Yndi and the Big Boo-Hoo

Yndi is one of my Gotland Pony mares. She turned 22 this year.

I bought Yndi sight unseen, on the internet, December 3rd, 2011. The things leading up to that are what I call "The Big Boo-Hoo." On March 24th, I put down my horse Janow at age 22, after 18 years of looking after him daily. He foundered, again. I suspect some well meaning but ignorant person was secretly trying to fatten him up. I laid on his body until it was cold.

Janow AKA Siglavy Destina I

With Janow

Suspecting that my instructor would help me shop for a driving pony that he could receive money for training and possible talk me into letting him compete (He promptly did this to one of my friends), I decided to make a journey from California to Kentucky to buy a pony that was already trained. That was Kokovoko Magnolia, a Gotland pony mare who arrived in California during an EVh-1 outbreak and multi-stable voluntary quarantine. When she left Kentucky, nobody saw this outbreak coming. My boarding stable found a quarantine space for her way up in the hills, and I visited her every day.

Maggie in quarantine, eating wild artichoke plants

I rode her a few times, but only got to drive her once before she colicked. I did what I swore I'd ever do and had colic surgery for her. She almost died. She was in the hospital 80 miles away and I visited her every day for 10 days. Soon after she got home to my boarding stable, she had an infection in the incision and almost died.

Maggie with me at the boarding stable

The surgery had a 3 month recovery period before she could begin work again. She was days away from the getting to work when she colicked again. On October 3rd, I watched her die, thrashing in agony, falling and rising over and over while the vet was stick in Bay Area commuter traffic. I will never be the same.

So there I was, two loses in seven months. I had "shot the wad" on colic surgery that turned out to be more than two times as expensive as the average colic surgery. Horseless and bereft.

The next pony had to be a Gotland, it had to be a mare. I had never before specified a breed or gender in my horse shopping, and I couldn't afford to ship another from Kentucky. I bought the only Gotland Mare with driving experience on the west coast. She was "afraid of whips." I, too, was rather fragile.

Not only was she afraid of whips, but she was afraid of ropes, lines, reins, strings, veterinarians, horseshoers, paste wormer.... and her teeth were so neglected that the hooks prevented her from biting off grass or chewing hay.

It was a really long journey to this: