05.29.09
Fjord tales 7– Thor’s First Days
After a few days of constipation and several water enemas, Thor ended up having a few weeks of diarrhea! Good grief! The poor guy was almost a month old before things started working properly in that area. We were starting to get concerned that since he had the runs for so long, he wasn’t getting the nutrition/water he needed. No sooner did Mark pick up the prescription for antibiotics from the vet than the diarrhea went away - we never even gave him his first dose.
Adorable Thor about 1 week old…
…and at 6 weeks here!
He started eating hay and grain about 5 days after birth, just taking nibbles here and there while Sive was eating. Now, at 8 weeks, with his adorable baby teeth, he digs right in! We tried getting a creep feeder for him, but it is “horse” size and too deep for him. We moved the bars farther apart to allow him to reach the grain, but then the bars hit his eyes and they were far apart enough for the older horses to gain access. So we scratched that idea and he just shares with Sive.
Having no trouble nibbling hay! Note Mark’s homemade slow-feeder; the wire grate keeps the horses nibbling a long time, thus occupied and happy!
At about 2 weeks, he ended up tweeking his hind leg during one of his rambunctious “Hey look how I can kick my back legs any way I want” spells, and he was slightly lame for a bit. We were in a bit of a pickle: Sive had quite the case of edema and we needed her to be walking around all the time, so we really couldn’t put Thor on stall rest. His leg would get better, he would get all rambunctious again, and then he would make it worse. He finally figured it out, though, and took it easy for about a week, and he’s good to go again.
Fuzzy little fjord foal!
As far as training, we touch him all over, pick up his hooves, groom him, halter him, tie him next to Sive for about 5 minutes at a time (using a bicycle inner tube around the post), and he’s been on two walks being led next to Sive. He has a super personality and is very friendly. Kirsti and Bjorn are very gentle with him, even when he bites the back of their legs, they just walk away (if either of them did it to each other, they would get a swift kick!).
He’s quite the ladies’ man - even at 8 weeks, he’s already tried mounting Kirsti a few times. The vet recommends gelding around 6 months (this won’t come soon enough!). He’s had his first round of dewormer and he nibbles at the daily dewormer we put in Sive’s grain.
Looking pretty innocent here…
…and here!
One odd thing happened right away - he would only sleep standing up. When the vet came for the 24 hour check up, she suggested we actually show him how to sleep laying down. It took about a week, but now he sleeps laying down most of the time. My favorite thing is to watch him running around the paddock - he is so fast and can turn and stop on a dime. A few times, he’s even jumped off of all fours straight up in the air. It is amazing how agile horses are!
He’s also become very attached to our 4 wheeler we drive into the paddock to haul the wagon of horse manure. He nibbles on the stretchy key chain dangling from the ignition and when it is parked, he lays down right beside it, like it is his security blanket. He’s quite independent from Sive though, and will explore even out of sight of her, but when she calls him, he comes running. And his whinny is the most adorable sound ever!
Gotta love those eyes!
Mark and I are grateful we have had the last 6+ months to get to know Sive, Bjorn and Kirsti before Thor arrived. Now we know what types of behaviors we won’t/can’t tolerate and are able to nip them in the bud with Thor.
This photo shows Sive’s bad case of edema [swelling under her belly] several days after Thor’s foaling. Her hind legs, belly, front legs and chest were all swelled with fluid. After several weeks of exercise the swelling went away.
Now that Sive’s edema has gone down, we are really seeing the toll that lactation is taking on her body. In order to keep her weight up, we feed her continuous hay in the trough feeder when Bjorn and Kirsti are in the track (so they can’t hog her food). She always has backup hay in the slow feeder in case we don’t get out there in time to fill up the trough. She has also slowly gone up from her usual 1 pound of grain a day, to 6 pounds split into a morning and evening feeding. She seems to be maintaining at this point, but it certainly didn’t take long for lactation to take off her extra pregnancy weight.
The Four Fjords! Newbies’ herd enjoying a family meal.
Terri Paxton said,
October 3, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Foals are always cute but that is one of the cutest I’ve ever seen. We need more pics like this to remind us of the happy things in life!
Samantha Herring Pfefferkorn said,
December 13, 2009 at 3:21 am
You r so lucky to have horses especially those beautiful fjords.I live in southern UT and have loved horses all my life but Iv recently taken a liking to these guys they r sturdy and have just the right temperments not to mention they’r eye catching colors. Well enjoy ur horses for the both of us.