Mindy Hammond

Every week in S Magazine Summer is on its way, but our poor horse isn’t warming to the changes that brings

There may have been warnings of new strains of Covid floating around for the past couple of months, but sniffles and wheezing aren’t always a symptom of the dreaded coronavirus.

Apparently, one in five of us suffers with hay fever, yet it isn’t as simple as runny eyes and sneezing when the flowers are in bloom in high summer.

There are all kinds of allergies, and it all begins in March, when the trees release their pollen. Just when you think it’s all over, the grass pollen enters the atmosphere from May to July, followed by weed pollen.

But of course, there is another very specific pollen that country-dwellers know all too well – the stuff released from those bright-yellow fields of oil seed rape.

We know the day it starts, because the air feels “thick”. We all grow almost breathless part way through the day, and the local equine vets are run off their feet attending horses suffering breathing problems.

Poor Star began coughing immediately, his head low and face miserable as he tried to cope with such an alien and exhausting condition, the irritating tickle in his throat making eating a chore. Horses are “trickle feeders” (meaning they eat almost constantly – 60% of the time) and anything that inhibits their ability to swallow their grub is a serious concern.

Star had to suffer the discomfort of a swab taken from his nose – an alarming procedure, where a 14-inch stick with cotton wool on the end was inserted into his nostril by the vet – it had to go in six inches! Reminding me of the day

I had to get a Covid swab from a nurse in France and she shoved the little swab so far up my nose that it made my eyes water!

Star was prescribed medication to open his airways, and we were unusually relieved when the weather turned a bit cold and wet, and his coughing fits subsided. Then the temperature rose, and the coughing started again – I could hear him from the garden, sounding as though he was practising playing the kettle drum from the comfort of his stable.

We needed to help him as much as possible. So when the horse dentist came to look at Tully and remove one of his baby teeth, Willow decided

nd it would be a good idea for Star to be examined (remembering how impossible he was to treat the last time the dentist came, when Star made it very clear he was dentist phobic – well, can we blame him?).

Fortunately, I wasn’t present for the event – I’m afraid I can’t cope with seeing any of them distressed. Willow is far calmer, and somehow she and the lady dentist, Charlie, managed to get a fair bit of work done with Star, giving him regular rests inbetween rasping his very sharp molars.

It would mean he could chew his forage better, which was bound to help him.

Poor Star had a lot to deal with, and I was worried the strain of all that coughing would affect the arthritis in his neck too, just as he was feeling so well and enjoying the occasional day with the sun on his back. Then, to top it all, the wet and warm weather brought another, very irritating phenomenon – the midges.

If Star wasn’t coughing, he was shaking his head to get those nasty critters out of his ears.

For the best part of a week I was running to his paddock every couple of hours, armed with all manner of fly repellents. Bless his heart, as soon as he saw me he came ambling over and stood like an angel while I slapped citronella-smelling gel all over him, and then gently cleaned inside his ears with damp cotton wool – soon covered in blood and little black midge corpses.

We found a roll-on version of fly repellent which I could apply to his ears and “armpits” like deodorant, and the poor chap spent his days smelling like a garden candle, and looking like a horse-shaped ghost in his white, head-to-tail fly sheet. None of his horsey friends wanted to groom him over the fence because he smelt weird and tasted funny, but at least he knew I still loved him.

He might doubt that friendship soon, as the vet is on her way, and I suspect will need to scope him. I need to call Willow…