MAGGIE & Mark & a small pony miracle~
This is a picture of Mark with
his Dad and Grandma. Mark has cerebral palsey and is usually confined
to a wheelchair, but for this picture, he got to sit on his new
"personal" pony, MAGGIE. We think this story is extra special because
it is also a story about a little mare that was saved from certain
death because of the skill and generosity of PPL Volunteer, Gail
Schumann (see MAGGIE's story below). Thanks to Gail, and MAGGIE's
stamina and courage, Mark, MAGGIE and her companion goats, BUTTONS and
BOWS, are all best friends.
Mark first saw MAGGIE one day when he was
visiting at Greystone Farm. It was love at first sight, but he had to
wait for arrangements to be made before he could bring her home. And
when the day finally came to take MAGGIE home, Mark cried and cried
because he was afraid she might not want to go.
But MAGGIE had other ideas! As everyone waited
for the van to be made ready, MAGGIE laid her head in Mark's lap as he
sat in his wheelchair . She seemed to be saying, "This is where I
belong --with Mark." And after Mark's Dad settled Mark into the van,
MAGGIE climbed right in beside him, ready to go to her new home. She
had lost her baby, but she had a new loving family and a boy named Mark
who needed her.
Since her arrival, Mark's Dad has built MAGGIE a
new shed and coral--but not without some help from the mischievous
pony. "She would grab a bucket of nails with her teeth and fling them
in the air," said Dad, Leonard. "She grabbed my tools and once even
tried to climb up the ladder." But for Mark, MAGGIE stands quietly by
his chair so he can brush and hug her, and happily eats out of the
bucket he holds for her.
Thank you, Gail Schumann, for caring so much for
this little Shetland pony mare. Thank you for paying all the expenses
of MAGGIE's surgery and recovery, for nursing her back to health, and
for sending her to be Mark's pony for always.
SCHUMANN'S MAGGIE MAE - a little mare survives
a breach foal
(as
told by Volunteer Breeder, Gail Schumann)
MAGGIE was born in
April, 1992, the first
foal of a little appaloosa mare named RUTHIE. She was a sassy little
foal and kept me laughing at her antics. When she was five I bred her
and happily waited for her foal.
I have foaled a lot of mares and have been
trained to do a lot of advanced vetting procedures, but when Maggie
went it to labor, it was clear to me immediately that she was having
too hard a time and that probably this foal was not in a good position
and could not be birthed without help. I scrubbed up and tried to get
the foal into the right position, but I could not do it. I knew she
would need a C-section and rushed to call my vet, pulled the back seat
down in my Blazer, loaded MAGGIE in the back, and frantically made the
forty minute drive to the clinic where there were facilities for
emergency surgery.
MAGGIE seemed to know I was trying to help
and never made a sound, but by the time we arrived at the clinic she
was in very poor condition.
Two vets were waiting for me and we rushed
her under anesthesia to deliver her foal. Sadly, the foal did not
survive, but I was determined to save this special little mare.
As soon as she was recovered a bit from
the surgery, I brought MAGGIE back home and began to nurse her around
the clock, even sleeping in the stall with her. She had to have six
shots a day, and She was so weak that I had to syringe electrolytes and
grain mashes into her mouth to give her the nourishment she so
desperately needed.
On the seventh day, Maggie's temperature
spiked to 104 and as I wiped her down with cool water and syringed
fluids into her mouth, I was sure she was rapidly failing and would not
survive. Finally, as a last resort, I gave her a large dose of
penicillin and completely exhausted, we both dozed off.
Then the miracles happened! A few hours
later I was awakened by my MAGGIE who inexplicably had jumped up from
her death bed and was excitedly running around the stall in circles. I
broke into tears, but Maggie just stopped and looked at me, then calmly
urinated. As I hugged my dear pony, it was clear her fever had broken
and that she was (at last!) HUNGRY!
Right then I promised MAGGIE that she
would never be bred again and that I would find her a most special
child to love her...and now she has Mark.
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