I went to Kansas for a trail ride this weekend. I was judging not riding of course. I ended up very sleep deprived since to beat the scorching heat the horses were started out on the trails at 6:00 AM. That meant I was getting up at 4:45 every morning. They also expected my brain to work at that time of the morning.

Then I was scheduled to get home at 11:30 pm Sunday night. I had to drive an hour home and then drive back in for a 4-H event by 8:30 Monday morning. The flight was delayed so I ended up getting a hotel and staying in town. So I got to bed at 2:30 Monday morning. Last night I finally got home at 5:30 pm. I went right to bed and slept until 8:30 this morning.

I went right out to get the horses in and Spirit was sick. I treated him with some drugs I have but he didn’t get better so I called my horse vet. The associate came out and was nervous to work on my horse. She kept asking what I thought. We treated him with stuff I don’t have and he seemed to get a bit better. Then about 4:30 he got bad again. I called back to get more drugs for him and she came back out with the practice owner. Spirit’s running a 105 degree fever (normal is 100-101) for reasons unknown. We loaded him up with antibiotics and meds to reduce his fever. They are running bloodwork and they gave me some homeopathic treatments to give him hourly. I don’t know what is going on with him. But a fever is probably better than a non-responsive colic. At his age though everything is serious. I feel a bit better though because for a fever you give drugs and wait. For a colic you walk them and give drugs and guess about how fast they should be responding and generally worry yourself sick. Fevers are lower stress for the owner. I’ve also done some energy work and acupressure on him. The poor horse. He feels like crap and I keep fussing at him.