This is Katy crashed out on the doorstep five minutes ago. I know how she feels. Its been a long night at Rock HQ.
One that started well, and hopefully has ended well.
As from five this evening we started our holiday, eleven days at Rock HQ, fantastic, and right on cue the sun started shining and Tracey and I decided to have an early dinner on the patio in the evening sunshine before we got on with our jobs. Our holiday could not have got off to a better start, sitting in the sun, enjoying a glass of wine and marvelling at the view from the garden.
Paradise found.
All was well in our world.
Until I went to the stable. William our Welsh Cob usually scoffs down his supper as soon as it appears. Tonight he stuck his nose in it and moved it around. I watched wondering what was going on, he looked ill, his head was low, ears back and he wasn't interested in his surroundings. His surroundings were different, normally this horse makes scale models of the Himalayas in pooh for us to clear up, hardly a plop in sight. This did not look good.
Tracey came to see and was convinced the poor horse had colic, this can either mean he needs a good fart or could prove fatal. Walking tends to ease it so we set off with the magnificent seven down the lane. Things rapidly took a turn for the worst as he tried to lie down, this was a very bad sign, if he lay down it would mean he wanted to roll and could twist his gut which can lead to death. He was persuaded to stand and walked back to his stable where I stood with him while Tracey phoned the vet. As she was inside he sat down on his bottom like a dog and tried to get his head down. After a quick wrestling match ended by a slap on the backside he got back to his feet and I walked him around the yard until the vet arrived. Luckily this vet only took forty five minutes to get here which meant William and I only completed 147 circuits and 89 figure of eights in the yard while we waited.
Gabriel the vet did all the right things, and was happy to report that Williams heart was beating normally, mine was taking a bit longer to settle, his temperature was normal, whereas I was sweating like a backpacker at a Baghdad checkpoint and he concluded it was likely that William would be OK after a quick shot of pain killer and something to settle his tummy. Unlike humans this is not a simple matter like taking a glass of Andrews Liver Salts, no, horses have to be injected in the jugular vein. By now William was feeling a lot better and if anyone thought they were going to stick a needle in him they were going to be made to reconsider the rashness of this action.
Finally after he had shoved us all around the yard for having the audacity to try and give him medication the patience of Gabriel had been tested enough and he decided that a horse with that much energy would make a recovery unaided.
William is now under observation in the stable, he seems well enough.
I on the other hand feel like I have run a marathon and done ten rounds with Frank Bruno.
I need a holiday!
Finally I have completed a job that was identified last April as I was perched on a fence in the dark.
