stopped thrashing for a moment, and Issie immediately seized the chance and lunged forward to grab the lead rope. “Do it now!” she yelled at the guard. With an almighty heave, she gave a yank on the rope while the guard put his shoulder to the stallion’s side and shoved against the horse as hard as he could.
With a grunt of effort, the stallion heaved himself up to his feet, and immediately repaid the guard’s efforts by lashing out at him with a hind leg.
“Are you OK?” Issie asked.
The guard nodded. “He missed me.”
“I’m so sorry,” Issie said. “He’s just in so much pain…”
The guard looked pale with shock. “Well, let’s get him outside into the courtyard. You need to keep him moving.”
Issie had never looked after a horse with colic before, but like most riders she knew the drill. Keep them walking, keep them calm and, no matter what, don’t let them roll.
But keeping Storm moving wasn’t an easy matter. The stallion was in terrible pain and all he wanted to do was lie down again. He tried once more to drop to his knees and Issie had to bellow at him and yank sharply on the lead rope to make him step forward and leave the stall.
Even when they were out in the stony courtyard, Storm was still reluctant to walk. It was taking all of Issie’s strength and patience just to keep him moving.
“Will you be OK while I go and call the vet?” the guard asked her, looking worried.
Issie nodded. “It’s OK, I can handle him. Go make the call.”
The guard must have only been gone for ten minutes but it felt like a lifetime as Issie walked Storm around the yard alone. She could feel her own stomach tying in knots. Her horse had colic, but everything depended on what happened next. If she could stop Storm from injuring himself further, and if the vet arrived in time, then the stallion still had a chance of survival.
She thought back to Stella’s comment that the stallion had been off his feed. Why hadn’t she followed through and come down to the stables to check on him? Had Storm been in this state for long or had the colic set in quickly? Issie put out a hand to reassure the horse and realised that his whole body was drenched with sweat.
“It’s going to be OK, boy, they’ll be back soon…” she reassured the stallion. But inside she was panicking. Where was the guard? He’d been gone for far too long!
Suddenly there were voices in the darkness. The guard was back – and he had the vet with him.
“I’m Maurice Cross,” the vet introduced himself with a brisk handshake. He dropped his medical case to the ground, dug out a stethoscope and began to examine Storm straight away.
“So he’s showing signs of colic?”
“He’s been getting to the ground and trying to roll,” Issie confirmed. She ran through the rest of Storm’s symptoms while the vet examined his heart rate and breathing.
“His pulse is very high,” the vet looked concerned. “He’s at over 100 beats per minute at the moment.”
“Is that bad?” Issie asked. “Is he going to be OK?”
The vet shook his head. “I can’t tell you that yet. There are different types of colic. If it’s just a nervous muscle spasm then he’ll recover overnight. But if it’s something more serious, like a twist in his bowel or an impaction, then he’ll deteriorate in the next few hours…”
The vet stopped talking and began to hunt about in his bag. He pulled out a hypodermic needle and loaded the syringe with clear fluid.
“We’ll give him a muscle relaxant and see what happens,” the vet said. “With any luck, he’s having spasmodic contractions and the relaxant will help to ease them.”
The vet took the hypodermic needle and thrust it firmly into the muscle of Storm’s neck. The stallion didn’t flinch as the needle went in all the way to the hilt.
“It should take effect in a few minutes,” the vet said. “The main thing now is to keep walking him. It’s vital that you don’t let him roll.”
The vet gestured towards the security gates at the front of the yard. “They have my number on speed dial,” he told her. “I’ll come back and check on you in the morning. But don’t be afraid to call me before then if there’s any change.”
Issie watched the vet leave and hoped that a phone call wouldn’t be necessary.
“Is there anything I can do?” The night guard was clearly feeling awful that he had tried to turf her out earlier. “Do you want me to lead him for you for a while?”
Issie shook her head. She couldn’t bring herself to leave Storm’s side, not even for a moment.
“Can you do me a favour?” she asked. “I need you to make a phone call for me.”
By the time Avery, Francoise and Stella arrived at the yard the vet’s injection had begun to work and Storm’s pains seemed to be easing, but the stallion was still distressed and Issie still needed to keep him moving.
“It looks like we might be lucky,” Francoise said gently to Issie. “If the pains are lessening then the chances are that he has spasmodic colic. It is painful – but it is the best kind of colic to get – he’ll get better again quite quickly.”
“It’s not because I overfed him, is it?” Stella looked distraught. “I gave him a regular feed…”
Francoise shook her head. “No – this kind of colic attack is usually brought on by nerves and stress, not food. He needs to be walked for the rest of the night, but the chances are good that he will recover.”
Avery agreed. “It looks like the muscle relaxant is working.”
“Will I be able to ride him tomorrow?” Issie asked. “It’s only a few hours until the cross-country.”
Avery shook his head. “It’s too soon. Even if all of his symptoms were gone by then, riding him would be a huge risk. He could develop a second bout and it would kill him.”
Issie’s heart plummeted. If you had asked her an hour ago she would have wept with gratitude just knowing that her horse was going to live – but to have her dreams yanked away like this… ohmygod, they were in the top three after the dressage! It was too cruel. But she knew what she had to do.
She couldn’t ride – she had to retire. She was pulling Storm out of Badminton.
Chapter 4
Issie felt like she had only just fallen asleep when she was being woken up by the glare of bright sunlight on her face. The canvas flap of the truck had been opened up and it was daylight outside.
“Oops!”
