MiLords Gold a will to survive (tu)

Titch
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MiLords Gold a will to survive (tu)

11 years 3 months ago

A heart warming story from Wood-Moore Manor about a real soldier (tu)

For those who have followed the story of Mi'Lords Gold, a Kahal colt owned by Gladys Meaker, whom we affectionately call "Rocky", as our co-owner Alexia first called him, because of his will to live and BIG match temperament, is now a new horse.

Rocky survived a lightning strike, which saw him unconscious for just over an hour, after this traumatic incident. He was left with a forehead skull fracture, with the vets giving him very little chance of survival. He was immediately put on a drip, with medication to try and stabilize him and reduce any swelling on the brain. Post this traumatic incident, Rocky was then left partially blind.

With Roy & Gladys being abroad, it was a challenging call. However, as our founding Owner always says, "If there is life, there is hope".

After this incident, Rocky was rejected my his mother and basically orphaned. During the coming weeks, he was bottle fed and literally moved into the Stud Office.

As the weeks past, Rocky slowly started to build his confidence. In order to give him some company in the evening's, a small group of four Broodmares and their foals, which included one of our matriarch mares whom with Rocky's mother, would be put in a secure one hectare camp adjourning the Stud Office. As the evenings past, he started to walk and mingle amounts the older calm mares & foals and slowly, slowly his mother started calling for him.

Nature works wonders and with him moving around more confidently and the healing of the fracture, he started walking more normally and without the wobbles. The maternal bond with his mother started to rekindle. Miracles do happen and soon thereafter, she allowed him into her space. Within days of him re-uniting with her, she started producing milk. Slowly, slowly he would try and drink, but still unsure of himself.

In the meantime, during this four week process, Rocky had moved onto eating concentrated horse feed & drinking formulated milk out of a bucket.

With his sight returning and him starting to drink from his mother, we still ran the two feeding schemes in parallel, that of bucket milk, whilst he tried to suck from his mother. He was now spending all his time with her, but we still kept the feeding times supervised.

Today he eats alongside her, from his own bin, but towards the end of her feed, we encourage him to eat with her out of her feed bib. Being a maiden mare, she is still protective of her feed, so we insist that at all times, our staff stay in the paddocks, at each feeding time. With Rocky, we sit right next to him and place his Mom's food along side his. This works well and eventually they are sharing a bin, providing we are in attendance.

Photo of Rocky and his mom, Golden Mountain at feeding time with our founding Owner in attendance, as they share the last of her meal. He has made a FULL recovery and is 100%. His sight too is fully functional.