There are some things you guys don't know about Kasino. There are some things that happened that were way too scary to me at the time to share with anyone, let alone the entire Internet. There are also some things that happened that my close friends know about, but I still didn't share on Facebook or this blog. I am going to share part of his story now, not because I feel the need to come clean, but because I feel like his fans that already love him need to know. What I mean is, if you love him now, just wait.
Please don't ask me, "what happened?" I am not going to say. I am not going to tell you, at least not now. It can't be answered with a word, a phrase or a sentence. There was a whole series of events that led up what is going to be described. It involved bad luck and poor timing. And there is a fair amount of guilt on my part.
What I am going to tell you is what I did about it and how I fixed it. The point of this story is twofold: first I want to share with everyone the methods I figured out for quick healing, and second, I want everyone to know what my colt went through, all the while smiling for pictures and being the star of blog entries exalting his superior mind and trainability.
Yes, there was a wound
There is an entirely separate post detailing my care of Kasino's wound. It would be great if you would go read it and then come back here. But I doubt anyone will do that. Suffice it to say that he went from <---this to this---> in about seven weeks.
During this time, this baby endured wrapping, unwrapping, cleaning, scrubbing, debriding, clipping, tape removal, and nearly everything you could imagine as I tried to get him better and minimize his scar. Most of the time I did these things to him totally alone, without any help whatsoever. Somedays I would tie him to his stall front. Somedays I would leave him loose beside of Parlay as I worked on him. He was less than four months old when all of this started.
Almost every single day I hurt my baby. Almost every single day, he nickered when he saw me in spite of this. Our other lessons continued, and Kasino learned to do so many things that were listed right here, but I left out the parts where before or after the lessons, I changed his bandage or scrubbed his leg. I left out the parts where he stood up tied like a big boy and took every bit of it with very little complaint. I left out the part where I sat in his stall and cried because his knee looked so bad and he came and put his face in my lap. I left out the part about him eating oral antibiotics every time without a fight. I left out the parts where the proud flesh remover made his knee so tender it made me cringe.
I never shared any of this with anyone because I was scared. What if this never got better? What if it got infected and caused him to be lame or something? I could not even bear to think about that, so I kept it all to myself. To be honest, I felt very guilty. What if I ruined my colt? But now that it's all healed, I think you should know. If you had any admiration for his brain, his attitude, or any of my stories before, think about everything he was going through at the same time. I am not sure if there are any words that can impress upon readers how much admiration I have for a 4 month old baby who will endure this sort of pain and handling with the superior attitude he did. Can you imagine being a female of my size and handling the medical needs of the average weanling alone?
But Kasino is not the average weanling. I truly believe Kasino is a unique individual. He has a purpose in this world, in this industry, and in my life. I have been blessed with many good babies in my short years of being a breeder, but I have never had one like this. He's going places. If I am lucky, he will take me too.
Kasino Kasanova
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