Thunder, Lightning, Very Very Frightening.........

It’s now just over five weeks since Fenix arrived. Strangely, I have been feeling frustrated with what I perceived to be a lack of progress, but the reality check of dating his actual time of being here is more encouraging.

Until a week ago, I had no internet access after the farm was hit by lightning on the 29th of August, so this is a biggish catch up.
With the various lightning storms etc, I have been trying lots of ways to catch him. None of them hugely successful. I hate horses being out in thunder and lightning, as I am so scared of one of them being hit. At three am on the 29th, the thunder woke me up, and the lightning was starting to kick off. Out I went to try and fetch the gees in. They were careering round their individual paddocks, being periodically lit up by the flashes in the sky. I finally managed to get a hold of Os and Madge, and put them in the stable. Poor Fenix was by now even more distraught, as the adrenaline from running around was magnified by fear of being left. I opened the fence between the fields to try and see if he would run into the big barn, but no such luck. Finally, he came for the food, and after about fifteen minutes I had him caught. He danced across to the yard, but very politely!
The storm had disappeared by the morning, so I spent some time with him in the stable and then put them out. You could see again that he was amazed at still being in the same place. Of course, as soon as I had mucked out and come in for a shower, the thunder and lightning started again. This time it was much worse, and I had to do the same procedure again, but now he seemed to understand that it was a good thing to be caught when the weather is crap, and let me put the headcollar on.
Feeling happy that all my animals were safely in from the horrendous weather, I heard two huge bangs outside, a couple of minutes apart. I ventured out to see what had happened, and I saw a bunch of broken tiles and mortar on the yard..........my big barn had been hit by lightning! Yikes!

At least it wasn’t my horses............. .

A bit later, my neighbour arrived, and needed help catching her three horses that had broken out of their field in the storm, and were across the road whizzing about in a huge open field.
I still really hate lightning, but I’m less brave when it’s other people’s horses!
After a bit of ado, we got a hold of them and put them in my barn until the lightning had stopped, and then walked them home.
I realised when I returned I had no electricity and no telephone! After fuse juggling with a torch, I fixed the house, but the fuse boxes in the barns kept tripping with a really big flash every time I tried to sort them, so I gave up. Just as well really, as the damage was a cable split by the lightning...........

So, back to Fenix.

It was also becoming difficult feeding them in different fields as the more he became attached, the more panicked he got when Os and Madge were (unavoidably) fed around the corner, so I decided it was about time to try them in together.
I opened the fence up at the top, with the plan being to let him meander through. No such luck. And a bad call on my part. He took off like a scalded cat, winging towards them, and they turned on him and all three were spinning round the field flat out. I could only watch with my heart in my mouth. He was kicked by Ossie, and bitten by Madge, but they settled down after a while, and he learned to keep his distance.
They have come to some form of acceptance, but he’s not allowed in the shelter, or the barn. It was worse to begin with when I went into the field, as O&M did not seem prepared to share me, but that is settling down now.
We’ve had a couple more storms since then, and I can now put a headcollar on him if I have done the same to O&M as he stands beside them. There’s still a problem in catching him normally, but at least I can now be sure if I need to, I can.

He has had a tapeworm wormer, and a five-day wormer, so I was bringing him in to make sure he ate it all, which gave me an opportunity to play with him a little in the stable. Now, I can touch all four legs down to the hoof, but I can only pick up a front foot for a second, and then he panics. He lets me run my hands over his body, but he is a bit wary when I get to his quarters.The other day he was scratching his tail against the wall, so when he moved forward, I worked my way backwards on him and started to scratch his tail where the hair was disturbed. He relaxed after a minute or two, and then turned and looked at me in astonishment. Barring dishing out food, which I am not convinced is interaction at all, this is probably the first time in his life that a human has done something he likes. He held my eye contact as well, which was also a first.

He is a very polite little person, but he has a massive OFF switch and that is where the difficulty lies with him. He wouldn’t be the bravest, he’s so far removed from the bolshy, in your face horses that I normally have it’s incredible. but partly due to that, I think, I have seen little or no aggression in him.
With some things, he holds his breath as I do them, he’s tense and taut, but he lets me carry on and then accepts them. He has no problem with me scraping bot eggs off his legs, or touching his legs now, but any attempt to pick them up, and he’s back on another planet.

My one concern is still this hind leg. He is very sound in walk, but slightly lame in trot and canter behind. He is not remotely distressed, as he just wanders around happily.

I cannot pick his feet up to see what’s happening, and will have no chance of getting a vet near him without regressing all the work I have done, and possibly not succeeding anyway. So, rightly or wrongly, I have decided to wait and see what happens when I can look at the foot easily. Hopefully within the next week or so. He may have bruised a sole galloping about, he may have a tiny abscess, he may be bruised from a kick, although there is no wound.
If it is the swelling on the front of the pasterns that concerned me before that is causing the lameness, then that will probably involve some X rays. It is hard to say if it is bigger than when he arrived, as I was unable to get close enough before. All this is conjecture, however, until I can examine him properly. It is also difficult as the broken hair colour distorts the eye somewhat.

I'm probably over-reacting, I'm still judging on competition sound, not field sound.

On the plus side, he has put on a load of weight, and is far more relaxed. Hopefully by the next instalment I’ll be a bit clearer about the leg.