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Carmen: What happened in the last 6 months?
2011.11.02.

I suppose everyone knows the story of our horse Carmen. Her tarsus had been broken and the owners wanted to send her to a slaughter-house but with the participation of our vet we got her. We had nearly any hope she would be able to run in the stud without pain, but we are Noah because we don’t know the word ’impossible’. We didn't put a time limit on how much we would wait for her recovery: this was up to her. We just decided to wait and hope that She will not have be in pain continually .



Since she had arrived, she could be kept only in her box, sentenced to confinement because her bad leg to be knitted. We saw that she suffered. There were days and weeks she could move only jumping on 3 legs because she strained her leg caused by wrong steps or unfortunate rolls. In those days she got painkillers and inflammation reducers. It was in August when we noticed her moving more often on 4 legs, doing some ’rodeo’ in her box, kicking Tesco and Toth Otto (both deserved them in most cases). Our vet made us lead her out from the stable several times to see her walking on concrete. When she didn't limp on numerous occasion than we were allowed to walk with her for 5 minutes a day. We could hardly believe this was possible after such a long time of closure.



Carmen was most careful in the beginning. She walked around on 3 legs after long minutes of bad steps. She had to try the strength of her leg, or better to say to believe she wouldn’t have any pain after bad steps. Who saw us walking with her on those days, could see us to beg her to put that leg down in every 5 minutes she thought it was necessary to hold it up in the air. She had to realize that wouldn’t hurt. Shortly the 5 minutes became 10, then 15, 20 minutes.



There were weeks when she relapsed and she limped so badly that we couldn’t let her out of her box and she had to take medication again. But afterwards we could walk with her around again for 20 minutes two times a day.



Carmen became more and more cheerful in the stable and through an unfortunate kick – meant for Tesco – she hit Niki on the leg. The imprint could be seen even after two weeks but fortunately nothing serious happened.

As September came Carmen’s behaviour became dangerous. She realized she had no aching legs! Imagine a horse – more than 500 kilos/1102 pounds – being walked up and down with only a halter and a rope to contact with the walker. If you have got it, imagine that 500 kilos get scared of something and jumps on 4 legs, start to run along with a mixture of jumps and sudden stops not to mention that one is at the end of the rope… well, that one was me. And Carmen didn’t stop: she galloped on the spot, made piaffes (trotting on the spot), jumped like a gazelle, went loop sided etc. She did her best a healty horse does e.g. in a stud. Yes, but her bad leg doesn’t bend as good and some months ago she was still handicapped etc. Her last performance in the stable was when she got angry with her neighbour, Topaz. She showed a ’handstand’ kick without strain wich fortunately hit the air above Topaz head. During this 'stunt' her bodyweight was on her front legs (as we know one of her leg is handicapped) and her back legs were up above 2 meters/6,5 feet.

At that point we came to the conclusion that walking her isn't sufficient. Carmen had to move to a pen! And than we got a real HEADACHE. We had no safety pens, not even a small one as our vet recommended. Well, let’s build one! The difficulties started here... We found some wood in the area of the shelter so we just needed someone to build it. Fortunately several volunteers applied for the job after our invitation on Facebook. Some of them dug the place of the pillars, some helped in the measuring, and some drilled and the screwed. Finally, the enthusiastic team removed the dung from the area to save Carmen from slipping.
So it turned out again how helpful the Noah team was. Additionally, a friend of us, Zoli gave us some chains for the lower parts of the pen and for the gate, too. Herewith I should also like to say thanks for supporting us! We couldn’t have done it without you!



On Saturday the pen was ready. Saturdays are always quite busy in the shelter so we waited till late afternoon for the moment Carmen could test her new pen. Well, it was the very moment no one wanted to see. To be more exact: we did want to see Carmen in the pen but we were afraid of her reaction to her big freedom. But our anxiety seemed unnecessary. Carmen was practically frozen.



She didn’t dare to move in front of her ardent audience.




We could allure and tut her in vain, she wasn’t content to move. Finally, we had to go inside and lead her around in the pen, making her relaxed.





After all, this was our happiest moment. To see Carmen in the way she hasn’t been for so long: Free!



It’s most likely that there will be relapses when she starts trying her leg’s capacity outside in the pen but we hope her way of healing will go on from this moment. Carmen won’t be ridden but she has all the chances to live her further life happily in the Noah stud.

At last, a piece of good news: some days ago we visited Zsaner at his foster parent. The horse has changed a lot during this short time so we could hardly recognize him. He grew fat. Children are around him and pat him all day long. Finally, he now gets that care he has never had in his life. Unfortunately, we couldn’t make photos because it was getting dark when we arrived. Surely, we shall make up for it next time.

Here’s, however, an older picture of the little dude:

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