The New Qrac

I just brought Qrac home from the equine clinic. I took him there on Monday, and he was gelded the following morning. You can imagine my state of mind on Tuesday, waiting for the vet to call me to tell me how it went! He’d told me he’d call between eleven-thirty and twelve, but it was almost one when he finally called, and I was going nuts! But the operation went well, Qrac woke up slowly and calmly, and the vet told me he’d be in touch the following day to let me know whether I could pick up my horse on Thursday. When we spoke yesterday afternoon, he told me that everything was fine, and gave me the go-ahead to pick Qrac up this morning.

I didn’t sleep so well, my mind in over-drive, conjuring up images of an exhausted, sad-looking horse.

Instead, I arrived to find him all normal and chirpy, as though he hadn’t even noticed his manhood had been tampered with. There is hardly any swelling, the incisions are small and clean. Qrac seemed happy to see me, and clambered into the trailer without any fuss.  The protocol for the next week is to give him the French equivalent of Bute (I think it’s Bute) twice a day for two more days, and to watch for swelling or fever or digestive issues, and to walk him for an hour, either in hand or under the saddle. If all goes well, we can gradually resume work in a week. So, fingers crossed everything goes smoothly.

Right now I’m pretty exhausted as the past few days have been pretty intense for me emotionally and I’m relieved to have it all behind me. As I said in my previous post, deciding to geld Qrac wasn’t something I took lightly, and I even wavered slightly in the days before the surgical procedure was scheduled after receiving a heartfelt message from someone in the north of France who used Qrac to cover one of his mares, and who wrote to say he was sad about my decision as Baila du Bratt, his one-year-old filly out of Qrac and Salsa du Bratt, had recently won the silver medal at the German International Lusitano fair, and was therefore qualified for the European Championships. He sent me a link to some footage of Baila, who is dark and long-legged and gorgeous and looks just like her father, yet with more suspension than him in trot. He’d have liked to have Qrac cover his mares again, and although my decision saddened him, I know he understood my reasoning. I was very touched by his message, and thrilled to know that Qrac had produced such a lovely, promising baby girl. I don’t know exactly how many babies Qrac fathered before I bought him, but what I do know is that they will now be super exclusive!

I’m going to sign off now and go make myself a cup of tea, as I’m so knackered I can hardly think straight, let alone write coherently. I hope this post makes sense, and apologise if it’s a just bunch of gobbledygook!