so even though Evitaa was 1/2 Polish, I sent Tammy to look at her. I was living in N CA & Tammy was in Orange County, so within an easy drive to "horse shop".

Tammy reported back that Evitaa was a big mare with good bone & substance, had a sweet disposition, & was very pretty. She also saw two of Evitaa's 1/2 arab, pinto fillies & they were also very nice. She sounded like a nice mare so all Tammy & I had to do was decide if we wanted to spend that much money for another mare. We decided to think about it while I waited to have pictures sent to me. A couple days later Tammy got a call from the owner who said she had to get the mare sold & wanted to know what we'd offer for her. She said she was getting a divorce & Evitaa had to be moved ASAP. We wondered why it was only Evitaa that had to disappear immediately & we both thought the woman's story was suspect so we told her we'd consider & get back to her. A couple days later she called Tammy & said she'd deliver Evitaa to Tammy in San Juan Capistrano for a total of $200. DEAL! On 12/13/99, Evitaa became the newest addition to Dream Catcher Arabians.

A few days after "V" arrived in SJC, Tammy called to tell me she was lame. Great, what had we gotten into? A few days later I saw "V" for the first time when I drove to S CA to visit friends & family for Christmas. It was obvious that someone had trimmed her extremely short just before her arrival. Luckily it only took her a few days for her feet toughen back up & she was sound. She was everything I thought she would be. Big, beautiful & a sweetie. On 12/27/99 she made the trip to N CA with a few unloaded rest stops along the way. She was wonderful the entire trip. To this day I still wonder about what the real truth was behind Evitaa's sale. Something just wasn't right about the story, but we'll never know.

That spring we bred Evitaa but her ultrasounds showed her not pregnant. It was a disappointment because we really thought she'd give us a super nice foal. My vet thought the reason for her problems might have been a combination of uterine fluid & what he called a "sloppy" uterus. Whatever the reason, it was a big disappointment. We had made a commitment to "V" so she became our "pasture puff". It wasn't for another 5 months that my mom asked me if "V" was pregnant. I said no, unfortunately. But my mom was convinced "V's" belly had THAT round to it. So off to the vet we went. You can imagine the surprise my vet, Dr Wulf, & both experienced when he palpated & found a foal. I was so excited. I'm sure the smile never left my face for the next week. We were having an Evitaa baby.

A week later I came home from work to find "V" colicking. My friend Eric was also there & he helped me with her while we waited for Dr Wulf to arrive. I think Eric & I both knew that this was no mild colic & that "V" was in a bad way. She had no reflux when the stomach tube was passed, but she also had no gut sounds. She was medicated & medications were left for me to give through the night. Banamine made her comfortable & she appeared to be getting better. She was not a surgical candidate so we could only hope the meds would do the trick. For the longest time Eric held her head & to this day he says there was a deep emotion connection to "V" that night. As morning dawned it was apparent that "V" was no getting better so I took her in to the vet hospital. She was given IV medications & I left her for further observation. A couple hours later Dr Wulf called to say the meds weren't making "V" comfortable so it was time for to make a decision. With that our beautiful Evitaa was released from her pain & laid to rest.

It was such an emotional roller coaster for those few weeks. First with the joy of an upcoming foal, & then the devastation of losing a wonderful mare. Upon necropsy it was found that Evitaa had a strangulating lipoma & even if we'd opted for surgery, she wouldn't have survived. It was months later before I found out that she had been carrying a colt. For Eric & I both, we'll never forget the sad look in Evitaa's eyes that last night. She was definitely a horse who touched us deeply & effected us for life. Rest in peace & run free sweet "V".

Macrame For Horses

A friend asked me the other day if I'd ever heard of macrame halters. Well I've never seen any macrame halters, never even heard of any. But I do have a macrame headstall packed away in my closet. My friend's question took me back quite a few years.

Macrame was popular about 40 years ago. Everyone was doing it & it was everywhere. Macrame is the art of tying knots into crafty items. I can remember dozens of plant hangers in our house. My mom was a macrame genius who tied knots daily, creating some really ornate items.

It was about this time that two friends & I decided we wanted macrame headstalls. Cathy & Vicky's moms weren't artsy at all & my mom told me to do it myself if I wanted a headstall. So we 3 friends borrowed a macrame book from my mom & started on our projects. We used the ordinary white twine that you can still buy in every hardware store today. Along the cheekpiece I tied in brown, wooden beads for decoration. I can no longer remember what colors Cathy & Vicky used. I glued sheepskin on the underside of my headstall, not only to help stabilize it but to provide softness next to my mare's face. I used brown & white rug yarn to braid matching reins.

The day came when we were going to go trail riding for the first time in our new, macrame headstalls. They really did look good on our mares. Now young girls are never content to walk & amble along the trail & we were the typical young teens. We started galloping our horses along the riverbed, having a great time. As our horses picked up speed we reined them in to slow them down. The only problem was that Cathy & Vicky had used regular, knitting yarn for their braided reins. As I stopped my mare, their mares continue to run because their reins had stretched, & stretched, & stretched. Finally the yarn reach it's no-stretch zone & they got their mares stopped. I'm sitting here giggling at the memory. I thought we'd all fall off we were laughing so hard. Cathy's headstall had also stretched so the bit was hanging below her mare's mouth. Needless to say, we never rode in our macrame headstalls again. But I've kept mine all these years as a reminder of a wonderful mare & a fun time with friends. So would I want a macrame halter? Uh, probably not.

Launi's Gelding Ordeal

DreamCatcher Rabulaun

(Rabu Farwa x FV Farrubi)

born 5/16/2005, chestnut arabian

On Nov 23rd I woke up thinking it was time to have Launi gelded. It wasn't a sudden decision, just the day I finally made it. I'd been contemplating gelding him for some time. It had been a war of emotions because Launi has a rare pedigree grouping & was the last known breeding stallion of his particular sireline. I knew I was doing a disservice to his bloodlines if I gelded him. On the other hand, I had dreams of riding him & having him as my best friend. He has such a big personality & we suit each other so well that I knew we'd have fun, & it's been a long time since I've "clicked" with a horse so well. If gelded I could take Launi everywhere with me & no longer have to read the fine print "No Stallions Allowed". Nov 23rd was just the day I realized having fun with him was more important to me than breeding his pedigree forward. I called UCDavis & got an appointment for the next morning.

Launi is so good sometimes that he surprises me. He's always been a challenge & I never know when he's going to be agreeable or when he's going to challenge me. Tue's morning he was an angel. He hopped right in the trailer, in the dark & we were out the drive by 6am. Two hours later we were at UCD. Our appointment was for 9am & upon arrival I was told Launi's surgery had been bumped to 2pm. It was going to be a long day. I had opted for surgery on the table under general anesthesia because Launi was well developed & I wanted to be safe. We hung out in a stall with vet students coming & going, drawing blood & prepping him for surgery. Word came that we were scheduled for 12:30. I found out a llama had bumped us from our 9am slot. Imagine that, Launi bumped by a llama!

Launi's a big boy for an arab.

At 4 yrs he's already 15.3 & hit the scale at 1067lbs, & he carries no extra weight because he's in a growth spurt again. His surgical vet is an endurance rider & he was very impressed with Launi. And I think a little surprised as well because when he came to talk to me after surgery, he kept saying Launi was a BIG boy. Fortunately I'd made the decision to have Launi gelded at UCD under surgical conditions. He required quite a few stitches to close off the abdominal/scrotal opening, as well as the seminal cord. I would have lost him if I'd chosen to have him done locally, laying on the lawn as is the usual procedure. Unfortunately for me the vet recommended Launi staying overnight. So I left UCD at 4pm to return the next morning.

I was at UCD by 8:10 the next morning. I couldn't wait to get Launi home. He had some minor swelling but was in otherwise good shape. He was only too happy to hop in the trailer to get home. For the next few days I hand walked & lunged at a trot to keep the swelling down & to keep the incision site draining, neither of which happened. Poor Launi swelled a little more each day. When I got home from work on Mon he was so swollen his penis couldn't retract completely. In a panic, I called his UCD resident vet. She insisted that I take him to a local vet to be opened & drained. No way was I doing that & I told her I had no local vet. I asked if I should give him antibiotics & she said he'd been on them all week already. WHAT?! I informed her Launi had been on NO antibiotics & she got rude, insisting that I had been given antibiotics to give him. I was so mad she's lucky she's was 80 miles away. Needless to say we were on the road by 6am Tue, heading back to UCD.

When the resident vet came out, I informed her that I had the discharge orders & there was NO mention of antibiotics. At that point she became contrite & apologized because she's spoken with the surgical vet & learned that no antibiotics were prescribed. She was extremely, overly nice that day. Because very few new geldings come back with complications, 3 vets & numerous students came to see Launi. It took an ultrasound to find a trapped pocket of fluid. It seems Launi had healed inside more rapidly than normally happens, not allowing drainage. Not only did the vets have to reopen his surgical site, they elongated it so the fluid that was building in his sheath could drain. The surgical vet said the penis & sheath needed to be massaged into place to force drainage & correct positioning. He was skeptical that Launi would allow that at home without sedation. I assured him that I would have no problems because I had been doing that very thing Mon night. Sometimes Launi can be amazing at his cooperativeness. We left UCD just before 11am, this time WITH antibiotics, bute & instructions to lunge at a trot for 15 mins 3 times a day, followed by cold hosing. I was to do whatever it took to keep the incision open. Now, 4 days later, Launi is healing normally & is no more swollen than any incision should be. Of course now that he's feeling better, he's back to his ornery, challenging, lovable self.

Poor Launi, not only was he castrated, he had to have an episiotomy!