Raquel, My Delicate "Little" Girl

Raquel had an appointment to get her feet trimmed today. Our farrier or horseshoer is a wonderful man and good friend who has taken care of her and her best buddy, Jesse the donkey, their entire lives. That is saying a LOT. Very few farriers will work on donkeys, fewer still will work on draft horses-Fred very generously does both for me. He has one of the hardest jobs I can think of, and he does it well, always with a smile, and usually with a new blonde joke for me. Thanks a lot, Fred. I feel so fortunate to have someone to care for my critters as he does. We met quite a while ago when I had Raquel's predecessor, my very first horse, Ladyhawke.

She, too, was a draft horse, a beautiful black Percheron mare that I lost in a very tragic circumstance. She actually broke her femur, the huge hind leg bone that connects to the hip. Lady was attempting to deliver her first foal, and must have slipped on the placental fluids or blood or urine. We can't understand the exact events, but know that when we checked her early that morning (she was boarding at a friend's home-she called me frantically when she realized Ladyhawke was experiencing dystocia, or difficulty giving birth.) When I arrived it was obvious the foal was not alive. I thought it may have been stuck in the birth canal as can happen with all those long legs, but she was delivered with an easy pull. Horses usually have to get up and down a few times to kind of "pump" the foal out. Lady must have been unable to do this early on in the course of foaling and the foal died from lack of oxygen. So tragic. Lady didn't attempt to get up, even when we were pulling on the foal. We assumed she was exhausted from her efforts as often happens, maybe depleted in her blood glucose or calcium. I placed an IV catheter (man, it sure is hard being "mom" and doctor at the same time!) and gave her large volumes of fluids with electrolytes, calcium and glucose. Friends and neighbors all worked together to encourage her to get up-to no avail. And if a 2000 pound horse doesn't want to do something, there isn't much us tiny humans can do about it.

At one point we had a neighbor with a tractor hook her up and drag her out of the stall to the pasture where we hoped she would have better traction. It was then that I noticed how her patella or knee cap luxated (moved inward) way too easily. You shouldn't be able to move a patella on a Chihuahua, much less a Percheron. I knew in my gut what it meant, but I called the local equine surgeon and asked his advice. He told me what I had feared. It had to be either a fracture of the femur or hip itself, and if we couldn't get her up, we wouldn't be able to transport her to the hospital for surgery. Even if by some miracle she could stand up, she wouldn't likely be able to do so for long enough to recover from a fracture like that, not with the kind of weight she was carrying. I had to make the hardest decision a pet owner ever has to make, just a few hours after learning we had lost her first foal.

I had been a typical "horse-crazy" girl growing up, but had never owned a horse of my own until my beautiful, sweet Ladyhawke. I had done things responsibly, I thought, buying her after graduating from vet school when I felt I'd settled down a bit and could really take care of a horse. I felt I had really failed my best friend. I will never forget my gentle giant. She was buried right there in my friend's pasture. One day I left some carrots on her grave and some yearling colts came over and nibbled them up-it seemed fitting!

Later that summer I was driving out in the countryside for some reason, and saw a pasture with some beautiful foals enjoying the sunshine. I pulled over to watch them and a woman soon joined me. She told me she felt "compelled" to talk to me, that she just felt I was destined to own one particular baby-the black Percheron filly with a tiny white star on her forehead. Now, I was still hurting pretty badly about my loss and I had NO desire to get another horse, much less a baby. But I humored her and chatted a bit. They sure were fun, gangly things like only draft horse babies can be. The woman even got out some paperwork on the foals, birth records and all. The pure black, 4 month old filly she had pointed out to me was born the day my Ladyhawke had died! Wow, what a trip. Maybe it was meant to be after all. I went home and talked to Michael, my husband. He was so cool about it. We didn't have much money at the time, but he had been saving a bit and put some aside with out telling me. He wanted me to be able to buy a horse when the time was right for me. What a guy! Needless to say, that fuzzy, gawky, stocky"little" baby became part of the family. We named her Raquel because we like to use Hollywood or movie star or movie character names for our critters; Raquel Welch was a very feminine sounding name and this very stout, bulky girl was going to need all the help she could get feeling a bit more girly. Her registered name is Dr. Renee's Lady Raquel, honoring her predecessor. She is now 11 and 1/2 years old-hard to believe! Michael fenced our property soon after we purchased this, our very first home. We are so fortunate! Her buddy, Jesse, the incredibly long eared, shaggy donkey, has been with her every day since she moved to our little farm. They are quite the pair. I did all of her training and was the first human to ride her-what an honor that was. She is relatively "small" for a draft horse, about 1600 pounds and standing 16.2 hands tall. (One "hand" is a unit of measurement equal to 4 inches.) I definitely need a step stool to do a thorough job of grooming her neck and back-and oh what a great neck it is! Great for big hugs and crying on her shoulder if you need to. And she is a dream to ride-kind of like riding a couch! We don't ride as often as we should, but I recently joined a "Meet-up" group of horse-loving people and I'm hoping that will soon change. My best friend, Kristen, who I've written about before, has an awesome horse, Harry, a Norwegian Fjord. It is a shame, but we have never been able to ride together because neither of us has a horse trailer! Maybe we will meet some kind-hearted, fellow horse lovers who will swap trailer rides for a tank of gas or something....we'll see.

Wow, I really wrote a lot tonight. You can tell when something inspires me-my own critters sure do that. I don't have the human kind of children, so probably put a bit more emotions into my relationships with my pets than may be "normal." Oh well, what is "normal", anyway?

Peace,
DrReneigh