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Say hello to Dexter!

5K views 32 replies 16 participants last post by  beau159 
#1 ·
Well we came home with a new horse on Saturday! We've been "casually" horse shopping for most of the year, looking for a quiet horse that would be suitable for a very small child or an inexperienced adult, without a giant price tag and without being too tall. Still ended up spending a little more than we wanted but I think Dexter will be a good fit. He has a very kind eye and is so quiet.

He's a 10-year-old AQHA gelding (pedigree). He's about 14.2 hands. A little butt high, but that's okay. Nothing too fancy on his papers but in this case, papers didn't matter much. Needed that quiet personality!










Now the sad side of the story ..... :cry:

I went and tried him out on Wednesday night. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing and so I tried to get over their quick before it got dark. Overall, he rode good but he didn't stand still very well for mounting. Not a big deal; we can work on that.

Well, I suspect that THIS was the reason he didn't want to stand still... :eek_color:





I have never seen a horse with such bad saddle sores from the cinch! The boy poor.

And the dumb thing is, neither myself nor my mom saw them until we got him home and were brushing him up to go ride. Now, this picture was after we cleaned him up and took care of the wounds. They were NOT there when I rode him Wednesday night. I was holding my 5-month-old baby when we went to pick him up Saturday morning and my mom looked him over pretty good before we loaded him up. We missed it because the hair was matted around them and the seller had some sort of purplish wound ointment on them. You just couldn't see them against his black coat!!

So we were pretty disgusted when we got home and discovered the extent of the sores. Obviously, we won't be able to ride him with a saddle until they heal.

I just kinda had this "feeling" with Dexter of "please take me home and give me a good home!" He seems so sweet tempered so I still am glad we have him. He stood like a champ while we cleaned up his runny eyes, snotty nose, cinch sores, and scratched on his back white foot. Just needs some loving and attention!

Typical stereotype "cowboy" we bought him from. Sad thing is, we know the people so you'd think they'd take care of a horse. :cry:

Anyway, negative thoughts aside, Dexter has a new home!
 
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#2 ·
Aww. Poor Dexter! And still he was a good boy for you riding; what a sweet boy. I have no doubt though that he'll be right as rain now that you guys have him. Congrats!
 
#4 ·
Aww. Poor Dexter! And still he was a good boy for you riding; what a sweet boy. I have no doubt though that he'll be right as rain now that you guys have him. Congrats!
I know, that's my thought. If he was still such a gentleman even though he was hurting, he's got a personality of gold.
 
#10 ·
Have you confronted the seller?
Oh absolutely. He apologized and said he "felt bad".

:???:

Don't apologize to me. Apologize to the horse!!!

Without going into too much detail, their family is from my same hometown. They always were "rougher" with their horses, and it seems not much has changed over the years. They're big into roping and really seem to follow that stereotypical "rough cowboy" mentality with their horses.

Is his right eye okay?. Maybe it is just the picture, but it looks like he is not opening it fully, and there is a red mark below it
Right eye is fine. The skin is irritated/raw below the eye because his eyes are really runny/watery (as is his nose). He's been kept in a pen recently and we have not gotten any rain in a couple months. So it's probably from all the dust since it is so dry. Should resolve just fine with time now that we have him home!

I see what you mean, but I think he was just kinda squinting in the sun when I took the picture.
 
#18 ·
Well, little *update* on Dexter.

His nose was still pretty runny, with a yellow goopy-like snot, even after almost 2 weeks home. I spoke with our vet and we decided it would be best to try Excede antibiotics (injectable). She states that strangles has been going around lately, and she wouldn't be surprised based on the person we bought him from (she knows who he is too). Now, Dexter hasn't been breathing funny, coughing, or have any evidence of lumps, but she told me they can still have strangles even without any other signs besides the runny nose.

Well..... we had waited a good week before introducing Dexter to any of the other horses and we probably should have waited longer. It had been 6 days since my mom put her horse Reckless and Dexter together (introducing one horse at a time) and now Reckless is under the weather. Not much with the snotty nose, but he is very lethargic and doesn't want to eat or drink well, which is NOT like him. She checked his temp and he is running a bit of a fever. After talking with the vet, she gave Reckless the other dose of Excede we had, and my mom will go get more from the vet so they both can have their second dose. We've currently in a winter storm right now so I suppose that isn't helping things. (Actually not at work today because I decide to close the clinic! It's that bad!)

My mom was going to call the seller and question him a bit more. He just so happened to text me yesterday and ask me how Dexter is doing. I texted back and told him his sores are still healing (slowly) but asked about his health and if he had any other horses who were sick. His answer was weird. I didn't say anything about strangles (distemper) and he's the one who brought it up!!! Told me to give him a week and "he'll be fine".

*insert roll eyes*

So I'm pretty sure he knowingly sold us a sick horse. Our fault for not waiting longer to introduce him to the other horses, but I just hope my two horses don't also get sick. Time will tell as they were introduced later than Reckless was, and it took Reckless a full 6 days before showing any symptoms.

If it is strangles, it is treatable so I'm not worried about that, but this is sure a pain. Not to mention the money we're spending on the anti-biotics (we can afford it fine, it's just the principle.) I"m am still glad we got poor Dexter out of there. I feel bad for the rest of the horses this guy has.

I'm not one to bad mouth a person, but this deceit crosses the line. I am going to let anyone I know to NOT buy a horse from this bloak. Sad too, because the kid is only 21 or 22. Bad way to start a bad reputation so young.
 
#21 ·
If it is strangles, it is treatable so I'm not worried about that, but this is sure a pain. Not to mention the money we're spending on the anti-biotics (we can afford it fine, it's just the principle.) I"m am still glad we got poor Dexter out of there. I feel bad for the rest of the horses this guy has.
I wouldn't say strangles is treatable. The most you can really do is supportive (nursing) care and quarantine. Some vets may prescribe anti-inflamms if they have a pretty bad fever, but rarely will they prescribe antibiotics (in the UK, anyway), and will just let the disease "run its course" as such.
 
#20 ·
What a cutie!!!

Just an FYI, I'm in western MT and we thought there was strangles going around recently. My horse was by far the worst off, and I went ahead and had him cultured (I know of only one other person who did so here). It was still the strept virus, but a less malignant form and NOT strangles. There is very little coughing and the lungs stay mostly clear. Most of the horses got a little runny nose and maybe but nothing too bad, except for the few, including mine, whose immune system was down entering winter anyway. Two weeks of sulfadiazine tablets and he is right as rain!

Just thought I'd mention it because I know for certain that a lot of affected horses were showing all around eastern MT and ND. I believe the horse that originated it was from Billings. There is apparently month long "incubation" period for this strain until the lumps appear. In that time my horse dropped about 80 lbs and started getting achy. So just something to think about.
 
#24 ·
Well little update! Dexter and my mom's horse (Reckless) seem to be doing better. Reckless is acting like himself again and Dexter's snotty nose is gone. So seems like the antibiotics did their job.

Now, if we could just get rid of the BLIZZARD we are currently having, well, that would help!
 
#25 ·
Well, I figured this is a good time for an UPDATE!

In an unexpected turn of events, Dexter is going to be my main horse for the next month. Red is hurt yet again and Shotgun is at the reining trainer. While I am bummed about Red, I am expected to give Dexter some attention and riding. My mother hasn't been able to ride him very much. But based on what she's told me and based on my 3 very quick rides in the arena the last 3 days, we're pretty sure poor Dexter had some very ROUGH riding in his past. So I hope I can teach him that I'm not going to whip, spur, or yank on him, and can also get him riding a little better in the mean time (his body control is atrocious! But I suppose he's never been asked to do much of anything).

I snapped a couple pictures in the crazy wind the other night.



 
#29 ·
He really has a pleasant personality too. He's a real sweetheart on the ground.

He is a good looking horse. He's nicely proportioned. He does tends to travel very front endy, but I'm hoping I can teach him to use his hind end better. I just think no one has ever taught him otherwise.

Only odd body thing he has is the strange bony spot on his nose. It's too high to be caused by a halter. The vet thought he possibly could have cracked a bone when he was young and it "healed" into this lump. It doesn't seem to bother him; just would "hurt" him in the show pen!

And apparently, he's always going to have a weepy left eye because he has a congenital malformation! His eye isn't connected anywhere to drain! The vet tried flushing him (through the nose) but it came out the sinus instead. Strange....

Yes, he's gotten much healthier in the past year+. He has since blown out an abcess in a front foot and a back foot. His hooves are much better now that we've had a full year of growth with good nutrition, and his coat looks a lot better. He's a little fat right now from lack of exercise, but that's okay.
 
#32 ·
While I like Dexter very much myself and he's been a pleasure so far, he is NOT a kids horse. He has sensitive sides and he likes to move out.

She can ride Shotgun when he gets back from the reining trainer! He is a good kids horse. :D Only goes as fast as you ask him too ... and even then, he "makes sure" you really do want to go faster, haha.


Meanwhile, Dexter is making great improvements. He's still a bit touchy on his sides, but he's learning I'm not going to jab a spur in his sides, and is learning what I want him to do and not be frustrated. He really is fun to ride on the trails because he likes to GO. He would be perfectly happy to lope everywhere we go, and he does have a very nice smooth lope. The only thing he "does wrong" is he jig/jogs on the way home, rather than walk nice ...... but let's face it, Red does the same thing! I guess I don't mind a horse that wants to work and wants to cover some ground.

If it doesn't rain too much today/tonight, I'm going to work him on the barrels for the first time and see what he can do. (However, we do need the rain badly, so I won't be sad if the arena is too muddy.)

And tomorrow we're headed over to ride with the reining trainer to see how Shotgun is doing!
 
#33 ·
It's just a short video of my trainer loping Dexter in each direction, but I thought he looked pretty dang good for a horse that hasn't been ridden consistently as of late.

I played with him on the barrel pattern the next night and he did so great. I'm always amazed what my trainer can accomplish in one ride -- Dexter was doing great on his leg cues.

 
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