The Operation

He had one day to settle before his operation. I soaked his pellets so that they were soft and more appealing to his little mouth and sensitive teeth. He ate the grass, all of his hay and broke more water buckets - seemingly enjoying his new toys and food, despite the putrid smelling pus that exited from the holes in his jaw.

The Ugly Brown Foal - let's call him UBF - was born on a huge stud farm of Spanish horses on the island of Mallorca. His owner had bought five foals as an investment, and I suppose when they had grown he would sell them for a decent profit to Germany - where they have a penchant for the breed. Except the UBF had started losing the owner money, the investment was turning sour with little option of returns. He had had a rotten molar removed when he was a yearling - but the infection from the rotten tooth had started to rot his jaw - poor UBF had floating pieces of dead bone and three holes where the body was trying to expel the foreign objects.

He smelt really bad and must have been in pain, but continued to eat with such gusto. I won't go into the details of the operation suffice to say there was blood, pus and a lot of effort to remove the rotten pieces of bone. The UBF swayed, his tongue lolling out of his mouth, unable to protest as the vet worked sensitively and swiftly.

It was a success. What a little trooper, a brave soul, a creature so deserving of this chance. I felt elated I could help him. The children carefully wiped the blood from his face and brushed the matts from his coat while he was still whoozy - taking advantage of the remains of the sedative still in his body, before he woke up fully to be the 2 year old Pure Spanish Stallion that he is.