SAM ARRIVED TODAY!!!!!!!

My beloved Sam arrived at 8am this morning. He walked off the truck like a pro and stood at the bottom of the ramp while we changed halters over. He was very quiet, looking around moved off to the side to have a wee and then proceeded to have a pick. I have missed him soooooooo much and was extremely glad to see him again.

Now for the not so nice news. I had Sam quite plump when he was in Townsville and I did expect him to loose some weight but not as much as he has. His rump drops away, he has no top line, his neck looks like a giraffes and he was very tucked up. The worst was his tail. For 6 days he has sat back on his rump in the truck and it was a matted bloody mess. I was in tears when the truck left. My poor little boy. Here I am dragging him 2000klms across the country and look at what he had to go through.

I took him up too his new paddock and he walked very quietly and calmly next to me. I let him go and he walked around, sniffed a few things, had a trot and then came back over for a chat. I made sure he was quiet and then raced off to the feed store. I wasn't expecting him to arrive so early in the morning. I also organised for the vet to come and check his tail. When we got back from getting some feed he was standing quietly, half asleep probably glad to have some quiet. I gave him a small hard feed which he ate with gusto. Good Sign. Then he had a small drink, better than nothing. I tried to clean up the tail area but he wouldn't let me. It was obviously very sore. We left him rugged and with some hay so he could settle in and relax.

The vet came out at 2.30pm. We sedated him and then clipped the area. He now has a show horse tail. It is clipped from the top of the dock to about half way down. There was pus and the vet said that it looked like he had done it on the first day. You could see where it had become too painful and he had tried to move to another spot. There are three areas with some minor infection, the rest scabs. I will wash it with luke warm iodine wash and apply pregnoderm to it daily. He was given a long lasting penicillin injection.

I sat with him for about 2 hours waiting for the sedative to wear off and too make sure he was ok. I rugged him up for the night and boy did he buck! The rug was rubbing on his tail. Quick phone call to my other half and sent him to the local saddlery for a rug. We couldn't get anything waterproof and really warm so all he has on tonight is a polar fleece rug, woolen rug and a hessian combo over the top. We cut away the hessian so it doesn't sit on his tail.

I will be ringing the transport company tomorrow telling them how disappointed I am. I have used them so many times before but this time I really am horrified at the state Sam turned up in. All they had to do was put a tail wrap on him.

Anyway I have him with me now and I can take good care of him.

We found a house to rent today. Not on acreage but only 10min away from Sam and 2min away from my other half's work. It is still being built so we can't move in for 3 weeks but it is brand new, clean, close to the important things.

For Sprinkler Bandit - we moved because my other half is in the Defence Force and they move us around the country side about every 3 years. This was a big move but hopefully we will be here in Wagga Wagga for 6 years.

We have found 26 acres and are looking into buying it. I wouldn't be able to keep Sam on it yet because it is about 40min away but we are hoping to build.

OK guys I will post photos when I can and I will keep you updated on poor little Sam. It is meant to get down to 1 degree tonight - hope he doesn't freeze too much!!!!!!!