Daddy, I want a PONY!

Rhiannon must have been silently praying for a pony because guess what we ended up with?

Paul went up to feed Ms. Melman last weekend & found a mini-horse wandering around the pasture.  He opened the car door & the mini ran right up to him.  After he decided that he & Ms. Melman were going to get along ok, Paul put him in the pasture with her.  We called the Sheriff’s office to report a found horse, called &  drove around to the local horse people we knew to see if anyone was missing a mini but no one had.  Before the day was over we found the owner & offered to buy the mini from him.  He wasn’t in the best of shape.  His hooves were in bad need of trimming so Paul started working on that.  His front knees are swollen, although we’re not sure if it’s because of his long hooves or something else.  Given the other conditions, we’re assuming that he hasn’t been wormed, so that’s on the list of things to do.  Oh.  And he only has one testicle.  Ask me how I know. Nothing like getting up close & personal.  A vet friend of ours stopped by & she also gave him a quick once-over & confirmed my original suspicion that he had in fact, only one of his “boys” present.  So now we’re got an appointment with the large animal vet on Monday for an official check-up; and to find out how much it is going to cost to have him put under for surgery to remove his retained testicle.  Why couldn’t we find a healthy stray horse?