Just when we think we’ve got everything figured out, something changes that disrupts even our best laid plans. 


Yesterday, my boyfriend Corey took Kee to the vet’s to get him scoped because he saw some fluid draining from his nose. He was taking him just as a precaution, so in case there was a small infection we could get it taken care of right away. A few hours later, I got the call. Kee would no longer be able to rope, and he wouldn’t be coming with us to Colorado. 


The vets found a mass in his left nostril that is completely blocking his guttural pouch and pushing on nerves in his face, causing his lip and ear to droop. (Kee has always been so lazy and relaxed, we didn’t notice the change much until we looked very closely.) Today we found out it was just an abscess in his nostril, but he will need to be on antibiotics for a month and will need continued care. The vet drained 120cc of fluid out of his guttural pouch, something he said he had never seen before, and something that he found so startling he recorded poor Kee as a case study. The vet said he didn’t know how the horse was still standing and eating, let alone going on like nothing was wrong. Talk about heart! Luckily he has a good place to go and good people to take care of him with my boyfriend’s family, but we sure will miss the big-hearted old guy. 


Now, we’ll just have two horses making the trip, and we’ll have to start saving once we get out here for another rope horse. Naughty, my little red mare, might have to step in and heel a few steers until then, but I think if you ask her, she won’t be too happy about all that. She’s got a pretty straight back leg, so the sliding stop that it takes to stop a steer’s back end isn’t easy on her, and her little brain really doesn’t care for standing in the heeling box. (She thinks she should be a head horse, but her slight 14.3-hand frame disagrees.)

I’m sure I’ll have lots more changing plans this week, so hang in there with me! 


The pictures are Corey getting ready to rope on Kee (notice the excited, happy look on Kee’s face), and Corey getting ready to rope on Naughty (again, notice the look on her face – not excited and happy).