But I begged (the local referral had to refer me onward because their vet was on vacation and then booked solid and and and), and Dr. Goldhahn arrived today exactly when he said he would. He had a very quiet manner with the horses, and for their part Julian and Petit Point behaved like hairy four-legged angels, which was good as I had yet again failed to get my boots on before the vet showed up (I despise wearing those boots) and instead went out and caught the horses and presented them to Dr. Goldhahn in my best do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do-bad-example-for-s
There are supposed to be at least three sentences in a paragraph, aren't there? Well, tough. :-)
Anyway, he drew blood from Petit Point, which was what I'd made the appointment for originally, and then sedated Julian and cleaned his sheath, very businesslike, which was nice of him because it's a messy job and I hadn't mentioned it on the phone initially. But he had time, and I had just burned $40 on the farm call so I might as well do all the overdue maintenance.
I'm pleased. Just sorry that I likely won't be able to get him to come back in the fall to do shots then, as he's based in Lodi. We talked a bit about repro work, as I mentioned that I was going to need to breed with shipped semen in coming years. He agreed that it's tough to do without a teaser stallion, and mentioned that there were repro farms in the Central Valley who would take in outside mares. That's nice to know -- I don't particularly want to take a mare to Santa Barbara to be bred if there's a facility closer to home.
And I heard back from CW with the thumbs-up to leave Julian there while I am out of town, so I'm making progress. Once the truck and trailer have their maintenance done, I'll be close to ready, and much more relaxed about the whole outing.