HORSE STORIES ~ Weary Dunlop

Weary couldn't qualify as an old bloodline horse, he's just a station horse that was rescued from an unknown station and left with a few others at Bullsbrook near Perth, WA. But he's got the heart of a heritage horse.

Weary filled a space on the truckload of Mt Welcome horses that the OHHAWA rescued from the Pilbara station. Sheila Greenwell picked him up on her way back down south, along with the big Appaloosa "Zeyphr" who we think is Weary's half brother.

Weary is station Clydesdale x Thoroughbred x Appaloosa. While the first two breeds are a good mix, the Appie probably wasn't such a good idea and has given Weary a head that only a mother could love.

Weary, like all the OHHA rescued horses, comes with a story...

Friday 13th June 2008

Sheila and Tom the old truckie arrived with the Mt Welcome horses...plus a couple of spares they had picked up at Bullsbrook. An appaloosa and a big bay colt, both of which had been taken from an unknown station. Kevin, Elizabeth (one of the OHHAWA’s Sponsorship Officers) and I went down to the yards to meet them...

These wild horses were in much better condition than some horses from previous rescues, although they were still all underweight and a bit knocked about from the trip. All of them looked quite young.

They were run down into our yards and sorted out...we were keeping five to feed up and tame down, while the two oldest colts – one from Mt Welcome and the appaloosa – were going back to Sheila’s new property near Margaret River to stay for a while.

We put out some good, plain paddock hay and a tiny bit of lucerne hay for the newcomers. You have to be very careful what you feed underweight rescued wild horses to start with. It’s sometimes touch and go for the first couple of weeks. They don’t just get rescued and suddenly come good. If they were already physically stressed by being drought-starved or in difficulty up north, even though they look fine, they can actually collapse in a heap days after arrival. You have to be very observant. One of the lovely big greys, rescued back in 2005, died very suddenly two weeks after being trucked south. She was a mare called “Spider”. There was a cold snap, which didn’t help. One evening she seemed fine, the next morning when people went back to check on her, she was dead in the paddock. It can be that sudden.

Anyhow...

After a cup of tea with Sheila and Tom, and a chat about the rescue, and the mad bunch of people that do these things (us!), she and Tom re-loaded the two colts and headed back to Margaret River. It was late afternoon.

Kevin, Elizabeth and I went down to check on the newcomers...although they were all looking a bit tired and tucked up, they were all eating well and having a look about. We had separated Weary and Warrambie, the older bay colts, from Withnall, Indee and Mallina, who remained in the yards. We pushed Weary and Warrambie up our raceway into a small paddock, with grass and a couple of biscuits of lucerne hay.

“Weary Dunlop” – the big, approx. two year old colt from the unknown station, seemed happy enough. A gangly fellow, he had a kind eye set in a rather character building head. He had been at Bullsbrook, at a “half way” property for a while. We decided to call him "Weary" because the real Weary Dunlop, a famous Doctor, soldier and leader in WWII, had also been a very tall, striking individual who commented that he often felt awkward with his height around others. Weary behaved the same way.

Anyhow...having settled the horses, we went indoors for the night. It had been a fine day...and a cold night followed.

Saturday 14th June

Early the next morning and still clear and fine outside, although very cold. It wasn’t the ideal time for newly rescued horses to be coming down but unfortunately you can’t always guarantee the timing of these trips. Sheila often has to leave at the last minute. When you are told that it’s time to go get the horses, you have to go and get them. If you leave them, they die or they are shot.

Anyhow, we went to check the newcomers. They were all fine...except Weary. He was laying down in the paddock. Always the sort of thing you have to check, even with exhausted wild horses. When I went up to make sure he was okay, Weary got to his feet, but he was struggling. He couldn’t seem to move properly and he kept looking back at his stomach. I called Kevin over and we made both colts move about the paddock. Weary was shivering and very tucked up. His movement was awkward and again, he kept stopping and looking back at his gut. He also tried to go to the toilet at that point and couldn’t.

Bugger.

We moved him about in the paddock for a bit, then tended to the others and checked him again. No better. I went in and phoned Sheila. The verdict? Suspected colic. Probably compaction colic from a combination of sand at Bullsbrook and being moved on the truck (it can sometimes shift sand in the gut). Even the small amount of lucerne hay he had consumed could have put him over the edge. Also, Sheila suspected that Weary, unlike the others, was full of worms.

What to do? Sheila was ninety minutes away. We had to try and get the big (wild) colt moving, for a start, then get him into the crush and inject him with Finadyne from our first aid kit, to ease his muscles and colic ache, and hopefully help him pass whatever was causing problems.

But...get a wild colt to stand still long enough in a crush to inject? Hmm. It was a struggle at the best of times and we didn’t really want to put Weary under any additional stress. The last wild mare we had tried to treat in our big wooden crush had nearly killed herself and us in her efforts to escape. It wasn’t always that bad, but if the horses had been mistreated or had any previous bad experiences with humans, handling them in confinement was an added challenge.

There was little choice, however...Weary would only get worse. So we walked the two colts quietly down the raceway again, separated Warrambie and manouvered Weary into our big wooden crush.

As a wild horse he was very nervous but he did not once kick, bite or strike out. Or attempt to jump over the top, which was what we were worried about. In hindsight, we now know that Weary was very, very ill. Despite this, he has a wonderful temperament because we later realised that he had been cattle prodded - given electric shocks to move him in yards, etc.

Anyhow...after ten minutes careful preparation by Kevin, letting Weary sniff his hands over the rails, rubbing him very carefully, etc. and easing back when he got too upset, I moved in and did the same thing. Eventually, with hardly any fuss, we managed to inject Weary with Finadyne. He must have been very uncomfortable because he did not even flinch at the prick of the needle. We released him from the crush and let him back out into the holding yard with Warrambie, then pushed them both back up the raceway into their small paddock. Weary looked slightly better – more comfortable anyway.

In between all this, on the Saturday, we had several people arrive to look at the newcomers. We kept an eye on Weary as best we could. At least he wasn’t rolling. (A bad sign with colic.) It was a busy day. By late afternoon, when we checked again, Weary was still on his feet but he wasn’t looking brilliant. Just okay...after giving out more plain hay, we left them to it and hoped for the best.

That evening it started to rain and a cold wind set in. Bugger again.

Sunday 15th June

It rained all night and the wind didn’t let up. Nannup winter at it’s best. It’s one of the worst possible scenarios for newly rescued wild horses, especially when they have to be confined to yards or smaller paddocks where they can’t move about as much and don’t have the advantage of natural shelter. (They won’t go under man made shelters.)

It was still raining when we checked on the horses. The Mt Welcome youngsters were all shivering, poor things, but they were okay. Weary wasn’t. He was dodgy on his feet and looking at his stomach again. I came in and phoned Sheila, and while I was on the phone, watching out the window, Weary started to roll. Up, down. Up, down. He was doing it too often, and he was rolling right over. The danger with colic, and particularly sand colic, is that the weight in the gut stops it moving with the horse and when the horse rolls, the gut twists. It’s almost always fatal.

Because of the weather and being in the middle of attending to other urgent issues, Sheila couldn’t make it until the afternoon. She had Fran our website manager in tow. In the mean time, we kept Weary moving regularly and noticed, at one point, that he had diarrhoea on his tail. This was actually a good thing as it meant he had managed to pass something. We had also asked Elizabeth to drive out and help again. When Sheila arrived we all trudged down to the yards, rugged and rain-coated. It was very chilly and raining on and off.

After bringing the colts back down and again separating Weary, we walked him into the crush once more. Clearly in pain and weak, he wasn’t impressed that there was a small crowd of us, nor that we were all wearing those rustly raincoats. Once again, however, his temperament asserted itself and he hardly put up any fuss. Kevin stood on one side, with Sheila on the other, and they got him used to the idea of being touched on both sides with hands through and over the rails. (Being very careful of their hands in case he suddenly shifted his not inconsiderable weight...Sheila could tell you a good story about crushed and split fingers from having them inside a truck when a newly rescued horse got spooked and kicked back, but that’s a tale for another day...)

The idea was to tranquillize Weary, if he was calm enough, and then oil him out and worm him at the same time. Then give him more Finadyne and hope for the best. The tricky bit would be the sedation. You can’t always sedate wild horses – if they are panicky or traumatised, the drugs can actually make them worse, not calmer, and things get downright dangerous.

Through all of this, and the dreadful weather that followed, Elizabeth took photos and we have her to thank for being able to show you how it went...

Tuesday 17th June

Happy to report that Weary has rallied this time. He still has diarrhoea but it’s good because he’s shooting out what we hope is sand and worms. He has been eating steadily since being oiled and is moving much more freely. Very comforting.

So there it is...just one small episode in the mad life of trying to save a few of these horses. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Fortunately for Weary, he looks as if he’s going to be one of the lucky ones.

UPDATE...December 2008...

Yes...Weary is still with us. Elizabeth and I fell in love with this homely, gentle giant and decided to purchase him for ourselves, as our next riding horse. Because he was cattle prodded, Weary is still a nervous fellow, unsure about trusting humans, but he has come a long way and with good basic training and his own, awesome good nature, we know he'll mature into a fine riding horse. His general confirmation and movement are lovely and he'll probably mature over 16hh.

We thank Fred Watkins for coming with his wife and family to Nannup to help us with Weary's initial handling, as well as with River, our wildest rescued mare. (That story still being written...)

Weary was gelded recently (which has helped calm him down a bit, he was a big young stallion!)...and he has been helped a great deal by Equine Touch treatments, which are helping his sore spots and teaching him that human touch is good.

(c) KA Waddington