Ishtar Boogie, an Arabian who shattered his short pastern bone in his left front leg, has gone home after recovering for weeks from surgery performed by Dr. Al Ruggles (shown at bottom with Ishtar's owners, Bill and Patricia Novak) at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital. Patricia Novak was diagnosed with a rare cancer in 2006 yet is holding steady. She says Ishtar has been instrumental in helping her through the journey of illness. Novak continued to show and ride him through severe side effects from cancer treatment. I took these pictures shortly after Ishtar came to Rood & Riddle in early February. Novak said at the time Ishtar was "kind and calm" when he would carry her around the ring on her worst days. "Now that he's gotten injured," she said, "I'm going to take care of him." Novak also said, "It's easier to live in the moment with a horse like Ishtar around. He gives me something to look forward to every day. I have to be here to take care of him."

Foaling season continues with one case after another in the intensive care unit at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital. Tasks for each patient are performed at 15-minute, hour, and two-hour intervals. Vital signs are taken, medication checked, sheets changed. Patients get physical therapy; they’re turned to avoid bed sores, or in the case of a foal whose ribs aren’t fractured, propped up to keep trying out their new legs and learn to nurse. Some foals can’t blink yet so ointment is continually rubbed on their eyes to mimic tear film; some are on five different IV fluids simultaneously, and the pumps are the same used in human hospitals. This foal had a problematic birth as a result of being in the wrong position, but was able to go home within a week after treatment. 

Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital interns talk about life on adrenaline and no sleep.

Dr. Peter Morresey with a foal on a Sunday morning. The photograph reminded me of those images of religious icons, such as this one of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of the animals.