I had owned horses nearly all my life but I had never bought or owned one in such terrible condition, and I was afraid of giving her colic if I started giving her good feed straight away, so I rang my vet and asked him what I should do. He said to worm her and the foal first, and then start them on some second grade lucerne hay to start with, and gradually add a good mixed feed like mitavite breeda once they had been getting hay for a few weeks. I took his advice and started with the hay and put Missy and her foal in our house yard where there was a reasonable amount of decent grass. Missy had the most beautiful, sweet temperament and was an absolute joy to handle. I discovered she hated the cold and would shiver if the temperature was less than about 18 degrees – the poor thing had no fat layer to keep her warm - so I bought her a warm lined canvas rug with a short drop so Jericho (as I had dubbed her foal) could nurse without difficulty. Missy looked so terrible my husband and I were afraid someone would see her in our house yard from the road and dob us in to the RSPCA or something! They wouldn’t realise we were rehabilitating her.
After a few weeks I started adding mitavite breeda to mixed chaff and kept feeding her lucerne hay as well. Gradually she started to fill out. I had the vet out to check them and he suggested I worm them both again, which I did, and I also had Missy’s teeth done. Her body and rump were coming up very nicely, but her neck still looked pretty scrawny. I’ve come to realise it’s always the neck that puts on weight after the rest of the body. I have no idea why. At least she didn’t look like a toast rack anymore.
After several months, she started looking lovely again. Her coat changed from a cream colour to a glowing gold and her eyes were brighter too. She had always had good hooves and her ordeal in the drought paddock hadn’t affected them noticeably, so that was great.
A year later she was totally back to normal and looked fabulous so I decided to breed from her and put her in foal to a very nice chestnut purebred Arabian stallion who lived locally, called Orana Rama (by Ralvon Nazarene). By now Missy was in glowing health and she went in foal with absolutely no problems at all. Eleven months later she produced Oakie, a gorgeous palomino colt. I was thrilled with him. The only thing I would have changed if I could, was that I would have really preferred a filly, but he was so gorgeous I didn’t really mind. He was handled by us from birth, as all my foals were, and taught to lead at a few days old. He was always very easy to deal with and was a real sweetheart.
When Oakie was two, I put Missy back in foal to the same stallion and she produced another palomino colt I named Sirocco (Rocky for short). He was a dead ringer for Oakie, except he had only a star and snip, instead of just a star. He also had a more laid back, confident personality and really loved being around people too.
The next foal Missy had was a lovely big bay colt by a purebred Arabian stallion Anatase Saareef (by Simeon Saar and bred by my friend Lynda, who had once owned Missy), now owned by my friend Julie. He was a lovely foal that looked like a quality anglo- arab, with the most wonderful, quiet, people loving temperament.
Love Thy Horse Magazine 18