As I’ve mentioned a number of times before, our horse, Lucero El Terrible, does not like farriers or vets. He doesn’t like shots or shoes - doesn’t like people coming at him with syringe in hand; doesn’t like anybody banging on his feet - and he can sense when such people approach. The last time our horse vet, Jorge, came to El Tigre to treat Lucero, he walked away, fear and disgust in his eyes, instructing us that he would not return until we had built a solid structure to secure Lucero El Terrible…
Well, we never built anything, because we decided to retire Lucero to pasture (stabled at night) sans shoes and shots!
So, all goes fine for quite a while - we even started riding Lucero again. And he was just a joy - better than ever - more balanced and settled, more mature. I even felt confident enough to trust him with other riders; even the Finca kids are riding him now! On top of that, Jose and the kids stroke and pet him like a cat! He still gets a bit jumpy, however, when getting treated or groomed but, with Jose, he submits gracefully. And he will only tolerate Jose for something like administering eye drops for a bad case of conjunctivitis.
We hoped for the best, but no dice! After a few weeks of Jose treating Lucero’s eye without improvement, we went calling on our horsey-friends and neighbors in search of a structure solid enough to secure Lucero El Terrible - thank you so much, Jan and Krysia, for your gracious offers of help! Only then did we call Jorge and request that he come out and treat Lucero (Dx.: Conjunctivitis secondary to naso/lagrimal/duct obstruction; Rx: nasal lavage).
Well, cutting a long story short, no structure would be strong enough to tempt Jorge to come out and treat Lucero El Terrible. The only way our vet would treat him would be at his veterinarian facilities in Ciudad Colon, where a team of men could properly secure, anesthetize and, only then, safely treat Lucero.
Done. We trucked Lucero over to the vet’s stable, and Jorge performed the procedure the following morning. However, when it was all over, he had a few things to say to us about his patient, Lucero El Terrible…
“(loosely translated) Lucero is evil (mal intencionado) and wants to do harm! He doesn’t respond to sedatives! We injected enough anesthetic to knock out a horse twice his size, but he just kept bucking and rearing - it took 3 guys to hold him down - he’s a bad horse - a bronco - El Diablo! He will kill somebody someday!”
By the way, I just want to say that we love our vet, Jorge, who has been treating our motley crew of animals for these past 13 years! We also love his wife, Ligia, who has a very fine, Argentine-style grill & restaurant located at their stables, called, you guessed it, ‘El Establo’. Follow the signs for it when you get to Ciudad Colon. They only open Friday evening thru Sunday lunch.
We trucked Lucero back home late afternoon and settled him into his stall with all of his favorite snacks. At sunset, I stood with Jose watching Lucero feast on all his goodies, when he turned to me and said, “I hope I can regain his trust. It was the first time Lucero has ever been trucked anywhere and he gave me that - look…”
Yes, I knew that - look…! A few years back, when the guys were straining to restrain Lucero for an injection, he gave ME that look - like he was communicating, “I blame YOU for this torture!!!”
As Jose and I stood there talking about regaining his trust, Lucero’s ears suddenly bobbed our way and then he arched his neck all the way around from his goodie bin to look at us. His now rapidly healing eye, fully drained from infection, was looking right back at us. But his expression was open, grateful, like saying: “Hi guys! I just woke up from this horrible nightmare with 3 awful men torturing me but now I am awake and back home again…”
Lucero never lost his trust in Jose. With me, he was a bit more circumspect – it took lots of carrots and bananas out in pasture…
In botanical news, Guayaquil (Pseudosamanea guachapele f.Mimosaceae) is now in bloom at El Tigre. Some trees have the typical creamy flowers, but one tree has yellow flowers! We have not yet observed any Cenizaro (Samanea saman F.Mimosaceae; syn. Albizia saman f.Huell) at Reserva El Tigre!
Katie Tanzi helped Armando and me to clarify the difference between Cenizaro and Guayaquil a few years ago back, when all the other visiting tree experts had identified the trees as Cenizaro. She helped me nail those Cenizaro as actually being Guayaquil. We simply looked at the leaves and found glands on the petiole as well as on the raquis! The confusion is easy because they are very similar. Both have bipinnate, alternate leaves with stipules, and both have puffball flowers typical of Mimosaceae. However, Cenizaro has rose-colored flowers and Guayaquil has cream-colored flowers - usually... The bark has differences also, but location alters it too much for ID use. The main difference has to do with the glands on the leaves! Cenizaro has glands only on the raquis, not on the petioles.
Take a look at the typical cream-colored flower of one Guayaquil tree at El Tigre:
Now, take a look at the yellow flowers of another Guayaquil at the same time at El Tigre.
And we’re not talking about yellow flowers changing to creamy later on either! The yellow flowers stayed yellow.
Why do so many botanical experts have problems differentiating Guayaquil from Cenizaro? Could the trees transform properties according to variables in the environment? I did see a Cenizaro tree right next to a Guayaquil tree at Katie’s farm. So, they are separate species – yet they seem soooooo close and confuse everybody. For more info on Cenizaro vs Guayaquil, check out in Spanish: www.elmundoforestal/arbolesdelparaiso.com
Or google data base at Universidad Nacional or InBio. English: google Univ.Missouri’s data base at : www.mobot.org
Many plants are not what they seem upon taking a closer look. That’s why the more I study, the more I say, “I don’t know”. Armando either knows or does not know. He is wonderful that way, he doesn’t try to guess.
1 comment:
Guayaquil flower colour mystery solved. They turn from cream-coloured to yellow as they age.
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