The Story of Hewey - part 7
...more milestones...
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As Hewey was now sharing the yard with Gloria and had Patch, along with his mother Belle, next door he was to some extent learning to be a horse. In addition to milk Hewey was now eating solid food and was fairly comfortable with Gloria, but I was definitely still mum.
| On a number of occasions we had tried unsuccessfully to introduce Hewey to the idea that he could help himself to a drink from Gloria. This was a three person exercise (one managing Gloria and two on Hewey) and although Gloria behaved Hewey thought that we were definitely trying to kill him. He was happy to be near Gloria but not that near!
I had promised months earlier that I would help out on the Winergy stand at the Albury CIC over Easter. Richard was also committed to being away so my mum was roped in to be the chief feeder of Hewey. With the set up we now had it was possible to feed him every 3 hours during the day until 9pm and then leave a full bucket of milk for the night. Fortunately mum lives just down the road so this was do-able but it was still a concern to be leaving him that long as he would generally drink less milk when I was not around. However he was fairly robust by now so even if he was a little off his feed it should not affect him too badly. I managed to reduce my commitment to being away only Saturday and Sunday morning. The other concern was that Gloria really needed to be milked. |
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Milk is great, isn't it! |
On the Friday morning I decided to have a last ditch attempt at getting Hewey to drink from Gloria. I tied her up with a large pellet of lucerne hay. We were in the yard outside the stable and I had her jammed up against the wall and threatened her with death should she move. I then wrestled Hewey along side her and held his head underneath whilst milking her and getting the milk to run down my hand into his mouth. I was not having much success and of course each time I growled at Gloria, Hewey also took offence. I am quite sure that Hewey thought that I had turned into a monster and that he was going to die as he stopped fighting me and practically lay his head in my hand in surrender! This was the point at which I was able to get a good flow of milk into his mouth and the light suddenly went on! I kept him there and got a few good squirts into his mouth whereupon he got quite excited and latched on. I have to say I also got quite excited and almost could not believe it!
Of course as soon as I moved away at all so did Hewey, so I had to repeat the procedure a few times before Hewey would actually stay latched on without me right there. However he eventually did. At the age of 10 weeks and 2 days Hewey had his first ever drink straight from his mum! I could hardly believe it and of course had to phone Richard immediately to tell him. The call was of course greeted with disbelief as were those following to Liz who had previously been the 3rd helper, and the rest of the team who had been helping to raise Hewey. Of course one drink does not a mother make so we had to do it again. Hewey let me ‘attach’ him a couple of times before he got too tired which was a good start.
| Gloria had to get used to the idea also as Hewey had teeth and a different procedure for getting milk than the one I had. When feeding Hewey I had let him push me with his muzzle as foals do to get the mare to let their milk down but I had not been doing this to Gloria so she was a bit unhappy about this new developement. However having been a competition horse she would respond to my voice telling her to stand up or get over. |  |
What do you think of my first horse rug? |
The next thing was to get Hewey to drink again from her without me so that when he was on his own over the weekend he could help himself. Initially I went to him and went through the same procedure as before but this time he didn’t fight me. Instead he let me direct him to the milk bar and latched on. He was starting to get the idea. After a couple of repetitions of helping Hewey drink, Gloria would stand without being tied up, as long as there was Lucerne of course. From 2 until 7pm I was to be teaching in the arena just across the driveway from the yard so I would be able to keep a close watch on Hewey and Gloria. Prior to that I left them alone for a while hoping that they would work it out. However Hewey got hungry and started calling me for a feed. There was no point in having him hungry and cranky but if I gave him a bucket he was not going to look to Gloria so I ‘held his hand’ and he had a drink from Gloria.
For the next few hours he would call me and I would go with him to Gloria and stand there while he had a drink. Because I had been supplementing the milk supply with Wombaroo (to save my milking hands) Gloria did not have sufficient milk for Hewey so I did have to give him a bucket as well. But he now had the idea that he could get a drink from Gloria and by the end of the day Hewey would go to Gloria and help himself to a feed.
| On the Thursday prior to this momentous day Hewey had drunk 25 litres of Wombaroo and milk from Gloria via me. On Friday he had 19.75 of Wombaroo plus whatever he helped himself to. I did not need to milk Gloria any more as now Hewey was doing it.
On the Saturday while I was away mum gave him 14.5 litres and on the Sunday 21 litres in 3 hourly feeds. |
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Getting Hewey to drink directly from Gloria was a great relief as not only did it reduce his dependence on us but now he had some chance of becoming a ‘normal’ foal.