My son's horse Piñon now has a respiratory infection. (I've been extremely lucky and have never had a horse with this before.) Doc came by last night and said he believes the infection came from her previous barn. He took a blood sample and did a culture on her. Now I have to wait for the results. All of the horses have had their spring shots, and I'm hoping to get her through this OK and not have anyone else get ill. So far so good.

I have a terrible time getting this mare to take antibiotics. I've been in the process of trying to put 100 pounds on the lanky girl since we brought her home (you could see her ribs), but she's a very picky eater. Last night I brought out my expensive juicer from the bottom of the bottom of the closet where it's been stowed away for a couple of years now and juiced apples and carrots to stir up with the antibiotic powder and grain along with the remaining chopped up pieces. She ate up every bit, thank goodness. (I think I could be onto something here─horse smoothies.)

Upon realizing at the crack of dawn this morning that I'd used up all of my apples and carrots, I managed to unearth a jar of applesauce from the pantry. She seems to like that even better.

It's amazing the differences between individual horses. My husband's little arabian mare has not been sick once in all the time we've had her. My draft hasn't been ill. We went through a cracked coronary band with the Andalusian, which was a long, difficult haul.

We'll make it through this one too.