So I'm Negative

Howdy folks,

Jennifer tells me that we got some good news in the mail today. I had to take a Coggins test last week when the vet was here. A Coggins test isn't a written exam, though! It isn't even an oral exam! Nope, for a Coggins test the vet sticks a needle into you (ouch!) and pulls out some blood. He then sends it to a lab and they run this test. I don't know how they run the test - something to do with vials and machines and tubes and stuff. I'm sure it is interesting. But they won't let me in there to see it! I don't know why and I don't think that's fair.

Anyway, the Coggins test tests for a disease called Equine Infectious Anemia or EIA for short. This is a Bad Disease. If you get this Bad Disease your owners will probably put you down. See, there's this government thing called the USDA. They make all these rules about animals. And one rule is that if a horse has the Bad Disease, he has to live his life in isolation (over 200 yards away from all other horses), he goes to slaughter (!), or he gets put down. And horses normally get tested once per year. Although I don't remember when I was last tested.

Luckily this Bad Disease is pretty rare. So I wasn't worried. And Jennifer wasn't super worried... except since I'm not gaining weight, she keeps worrying something bad is wrong. So she was glad to get her little piece of paper that said I was negative for EIA.

Like I said, though, she keeps worrying that something is wrong because I'm not gaining weight. I keep telling her I'm fine. I just want more food! I am pretty sure I would gain weight if she just dumped a bag of feed into my stall a couple of times a day. I could eat non-stop!

She tells me that I can't eat nonstop as it would make me sick. She says that I'm getting 20 lbs of feed per day and that's a lot of feed and I should be gaining weight.

She has a soft spot for old guys like me. That means I can take advantage of her, give her sad looks, and she'll give me treats. It is really kind of funny to push her around that way. Do you think I should feel bad about that?

Oh, look! Here she's coming! I've got to hang my head and look sad or run around in circles so she'll give me a treat!

Begging for a treat,




Tex from Bluebonnet

Wow. Look at that mud! Here it squish when I walk!

Howdy everyone,

So you know that drought we've been in? I forgot what rain looked like and felt like. And now I've remembered I don't much care for it. Of course, I love the grass even though I can only kind of suck on it since I don't have many teeth. But I'm not sure it is worth it.

See, it started raining on Friday. And it rained. And rained. And rained. It rained Friday. It rained Saturday. It rained Sunday. It rained Monday. It has flooded my stall because the roof leaks. Now, to be fair to Jennifer she just bought this place and didn't know how badly the roof leaked. And she told me she is going to fix it. But that doesn't help RIGHT NOW. No, right now, I'm ankle-deep in mud.

Now, I have threatened to call animal control and report Jennifer for abuse. I mean, I'm standing in MUD for goodness sake! But she has pointed out that ALL the horses in this part of Texas are standing in mud unless they have barns to go into. Barns with non-leaking roofs. So I guess she's right. But still....

She has sent Spencer to the store to get some bags of sand. She's going to dump sand into my stall to try to help with the water. And she's fixed it up so I can move from my stall to the next stall and back again. They're both flooded, but at least I have some extra space.

The rain has also made my "rain rot" worse. Rain rot is a skin deal that often strikes horses who are skinny, old or otherwise compromised. Right now, I'm compromised in every sort of way! So this means that I have to get a bath every few days with shampoo to help get rid of the rain rot. Tonight is a bath night, too. ugh. Bleck. I don't like baths. Haven't I gotten wet enough lately?

Anyway, I think I'm going to go explore the other stall for a while. Jennifer will take the laptop away if it starts raining again. So if you don't hear from me, don't worry that I've drowned. Nope, it is just raining and Jennifer took the laptop away.

Wetly,




Tex from Bluebonnet

Yuck! Bleck! Ick!

Yuck! Ick! I cannot believe that that woman did to me today! She stuck this tube in my mouth and squirted the most foul-tasting concoction down my throat! I think she was trying to POISON me!!

So, Jennifer walks into my stall today and puts a halter on me. I thought maybe we would finally go out and eat some grass. Or maybe she was going to bath me again. Or something else nice would happen. She pets me a minute and smiles at me sweetly. That's when I started to get suspicious.

Then all of a sudden, she has this tube near my mouth. I can smell the garbage in the tube. It smells like poison. Really. It does. So I start walking off. Well, her sweetness starts to fade a bit and she gives me a tug on the rope. Ha! I was weak when I got in, but I'm stronger now and the tug on the rope makes me more determined to escape the foul junk in her tube! So I walk off. She grabs the halter and pushes me into the wall. Well, I do not appreciate that! No sir, not one bit! So I swing my head and walk away. She pulls the rope and turns me in a small circle.

We fought for a while. I can tell I've strained her patience. She's not smiling so sweetly now. Oh no. She's grimacing. She's told me I'm going to take my medicine like all the other horses. Well, apparently all the horses are a bunch of fools! I know the truth! She's trying to do me in!

She took a deep breath and calmed down and then tried rubbing that tube on my nose. Who does she think she's dealing with? I'm an experienced horse! I've seen these human tricks and they don't impress me! So I try to run over the top of her. Oops. I think I might have made a bit of a mistake there as she's no longer being "miss nice guy".

So she pushes me into a corner, shoves the tube in my mouth, and sends the poison down my throat. I give her the dirtiest look I can manage while trying to spit that garbage out before it kills me. She shoves a horse cookie into my mouth. Does she really think a horse cookie will fix this? Does she think I'm going to forget???

If you don't hear from me again, then you know she's killed me off.

Suffering through the poison,




Tex from Bluebonnet

P.S. Her highness, the Poisoner, says I'm not being fair. She wants me to let you all know that I wasn't poisoned. She claims that the nasty stuff was something called de-wormer. Apparently, worms like to prey on us horses. Kind of gross, huh? I mean, how would you like to have worms growing inside you? Ugh. It makes you ill to think of it, doesn't it? Well, she's worried that because I'm in such poor condition that these worms are feasting away. So she gave me the de-wormer to help kill them off. Apparently, this was a wild de-wormer and in another 2 weeks she's going to give me a stronger version and then another tube a few weeks later. She says that should help a lot.

Apparently, most healthy horses get de-wormed once every 6 weeks to three months, depending on where they live. I think maybe I can remember being de-wormed. But it was a long time ago. It seems like another life.

I'm not 100% convinced I believe her though. I can't believe those other horses let her shove that junk down their throat without a fight. She's going to have to get stronger, too, because I'm going to eat all my feed, get stronger, and give her a MUCH harder fight next time!

Jennifer's home...

Good afternoon!

Jennifer's home, and we have a load of work for her to do around here! It rained - yes, real rain! But that rain meant the stalls flooded. So the stall that Freckles and Zezz alternate in is a total disaster. And my stall is pretty nasty, too. And Judge is stuck in his stall because of an abscess and his stall is somewhat icky. Jennifer just grumbles and grabs a pitch fork. She'll be cleaning up this mess for days! But it is good for her. You know? It builds character!

So today I had the dreaded visit from the vet. I shouldn't have been so worried. It really wasn't that bad. He gave Jennifer a bit of a hard time because I have rain rot. I wish I could tell him that she's taking great care of me and explain that the Bluebonnet Family really does a great job at rehab. But he didn't listen to me.

He did look at my teeth. I wouldn't let Jennifer look at them. I worried if she knew how old I was that she would not want me anymore! But that sneaky vet had his ways and he got a look. So now they know... I don't have many teeth left. Jennifer said she guessed that since I couldn't eat hay. But now she knows for sure.

The vet told her I was 25 or older, too. We horses don't really keep track of our age and we don't celebrate birthdays, so I don't remember how old I am. But I'll take the vet's word for it.

Jennifer is worried because I'm not gaining any weight. So she asked the veterinarian to pull blood and check and make sure everything is working well internally. I don't know what they'll do if it isn't. And Jennifer isn't going to tell me - I can tell she's worried and a little sad about that. But we'll just see.

When we get my blood work and coggins back from the vet, Jennifer said I can start going out with some of the other horses who are calm. I'm looking forward to that!

So that's my news for today. Oh, some good news - one of Jennifer's former foster horses, Trigger, got adopted yesterday. She's excited about that and his new family love him. I sure hope I find my own person to love me.

Dreaming of a person of my own,




Tex from Bluebonnet

Another day, another case!

Hello everyone!




Have you missed me? I've been off-line a few days! Jennifer went to visit her mother, and her husband is taking care of me. He's nice enough, but he doesn't bring the lap top out. I really had to beg for him to bring it out today.

He is pretty nice, I guess. We finally got rain - real rain! And it flooded my stall. So he moved me to a dry stall. And Jennifer doesn't give me hay because I can't really chew it. He gave me hay, though, and let me try chewing on it. Unfortunately I can't chew well so I end up spitting it out. But I like to try! I hope he talks to Jennifer and she starts giving me hay to try chewing on again.

There was another neglect case today and we have another new family member. Apparently a sheriff's department called and had a horse in bad shape for us. His owners couldn't afford a vet and gave him to the rescue. He's not too skinny but he was left tied up with no water. And his halter grew into his face. He's at the vet now having his wounds treated. He's part of us yet - I hope someone tells him soon about his loving family!

Well, I'm going to go back to gumming on my hay for a bit. I hope you all have a great weekend! Jennifer will be back Monday and then I can be on-line more.

Gumming my hay,




Tex from Bluebonnet

A sad day

So we got some sad news today. There's no easy way to say it, either. But we lost a member of the Bluebonnet Family. It is kind of funny. Before I came to Bluebonnet, I wondered if anyone would notice if I died. And now I see how the whole Bluebonnet Family mourns when one of the horses dies. People who have never met the horse mourn. People who don't live in the same city, state or even country mourn. It is pretty awe-inspiring to be part of something so big.

This horse had been in BEHS since 2005. He was one of the first horses to arrive at the rescue. Apparently some people found him starving, bought him and helped him gain weight. Then for some reason they couldn't keep him and asked BEHS to take him. BEHS doesn't have room right now for "donated" horses, but luckily they did at the time. So he moved in with his foster "mom" Joanne. Joanne's been fostering for many years. She reported that Moonshine was pretty withdrawn. He didn't really seem to interact with her, but she worked with him and found out he was broke to ride.

She kept trying to win him over, but he really never was interested in being friends with Joanne. Then he met his girl. She was a little thing and her mom was looking for a small horse or a large pony for her to use in Pony Club. When he saw his girl, he fell in love. He wasn't ever found of humans, but he loved his little girl.

When she started riding him, he took super-careful care of her. He refused to canter until he decided she was steady enough in the saddle. He didn't want her to ever get hurt! She loved him right back, of course. Who wouldn't love someone so devoted to them? And they were an awesome pair.

She renamed him Moonshadow and took him to Pony Club events. There were some pretty big, fancy and expensive horses there. But Moonshadow was a star. Everyone wanted to ride him! He and his little girl were both so proud. And everyone in the Bluebonnet Family was so proud.

But then the tragedy struck. He began stumbling and the vet came out. Moonshadow had EPM. His adopters treated him and his little girl hoped and prayed for his recovery. She got to ride him for a while but then he began stumbling too much. For a couple of years, they treated the EPM. But finally it became too much for him. He got weaker. He lost weight. And his little girl and her mom agreed it was time to let him go.

So they loved him and hugged him and told him how wonderful he was. And then he had a small poke in his neck and got sleepy. He's gone now and everyone is so sad.

This is the first Bluebonnet Brother I've lost. I never met him, but I know we were both part of something huge. It is hard to lose a family member - but I'm so grateful I have this huge family around me. We'll be sad together, but we know he's waiting for us on the other side.

Good bye Moonshadow.




Tex from Bluebonnet

Own a little piece of me - and help the horses of BEHS!

Happy September 1st, everyone!

Today is Day 1 of the Specialhorses.org auction. There's a framed picture of me along with some of my tail hair for sale. Go visit http://www.specialhorses.org/auction/?p=40 and bid on your own little piece of me!

This is just a short post. I'm waiting on lunch and the internet is being funky. Funny how attached I am to the internet! A month ago, I didn't know what a computer was. To be honest, if I saw one, I would have tried to take a bite of it. But now I've got my own blog. And I'm irritated when the internet doesn't work.

Impatiently waiting for better internet service,




Tex from Bluebonnet