THE WAR FOR WAR HORSE The first time War horse came to us it was July 2012, we had just moved stables and were swamped in people wanting treatment every night. War horse immediately won the hearts of a lot of supporters. Due to having been in a fire-related accident he has big burn scars on the side of his belly and was therefore nicknamed War horse. Since then, War horse has come for treatment now and then. Sometimes malaria, sometimes a cold, last autumn it was to get stitches in a shoulder. His owner asked us to foster him several times, but his condition was usual not so severe that we could prioritize him (other horses with worse injuries or more critical conditions had to come first). We tried twice, but in spite of his frail appearance, War horse was always a very strong horse. Whenever we made attempts to foster him he would have to be tied up in a halter or he would go around, neigh like a maniac and try to pick fights with all the other stallions. His owner lives next to one of the garbage dumps, and when we went riding in the desert we would often pass War horse loose, browsing through the trash for something to eat. Last time we passed by him he started coming at Zakis horse and had to be chased off so we could pass by without probems. Then one day in October I came out to find him on the land. The owner had come by in the morning and asked us to foster him and Sherif had reluctantly agreed, knowing that he usually creates problems. I put his photo on the page and announced that War Horse might not look very strong, but he is! I made a video of him and people were commenting on how terrible he looked, but they didnt see that before the video was made, he had been screaming his head off at Na3na3 and tried to jump over the fence to get to her. True to his reputation, War horse spent the first week tied up and made his stallion-neighs whenever another stallion came near. Then I started to let him loose with the other stallions and he was surprisingly calm and subdued. Then he seemed to start to go downhill. At first he didnt put on weight, then he started to lose weight. Hed had his teeth done and he had been wormed, and every day he was put in a box to eat an extra meal by himself, with no disturbance from other horses. Still, he failed to improve. After about a month with us, the owner started to ask to get him back. Sherif kept asking for a bit more time, as we didnt want to send him away not having improved at all. Every two days the owner would come by and be more and more annoyed, and Sherif would beg for a few more days. Working with these horses has taught me more than anything how important the psyche is for the physical health. When a horse wants to live, it will eat and eat no matter how many broken bones it has. And when they give up, no matter what you do to save them, they will wither away. There have been so many times when we have gotten in a horse that has been worked for weeks and months with illness and injuries, and when they come to us and get feed and rest, thats when they collapse. Just like us humans often manage to keep it together for work and important events - and when we start the holiday, or the weekend is here, or that important work project is over, THATs when we fall ill. I was wondering to myself if War horse had gotten used to being cared for, to get his meals four times per day and be able to sleep whenever he wanted, and if he was letting his guard down, both mentally and physically. Then in the beginning of December, War horse got really sick. We were feeding hay for lunch as usual, and I found him lying behind the sand pile instead of eating with the others. He was immediately put on IV fluids and glucose. No sign of malaria and no fever. The next day he hadnt improved, and in the afternoon I was sitting with him in the little manege, in the corner by the trough. He was lying down. Sherif stuck his head over the fence and said We need to call his owner, because I think hes finishing. When Sherif says that a horse is dying, it usually is. Before I came to Cairo I had never seen a sick horse, just read about things like colic and laminitis in my Pony club books as a child. At first, whenever we treated a sick horse, I didnt know how to read the horses behaviour, and I would read the prognosis on Sherifs face. If he started to look really serious, then I knew that the horse would probably not live. I told him to call the owner and see if he was interested in selling. I knew what kind of life War horse would go back to, and I did not see the point in pulling him back to life by force, only for him to go back to his old life as an underweight working horse with legs that are not going to last much longer. After Sherif left, War horse sighed and laid back on my legs. I told him Look, Samir (we call him Samir in Arabic). If you want to let go, that is ok. But if you want to live, we will buy you and you can stay here for the rest of your life and you will never work again. The next day, War horse managed to stand up and eat on his own for the first time in two days. Sherif went every day to look for the owner, but he was away and we couldnt get hold of him. Meanwhile War horse was still quiet, but ate very well and could get up on his own every morning. When the owner came back to town, he told Sherif he wanted LE 3500 for Samir. He is not worth more than a few hundreds. In comparison, Sherifs healthy cart horse Mr Fox was LE 3700, and even IF he was a healthy weight and able to work, War horse would never reach this price. I started to get a very bad feeling about how all this was going to end. And it ended exactly like I had feared. On the 15th of December the owner showed up, refused Sherifs attempts to negotiate about the price and used the occasion to shout obsceneties at Sherif about how he sent us his horse and then it lost weight because we are thieves and swindlers, then he took War horse and left. He also managed to rile up his neighbour, who left his severely laminitic horse in the trash during the summer for Emma and Sherif to find and take back to PFK, and the same day as War horse left, the other owner came by, shouted at Sherif that we had made his horse so much worse, and dragged it out. Never mind that the last three horses we got from him had to be bought and put to sleep by us because they were so severely laminitic or injured, of course it was our fault that this horse wasnt improving! So as you can imagine, finishing the PFK calendar was done in between a lot of crying. Its always sad letting a horse go, far worse when its still sick or injured, and even worse when you know its living outside at winter, without a rug, and eating its way through peoples garbage. I never thought he would survive. We sent Mohammed a few times to check on him, and Mohammed could tell me that War horse was in the garbage as usual. I was extremely surprised that he managed to live through the first days, and also felt guilty because we had made him well enough to do so. I thought about making our cleaners dump a bale of hay whenever they took our manure out with the cart, but I knew it would probably be given to other horses anyway. The 21st we went riding, and as I had feared, we went straight by War horse stood in the trash. He had lost even more weight and looked horrible. The laminitic horse that was taken away was lying on the asphalt next to the trash. My stomach just twisted itself as we rode by. I wanted to jump down and throw all my money at the owner and take War horse away forever. But I also knew how unfair this would be to other horses in need of rescuing. Giving in to one owner means that everyone will hear about it, and the next time we want to buy a horse, we wont be able to because the price will be too high. Its also unfair to other owners who have sold us their injured horses for a fair price, without trying to blackmail us. As a comparison, we just bought a laminitic cart horse to pts for LE 600, and a mare with a dislocated shoulder for LE 500. Whenever Sherif asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I said I want Samir. The owner sent his son to tell us he would make us a special deal and sell us War horse for ONLY LE 3000. We told him no. Every night we would rug all the thin horses in Fluffyland and I would wear my thick jacket and think how freezing cold War horse would be during the night. Yesterday, on Christmas Eve, I had a complete breakdown and just lay in bed all day. Poor Emma kept trying to give me presents and make me decorate the tree, but I kept refusing and cried whenever I was alone. In the afternoon she came inside to tell me how Sherif had again tried to negotiate, but War horses owner refused to lower the price. I kept thinking about how miserably we had failed, we had been following War horses life for over two years and in the end he would finish like this. Yesterday night I finally had to drag myself out of bed as we had nine children coming for our Christmas dinner, Santa Claus was coming (he always comes when Emma is not here!) and he needed someone to take photos. Emma had spent her entire stay talking about this one gift she really wanted to give me, and I kept telling her I would open it when I felt better. After Santa, dinner and dessert, she came over and threw her hand over my eyes. I thought she had brought the present outside to force me to open it. Then I heard Zaki said Open!, opened my eyes, and to my enormous surprise I found War horse in front of me with tinsel around his neck! Lots and lots and LOTS of tears ensued. He looked so tired and worn out. We put Lumpys new duvet rug on him, and got him feed immediately. Sherif had found out that one of his friends was in negotiations to sell a horse to War horses owner. They made a deal so that his friend sold his horse and got War horse and LE 1700 from War horses owner to cover the price difference. Then he gave us War horse and took the cash himself plus a small commission from us. I was so relieved! (It also belongs to the story that the owner of the laminitic horse spent Christmas eve trying to convince Sherif to take his horse back as a foster... so typical) So now we know that Christmas miracles really do happen. We cant guarantee that War horse will make it. He is standing up and his appetite is great, and he got a carton of fluids this morning. He might give up now that he doesnt have to fight anymore, but we hope he doesnt. Just like some horses collapse when they come to us, some also seem to get a boost when we buy them. It has happened many times that horses seem to not heal at all, then we buy them and they suddenly soar. I dont know if they somehow know it, or if they sense a difference in us when were around. Hopefully War horse will belong to the second group, and find new strength now that he is finally safe for good. Welcome to your forever home, War horse, and Merry Christmas. You are the best Christmas present ever. (Marte)
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 21:33:41 +0000
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