Laura,
It's been a very long time since I've talked to you and I just HATE to hear about your poor little gelding. I recently thought long and hard about getting some LGD's for some other property my mom just purchased. It is chain-link fenced (6 ft. tall) but I suppose if something was persistent enough, it could eventually dig under. This land is only located a mile away from me, but I had this thought of do you really want to put dogs in with your horses? I decided against it...and thankfull after seeing what you are going thru that I have. They are wonderful dogs...I have seen them do absolutely amazing and actually life-saving things for the animals that they care for and live with. But any dog is a predatory animal to some extent and especially when the pack instinct kicks in...who knows what can happen? I have 3 amazing working dogs here, they love the horses and know them well...but they are not allowed in any stall, run, or pasture unless one of us is with them. Two of them I know could hurt them if they ever were inclined to, the other one would probably lick them to death. But even she could do some major damage if all the circumstances were just right. I cannot imagine how hard it is to watch that little gelding fight his way through this nor how hard it was to have to let go of part of your family (the dogs). THANK YOU for posting such a difficult thing so that we can re-evaluate some of the things we might have gotten to comfortable with or were contemplating ourselves.
A few years ago we had a beautiful little mare that we had almost sold for some pretty good money...she was pretty far along in foal and very tiny. We had some neighbors move in to a rent house next door and brought two dogs with them. One was a doberman mix and one was a chihuahua mix that could not have weighed more than 15 or 20 lbs. They kept digging at the chainlink and I would constantly complain, as they were not supposed to have dogs in the first place (because of prior dog problems from previous renters and causing problems for our horses)...the owner of the property said he simply would not allow any more dogs there. The people were very nice that moved in and I told them the day I first saw the dogs I had a problem with it and why. It took them only a couple of days to start digging at the fence. I again talked to the lady that owned the dogs, which she chained the big dog up. Two days later the little dog was in our pasture and I hate to say it, but I let my dogs have at him. They scared him pretty bad, and I was hoping bad enough that he would think more than twice before trying that again. I have to say as a former dog trainer and working with problem dogs a lot...I am not a big fan of keeping dogs on chains...so I felt AWFUL for this poor big dog being chained up on MY account. Just a few days later I got a call about 4am from another neighbor that said my horses were running frantically and I better get out there. I took off and in a pature with about 40 PREGNANT mares are these 2 dogs. I was furious! I called the doberman mix and she came right to me and I locked her in a stall. The little dog was still at it and NOT going to quit. I then happened to see that one little pregnant mare staggering with big hunks of flesh hanging off her belly and just like your gelding, her tail and anus was gone, as well as large pieces of flesh on her hips. Her back legs were chewed to the bone in some places. It was awful. I ran all the mares into the hallway of the barn and locked them there. The little dog was so enraged by that time that he was running and snapping at me as I was trying to get him locked up somewhere. I was so mad I went in and got a gun and did something I thought I could never, ever do. Weird thing was...the doberman was scared to death and this little thing was trying to bite me, my dogs, anything that came near him. I knew I should have shot the doberman as well but I put her in the trailer, called the Sheriff, and had them do it. The mare did survive, although, just barely. She looked awful afterwards with her 2 inch tail, and all her scars. Never was able to have babies, we never tried, and certainly wasn't able to sell her. We finally gave her to a little girl that wanted a little horse to love on. I figured that little mare had way more that earned that much. It took over $2k to save, not to mention what she was worth, and all the pain she suffered. Bless her heart, she never was scared of my dogs, but they were the only ones she trusted. We lost several babies from the other mares due to the utter exhaustion and detached placentas. They endured being chased and chewed on for who knows how long that night. Some mares couldn't even walk the next day they were sooooo tired. We had several mares that had bite marks and lots of tail hair pulled out, but nothing to the extreme of the injuries of that little mare.
I hope and pray your little horse makes it. I cant imagine what I would do or how I would feel if my own dogs were responsible. I love dogs and would be lost without one by me at all times. We are all pulling for you, your daughter, and that brave little gelding. Please keep us all posted...and again thank you for posting something that had to be so extremely difficult.
All My Best,
Bobbi Kay Bowen
Star Struck Miniatures & American Shetlands
www.StarStruckMiniatures.com
