[~Trompy]

Rescued from the event.
For stingray

Background: "This blind mare was sent to the slaughterhouse auction by her previous owners for being mean. She doesn't like the company of other equines, especially other mares, and loves to bite and buck, leaving her unable to be shown or worked. Her previous owners bought her already blind, so we don't know for sure if it was an injury that caused it or if she was born that way. She is a crabby girl, but we believe she just needs some love to overcome her negative personality, at least towards humans. She's having trouble eating; you may want to get her teeth checked as soon as you can; she might have a broken tooth."

Owner: X
Show Name: Built for a Bullet
Barn Name: Antigone [Pronounced 'an-tig-uh-nee' not 'anti-gone']
Gender: Mare
Post: X

[stingray]

absolutely in love right now!! This poor baby is going to be spoiled soon! thank you so much!
Show name: Built for a Bullet
Barn name: Antigone [Pronounced 'an-tig-uh-nee' not 'anti-gone']
Halter color: Surprise?

[stingray]

After adopting Sodapop I knew I had to get him a friend of his own kind, never would I ever think I would end up with a grumpy blind gal. I was so used to Soda's loving personality I made the mistake to assume they were all that way. Boy was I wrong. Transporting her was tough, I went to go pick her up and some men where there to help me, it took a good 45 minutes to get her into the trailer. She wasn't very quick to trusting and attempted to kick and bite the men. Eventually we got her in and once she was left alone she appeared to calm down. However I knew this was not going to be an easy transition and she might need to remain separate from Soda. After a lot of kicking and biting attempts I finally got her in a circle coral. She used her nose to follow the fence and kept walking in circles once in a while pausing when hearing a roar from the Brisken Runners or a nicker from the Tolters; there are a lot of strange creatures on my ranch. For about a week she was left undisturbed she wouldn't let anything touch her, I couldn't even groom her. The only time she was bothered is mealtime, during this time I noticed she chewed oddly and slowly occasionally whining and shaking her head with her mouth open. I wanted to get close to her so I could check it out but for a while she wouldn't let me. Until one day there was a thunderstorm-passing overhead, it wasn’t even raining but you could hear the thunder in the distance. I had just filled her food trough when there was a loud clash far away. The mare screamed and reared up, I felt sorry for her, not being able to see must be awful. I called out to her softly "Its ok Antigone, just a little storm" she paused upon hearing my voice, she pricked her floppy ears towards my direction and slowly walked towards me. She came up to the fence and sniffed around, I held my hand a safe biting distance from her mouth but close enough for her to smell it. She sniffed a couple times and nickered as she stretched her head out and touched my hand. Surprised I began to slowly stroke her, first her head, then neck, then eventually her back. A minute later there was another clash and instead of freaking out she turned back to me and that’s when I realized she saw me as protection and she will get to a point where she trusts me. If only she knew I already loved her.

455 words

[stingray]

[center]I finally got close enough to Antigone to a point where she was comfortable with me touching her and being near her to a point where she let me look at her teeth. I saw that one of her front upper teeth was chipped and a crack had reached all the way up to her gum. Which is very irritating for a horse. I called the local vet over and because Antigone wouldn't let anyone else near her I took pictures and showed her. She explained to me that usually chipped teeth aren’t too much of a problem except in cases like this where the break involves the root or surrounding bone. Which means it must be removed. A week later we had Antigone put under during the operation and the tooth was safely removed. The doctors informed me that it would now be awkward with the opposite tooth still being there and full length and it would need to be filled down for it to not bother her while eating. When I brought Antigone home it was a bit awkward for her to eat but eventually she had gotten used to it and her eating habits became normal and it no longer bothered her, which I was very happy to see.

212 words

[stingray]

Antigone's grumpy and introverted personality she had when she was first brought to the ranch made me certain that she would never be able to interact with Sodapop. However the main reason I decided to get another Sveldala was to get Soda a friend. This all changed on the morning I had put Soda out in the main pasture earlier that morning, and I was having a stressful day taking care of the animals. Anyways I completely forgot he was still in there when I took Antigone out to the same field. By the time I realized my mistake Sodapop had already spotted her and raced off to her. She was frightened at first when he approached; Soda seemed to sense her distress and approached her slowly. Antigone was tense but allowed him to sniff her and she sniffed him in turn. Amazed I watched them for a little bit, eventually Soda got the picture that she was blind and by the end of the week he was leading her around every where, guiding her every move and she became dependent on him and would panic when separated from him. It was a great sight for me to see, yes she loosened up to Soda but she still disliked all the other creatures of the barn. But I had a feeling that one day she would.

226 words

[stingray]

all tasks completed Saturday, January 28, 3:38 pm PST