Dakota was foaled on March 17, 2005. He was adopted from Casey Creek Horse Rescue along with two brothers and a sister.

 

Dakota is a paint with nice tan and white coloring. He is an undersized little guy but, he has the most adorable face. His lower lip is relaxed and it looks like he is pouting most of the time.

 

Dakota has struggled right from the beginning. He is small physically with a bloated belly and skinny knee knocking little legs. He has a very thin coat and sun burns very easily. I have to put sun screen on him twice a day and put him in the barn during the strongest sun part of the day. Even with that he always has mild sunburn.

At one point a couple of months ago I started making my peace with the feeling that he would probably never make it to his 6 month birthday. He started loosing his fur and he was not growing at all when the other foals were starting to shoot up. He was nervous and just pitiful most of the time. Additionally, he did not seem to like humans very much. He would not come close to me and when I tried to approach him he would nip and kick at me. I was not sure why he seemed to have such fear of people but then I thought like other animals he knew he was not strong and I think trying to cover for is vulnerability. The vet I have is awesome and has spent a lot of time with Dakota, and Dakota has spent a lot of time in the horsie hospital. He has had pneumonia and several viruses. He just did not seem to develop immunity.

 

The last time he was in the hospital my vet decided to try him on a series of immunity developing IV injections. We had tried many other things with little or no success.

I was skeptical and I think my vet might even have been grabbing at straws but for some reason he did seem to turn around after that. He is still much smaller and still has a bloated belly but nothing like before. His coat is still thin but he is regrowing hair. He has always had a great appetite but just did not seem to know what to do with the food once it went in.

 

I now have high hopes that he will grow up into a normal healthy and happy horse. Just recently he has been actually approaching me when I go out there and letting me love on him with a little encouragement. It has been several weeks since he tried to bite or kick me when I went up to him. He still acts nervous but pretty much I can walk right up to him now.  He is also the one that knickers at me from the field when I am headed to the barn. Both really good bonding signs which I have been worried by the absence of for a long time. If we make it with him it will be the most rewarding experience yet. It is so hard to sit back and want to just hold him but knowing you have to do things in his time.

 

Apparently he is a fighter and at the moment things for Dakota are looking up J