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GABRIEL'S STORY
by Maryann Cerullo
Gabriel
is an amazing
miniature horse who has touched many lives since he was
born 5 years
ago. Two newspapers have written articles about him but
none have told
the whole story. I would like to include some of what
was not covered.
On
Mother's Day evening, 5 years ago
(2004), Larry was on one
of his horse transporting trips across country and I was
home,
exhausted with having to watch for mares foaling. I had
put Brianna to
bed and decided to go there myself. As I lay down, a
little voice in my
head said, "Go check the horses." I grumbled and tried
to ignore it.
But the voice repeated the message more forcefully
with……"Get up and
get to the barn NOW." That time I listened.
As I entered the barn, our mare, Terra, brought her head
up and
whinnied at me. She was not under camera yet, as she
wasn't due to foal
out for a couple weeks or so…….I went to her and saw at
her feet a
little body still in the birthing sac. Oh god, I missed
the birth!
And then, the sac moved! Instantly, I was in the stall,
tearing the
thin membrane away and flushing the liquid from the
newborn foal's
nose. The little chestnut baby's mouth began making
motions as if it
was a fish out of water. He was suffocating! I put my
mouth over his
little nostrils and gently puffed the needed air until
he lifted his
head and shook it. After pulling him up on his sternum
(his chest), I
called Larry on the cell phone in a panic. The little
guy was very weak
and he was premature!
Larry calmed me down and told me to give him a chance,
but if it didn't
look good after an hour or two to call the vet. That the
foal may have
to be euthanized……..I prepared myself for the worst.
To my delight and relief, three hours later, the little
colt was
standing (with my assistance) and began nursing on his
own! I was able
to call Larry back with the wonderful news. And the
little guy began to
gain strength and behave and develop like a normal
healthy foal. 
A couple of
weeks later,
Terra's colt took a nosedive and I rushed both mom and
baby to our
vet's. For whatever reason, he developed septicemia.
most likely from
the circumstances of his birth. They ended up living at
the vet's for a
number of days while the foal was given antibiotics and
fluids to
stabilize him. I drove to the clinic twice a day to feed
and water his
mom, Terra.
On one of those trips to the vet while driving, I prayed
and asked, "Am
I doing this little one a disservice? Should I just let
him be put
down? PLEASE give me sign that we are doing the right
thing!" And it
was also then that I realized we had not named him yet.
Without going
into detail, I will tell that it was on that drive that
our little guy
was named, GABRIEL,
and I knew he was indeed going to live.
When they came home, a week later, Gabriel continued to
recover and
thrive as a little horse should. Larry and I watched him
running and
bucking and realized he was developing into what could
be a future show
horse for us. 
Two
months went by. Larry and I went out of
town, leaving our
miniature horse ranch under the care of a "farm sitter".
For some
unknown reason, while we were gone, the Farm Sitter
turned Terra and
Gabriel out with one of our stallions. According to what
we were told
later, the stallion bred Terra, and accidentally landed
on a sleeping
Gabriel.
Two days later we returned home and saw Gabriel limping.
We examined
the injury on his rear leg. It didn't seem serious
and we let him
go back to the pasture with the other mothers and babies
after treating
the surface wound. Several days later, the limp
was getting more
pronounced. The leg wasn't healing at all.
The the whole
hoof sloughed off. Terrified, we took him BACK to
the vet……….It
was too late to do much. Blood supply to the lower
part of
Gabriel's hind leg had been severed as well as a
tendon! Our vet
gave us a choice – Euthanize him or amputate his
leg. The vet
wanted to do the euthanasia but for us, here was no
question. The
little guy was meant to live. So, two month old Gabriel
came home on
three legs. He was a fighter! Gabriel
didn't seem much bothered. He acted perfectly
normally.
Arriving home from his amputation, we discovered that
Gabriel's
recovery was going to be a long, time-consuming process.
To keep him
from getting pressure sores with his bandages, we had to
change them
daily. We also needed to clean the leg to prevent
infection. He
seemed to understand that we were helping him and soon
would
practically volunteer to lie down on his side on the
patch of lawn
outside of the barn to allow us to doctor him, clean and
treat his
stump and rebandage. It became a family
project. Even our
daughter, Brianna, took part in the process.
Gabriel was a great
patient who loved to be loved and handled. 
During
this time, we
encouraged Terra and her son to be outside during the
day for exercise.
Gabriel did amazingly well on his remaining three limbs.
But soon, word
began getting around about the little guy and we got a
phone call. It
was from the St. Charles Hospital Orthopedic Lab. A lab
technician
there heard about Gabriel and the whole staff was
interested in
building him a prosthetic limb! And they wanted to do it
as a donation
for our little horse!!! Royce, the technician,
came with his
superior, and they measured him………A few weeks later they
came back and
fitted him to his new leg.
The Orthopedic Lab asked permission and we allowed them
to take
pictures. What we didn't realize was that they were
putting together a
booklet about our Gabriel and also displayed some photos
of him up in
their lobby. We later discovered that the pictures and
the booklet
became very helpful to a number of their patients who
were going
through the understandable trauma of having to lose one
of THEIR limbs.
It
didn't take long…….but Gabriel began to
outgrow his
prosthetic leg. He hated the thing! And he kept managing
to work it
off. The little guy was refitted with two more
prosthetics over his
first two years of life and has now made it clear that
he wants NO part
of them (Currently, the lab is still trying to design
yet ANOTHER leg
that he will be unable to kick off. They are being
stubborn but
probably Gabriel will out-stubborn them)!
Gabriel continues to do wonderful things for all who
visit us……He has
recently been gelded (fixed), which is a requirement for
when he
becomes a Therapy Horse with the Delta Society. Because
of his
situation, we have to continuously monitor his weight
and pay extra
attention to hoof trimmings on his three remaining feet
as he
compensates for not having the fourth. The cold weather
bothers him so
he gets to spend cold nights and days in the barn.
We will bring
food directly to him if he's on the other side of the
pasture. He
is spoiled but he also knows he's worth it. When
he decides to
run, folks watching him are totally unaware that he has
a
problem...he's just a horse and fun to watch.
Every day when
I
go out to spend time with him, I am in awe of his
fighting spirit and
endless loving personality. He will forever hold a
special place for us
in our hearts and on our Ranch. And the nice thing
about Gabriel
is that he's just a horse...one of the herd...and we
love him.
Gabriel's Story
Continued.......Not an
Ending.....
Winters can be harsh
on an
animal who's joints are already
working overtime compensating for not having that
fourth leg to balance
on. The winters of 2007
and 2008 were
particularly hard on Gabriel. He burned a lot of
calories each season. We
brought him into the barn, piled food on
him, dosed him with MSM/Glucosimene daily. There were the occasions
during this last winter when we
would give him
Banamine and forced him to stay indoors 24/7. He hated that.
Every previous Spring and Summer,
Gabriel would bounce
back. His weight would
go up, his
attitude would be bright, and he'd join back up with
the herd – running
along
side the youngsters.
Last summer things did not bounce
back. Gabriel began to
go even further down with
both his weight and his strength. He would spend
longer and longer
periods of
time laying down to rest.... The final sign was when
Larry did a hoof
trimming
at the beginning of September and found that Gabriel
was showing signs
of Foundering
in one of his front legs.
Larry and I went around and
around about
making that hard
decision of euthanasia. To be honest, we
procrastinated a bit and
selfishly
gave ourselves a couple of weeks of piling love onto
him. We gave him
special
treats, brushed him, massaged him, and just plain
hugged on him. But we
knew we had to do it because there was
no way he would survive another Winter.

We made the appointment for the
vet to come
to the
farm. A couple of days
prior, I “told”
Gabriel what was to happen........It was a private
discussion between
he and I,
but in the end the major message I received back
from him was a one
word
question of: “When?”
On
September
15, 2009,
the vet began to administer the
drug. Gabriel closed
his eyes and Crossed
Over before the full vial had been given. He was ready.
Is he
truly gone? Not hardly..... Even
after he
was
cremated, he was letting me know his love and his
life was
continuing..........
Stay tuned.
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