Freedom aka Buck

#253 Sorrell QH type gelding. Appx. 17+ yrs. Appx. 15.1 - 15.2 hands. This horse has recently been used hard! His front legs look as if they sustained a scraping injury not too long ago. He is very rideable by and advanced intermediate rider as he does have some juice.

New photo 6/1/01 - He is a love, the flies are driving him nuts (allergies) and he has patches of hair missing from his face, front legs, chest.....flies or fungus or what??? Poor old man.

Update 7/5/01 - Thanks to some wonderful people who cared deeply about this boy, he will be coming to TIER within the next few days. We will have the vet come out to evaluate the problem with his skin/coat and once that has been addressed and he is deemed okie dokie, he will be up for adoption. We are looking forward to having him in our family until he finds a forever person of his very own. Name pending.

Update 7/11/01 - #253 is now being called Freedom by the wonderful folks that paid his ransom. We have been calling him Buck as a barn name. Once he arrived and I saw how badly the fly allergy had progressed since my last personal visit to him, I hightailed it to the vet's office to get an allergy shot for him. By the time I got back it was dark and I wasn't about to go up to a strange horse in a strange place with strangers and give him a jab in the neck. So, we waited until the next morning. A couple hours later you could see the shot had taken effect. The swelling under his neck, on his face, chest, shoulders, legs went down. We put Panalog on the horrible places on his legs and Preparation H on all the other areas that had been bitten by flies and was swollen and missing hair. He has a flymask on and I have put ocular ointment in his eyes.

He's some strong/stout horse! Big too! A tad bit spooky...but that could be due to his new surroundings. But, he is a sweetheart and very, very personable. We have put in a call to the farrier to get his horribly long feet trimmed and take his shoes off. With the shoes on, there has been no wear to the hoof so they just grow and grow and grow. He looks like he is walking on tin cans!!

He is calm while being medicated and snuffles your shirt, hair, etc. when you are working around him. A sweetie. But, we will wait until his sores from the flies, the injuries to his legs and he has his feet trimmed before trying him under saddle. Right now, all he needs to do is have some relief from that terribly uncomfortable allergy and get better......and he is.....thanks to the wonderful people who went out of their way to help him!!!!

Update 7/20/01 - Freedom, aka: Buck, is doing very well. When Buck first arrived, his fly allergy had almost gotten out of hand from being in the feedlot. His legs were raw, bleeding sores from rubbing them with his face. There was blood on his face and his legs looked almost as if he had been cast. We immediately put Coronoa Cream on his legs and arranged to get a shot of Vetalog for his allergies.

The next morning we gave him the shot of Vetalog and within a few hours the swelling went down. We then started putting Underwood Horse medicine on his legs to dry them up. As you will see from the pictures, the deep abrasions on his legs are healing and beginning to grow hair. Buck's eyes are cleared up, but they were really puffy/swollen when he arrived. He wears a flymask most of the time and we use an ocular ointment in to help soothe them.

Buck is an easy going horse with other horses. But with people and unfamiliar objects/sounds he is a bit spooky. As he is a rather big boy (about the size of Jake if not a little bigger), this can get dicey when he decides it's time to flee! HA! As soon as his legs get a little better, we will start some despooking with gunny sacks, plastic bags, gunny sacks filled with tin cans, tarps, etc. Buck is quite intelligent, and we expect there to be no major problems. But.......you never know! HA!

Update 8/7/01 - This is some nice horse! His allergies are healing really well. He got another allergy shot yesterday, and so did The Rainman & Baxter. The places on his legs are getting smaller, but I don't know if hair will grow back or not. When turned out, he dashes around, runs, etc. A really high energy horse. He always makes sure he visits with Panache....his buddy from the feedlot. Seems that he goes over to check on him to make sure he is okay and then Buck runs to the other side of the arena like he wants Panache to play with him. Sometimes Panache will head out after him, but not full blast and only about halfway down the arena. He's still sore I'm sure.