By Sara Warner I
n April of 2011, I was waiting with much anticipation for an extra special foal to arrive at our Black Bay Farm in north Florida. Of course, all foals are special, but this one was exceptional to me for a couple of reasons. This would be the first foal from my home- bred Oldenburg stallion, Fabayoso (aka Bayo). Bayo is by Freestyle (Florestan-Parademarsch) out of Finesse (Fine Young Addi-Weingau), who happened to be my once-in-a-lifetime mare that I tragically lost in 2008. The dam of this new foal was the beautiful Juventus mare Plenty of Dutch (aka Dazzler). She had come into my life through a serendipitous wending of spirits that began during the equine aid mission that Florida Panhandle horse people undertook after Hurricane Katrina. This foal would represent many generations of planning and work by knowledgeable breeders. And, with this breeding, it seemed all the stars had aligned. When Freester finally arrived in this world, unwound those unbelievably long legs and stood up, he was nothing short of breathtaking.
Rough Beginnings Unfortunately, trouble began
almost immediately. On Freester’s second day, he became colicky. To make matters worse, he laid down in something such as poison ivy or fire ants and suffered a terribly inflamed, ballooning sheath. Our vet administered steroids, which took care of the inflammation but sent his thermoregulatory system into overdrive. As a result, Freester’s pulse shot up and he began panting. At this point we still hadn’t resolved the colic issue. Because we are a two-person operation and
had already been on foal watch for a month, my husband Pete and I were battling exhaustion. We had been on round-the-clock foal care for more than 70 hours, and it looked like things were going from bad to worse. I remember the third night, coming back to the barn from a short dinner break to find Freester almost comatose, his
38 January/February 2012
body limp when I tried to rouse him. I was so tired and upset, I started to cry and said to him, “Freester, you can’t die! Please, wake up!” I knelt down and administered acupuncture stimulus between his nostrils and kept holding him and rubbing him. After about fifteen of the longest seconds of my life, Freester stirred and the life seemed to flow back into his body. Amazingly, he stood up and began to nurse. Still, I was too afraid to leave him at all that night. I feared he could so easily slip away. The next day I began to notice a swelling in his left
front pastern, so I added that to the watch list. He had not had a bowel movement since his first day, and he was still panting with a high pulse rate. We had earlier decided on the “Banamine, stool-softener, wait-and-see” course of action, but I was growing increasingly alarmed at the toll on Freester’s strength that his various maladies were taking. I did not want to go through another night with him at death’s doorstep. When I called the vet again, he instructed me to take
his temperature and call him back. Amazingly, when I stuck the thermometer in his rectum, Freester began to poop! You would’ve thought we had won the Lotto. At least one system was a “go.” We continued round-the- clock monitoring and by the following morning, his pulse and panting had begun to moderate.
Next Hurdle Freester finally mustered up enough energy to
begin playing again, but then it became obvious that the left front pastern was definitely an issue. I tried the usual cold wrapping and Banamine for a couple of days, but by the following Monday Freester was using that leg less and less. Tired as we were, the last thing I wanted to do was put horses on the trailer and drive an hour to the vet. Fortunately, my husband Pete is the guy you want on your team when the chips
are down. Together we loaded Freester and Dazzler onto the trailer and off we went. I wasn’t expecting what came next. Unfortunately,
Freester’s diagnosis was a fractured long pastern bone. My mind was spinning. Even though he was only nine days
Above: The newborn Freester struggling his first week. Photos courtesy Sara Warner
Finally
Footloose!
A promising newborn colt struggles to survive, bringing both heartache and joy to his breeder.
FREESTER
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