Injection Rodeo

My husband and I are the proud "parents" of two Percheron mares, Jill and Dolly. Jill is 18 years old and 1700 pounds. Dolly is 25-ish and 1900 pounds. Both of them are black with a small star on their forehead. (For the non-horse people, Percherons are draft horses. A "normal" horse that you would see more often probably weighs 900-1200 pounds. So ours are considerably bigger.) We brought them home on our first anniversary, last September and we affectionately refer to them as "the girls."

They are the perfect team for us, becuase they have been around the block and know what they're doing, and they are very patient about teaching us. I have had light (normal) horses my entire life, but had never driven, and my husband was a novice when we got them, so it's been an interesting experience learning how to drive them. They live at my mom's house on 5 acres, (since we live in town) where they enjoy a semi-retired lifestyle and the numerous apple trees.

We ride them and drive them with a cart or a wagon, and my husband pulls things around with them like tires, round bales, trees, farm equipment, and whatever else he can hook onto. They are great fun for hayrides, and trail rides, and we like that we have a reason to be outside and doing something. They have become a prominent fixture in our lives, and when they are no longer with us, or are fully retired, we will find a new team.

This summer, Jill has some kind of respiratory thing going on. We aren't quite sure what it is, but it hasn't gone away on it's own, so I called the vet. She suggested starting with a course of penicillin. So, for five to seven days, I have to give her two shots of penicillin. Not a problem. Except that Jill tends to get irritated when you bother her. Yesterday I learned that shots bother her.

Imagine a horse that weighs almost a ton getting pissed off about having shots. She bucks when she feels the needle, and then twists around and gets all crabby because the penicillin burns as it goes in. Fortunately, she's not real motivated to put a whole lot of effort into her maneuvers, but it's still enough to make life difficult. So I have emails and messages out to all my horse friends, on the off chance that someone might have some suggestions that will make it less of a rodeo.

Until then...yee-haw!

Here are some pictures of Jill. She's real nice if you aren't poking her!