Divna Had A Bad Week

About 2 weeks ago I broke a mirror. Now I am not really superstitious, but being in real estate these days makes you a little shakey. You start to get nervous about everything.



About two or three days after I broke the mirror, I got a call at work from John...I could tell by his voice something was wrong.....



"Something is wrong with Divna," he says. "She did not eat this morning, and she just laid down, flat out."



I have to back up a bit at this point. We usually leave our barn open -- goats and horses go in and out as they see fit. But in the winter when the temperatures get below 15 degrees F, we put the goats and horse in and close up the barn doors. We put Divna (horse) with Marco (goat) and Zora (horse)with Misho (goat).



Winter arrived early here in Northwest Indiana, and we have been closing the animals up in the barn since early in December. One night last week, we must have forgotten to close one of the stall doors completely -- the stall door that leads into the tack area where we also store the food for the animals. John went out the next morning to find Divna and Marco feasting on the cracked corn we give the chickens.



After a call to the vet, and remembering the cracked corn incident, it was of course determined to be colic. Thank heavens for our friend, neighbor and fellow equestrian, Terri. She is also a Vet Technician and had some Banamine. After a dose of that and some mineral oil, she thankfully got past it.



Then, on Saturday I was out in the barn for the morning feeding. While I was tethering the goats, I heard this very strange sound.....it was sort of a cross between a fishing line being cast and a circular saw starting up. I just could not figure out what it was...then I heard hoofbeats -- lots of loud hoofbeats. I ran out into the pasture to see Divna running with the wire from the fence around her neck, and Zora frantically stepping nearby with it around her front legs!



I couldn't believe my eyes!i! I was a bit panicked....but then realized that I had to get control of this situation, FAST.....



As calmly as I could, I approached Divna speaking quietly and in what I hoped would be a comforting tone. I was able to lift the wire over her head -- with that accomplished, Zora was a bit easier to deal with. I was able to get her to back up as I slipped the wire under her hooves as she stepped up. The danger was not yet over, however. The wire was still laying all out in the pasture, and Divna was frantically running around still very freaked out. I was afraid she was going to run into the wire laying out there and get tangled up again. I was trying to gather up the loose wire before she ended up in it again. Very tense, very scary. But THANK GOD it all worked out. I was very shaken after it was all over.....



Needless to say we went to the Tractor Supply Store and bought some new fencing that day. We repaired the old wire as best we could, and put everyone in the barn until we could get rid of that problem fencing.



Our plans for Sunday was to install the new fencing. As it turns out, that was the day that we had our first real blizzard of the winter season...

Here is the offending wire.

That blizzard did not stop us. We got that fencing up. These pictures don't do the snowstorm justice -- it was really coming down.

Here are a couple of photos of the new fencing.

Poor Divna, she really did have a bad week!