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Scharendijke
Nederland
Jarig op 19-9
Fall came and ... well, it was 2006, so the fall stayed through the winter. Thira slowly calmed down, although the family often agreed that if Valentin had been gifted with Thira's temper, a castration might just have been preferable. In the meantime Valentin really blossomed. He got a bit braver and more adventurous, though he still followed closely behind Thira. As the non-winter came to an end the time approached for the anticipated surgery, and in mid-February Valentin was sent with Thira for company to Ansager Animal Hospital for his vasectomy. The price of this was quite affordable, at only three times the price of a castration, and a week later the little ones were returned home.
I have in connection to writing this article attempted to contact Ansager Animal Hospital again to get their description of how the surgery went, but they have not replied back yet.
It was two somewhat shocked foals that came home from the hospital. Their stay in a strange stall, among strange people, and the transport back and forth had been a bit more than they could handle. Valentin all but stopped eating for the first week after coming home, and Thira only nipped at her grain now and then. It wasn't unusual to come out and find the food buckets virtually untouched. Hay went down a bit easier, but they both managed to lose several pounds before the mood and appetite returned. By mid-March they were a pair of trouble makers again and gaining weight.
Valentin was ordered stall rest by the vet, which would mean he'd be all alone and abandoned for ten days, since Diana's hocks swell if she stands still for too long. And since Diana is the herd's leader, the others would follow her out. Eventually the stable was closed off with all four inside, so they could at least walk around a bit, and since there was total peace in the herd I wasn't afraid they'd start kicking each other. Ten days later the doors were opened again, and the joy of the reunion with pool of mud we called the pasture was great. Like I said, this was the winter of 2006/2007, where every pasture in Southern Jutland was flooded.
Finally spring came, with longer nights, warmer days, dry weather and sprouting grass. The horses were allowed to stay out longer and longer. During this time the roles started switching between Thira and Valentin. Where Thira had so far been the dominant of the two, had always set the pace, had always decided when to play and not, it now started to be Valentin leading on, and unfortunately that power got a bit to his head. To start with he just nipped her a bit at random, but it turned into him chasing her around the pasture. Funnily I never got out to separate them - because every time I started putting on my shoes, Diana appeared out of nowhere to pry them apart, sending Thira into the stable and Valentin out to the pasture. Then they could each stay there and cool off, while she blocked the stable entrance. This repeated itself two or three times, and hasn't been observed since.
Near the beginning of April Diana, still the undisputed leader of the herd, decided that now she didn't want to sleep indoors anymore. This came suddenly after the big pasture, which had been allowed to stand untouched while the grass grew, had been re-opened. April offered wonderful weather, warm and dry, and as the month went Valentin started showing interest in the girls, if still not a lot. A bit of flehmening here and there, but that was all. On the 28th Thira celebrated her first birthday, and just a couple of days it dawned on Valentin why the mares suddenly seemed so interesting. Now the whole show was put on, with great interest in tails and what lay beneath, flehmening constantly, and three days later, on April 23rd, he lost his virginity to Diana late at night.
Warboel
