GAMBIA TRIP 2009

We arrived in Banjul in the afternoon and headed to Cape Point for an overnight stay before the drive up country to Sambel Kunda. We all got to know each other over dinner that night, several of us had been to Gambia before but there were quite a few new faces including an equine vet and an equine vet nurse eagerly anticipating what was ahead.

The reason for this year’s visit was multifaceted. The annual show which was widely advertised and promising to be a busy event and the building of a playground at Sambel Kunda school – no mean feat in a country where it’s pretty dam hard to get hold of the wood and tools that you need to do anything. Our bags were stuffed to the brim with donated items with little room for any clothes. I was glad to hear that all the equipment we had shipped out in September was up at Sambel and ready to be used. So thank you to all of those who donated those precious things – something that seems to basic here can be impossible to source over there.

The journey was long, dusty and hot up to Sambel with a lot of interesting things to see on the way. The hustle and bustle of small towns and the smiling waving children of the villages we passed through. There seemed to be a lot of vegetation on first sight and the harvests were finished with piles of ground nut hay drying in the sun, but at the same time very dry and dusty . The long stalky foliage covered large areas but looks rather unappetising. There were many goats, cattle and donkeys foraging along the way on what they can find to eat by the roadsides, etc. No fences to keep any livestock in, they are either tethered when the crops are growing and then pretty much let out to fend for themselves once harvest is over. We didn’t see one poor looking goat or cow all looked pretty healthy, which was nice to see, they seem to do OK in this harsh environment as long as they can find water. The goats can pretty much live on anything and cows seem to be able to digest the stuff the horses and donkeys cannot.

The horses and donkeys work incredibly hard in energy sapping conditions (unlike our pampered lot!!). They are seen pulling many heavy carts loaded for market, day in day out, along the one tarmac road, which must be a godsend from the bumpy dirt tracks that make up most of the roads in Gambia, for any with ill fitting harness it must be excruciating. That said, the charity is starting to reach further afield now and we also see many horses and donkeys with kinder snaffle bits in rather than rope and these horrific metal bits that they seem to acquire, although we still see many without these items. We cannot stop for every horse unfortunately or we will never get to our destination, but on the ferry some bits were exchanged and we of course stop if we see anything dreadful. There were many lame horses trotting with laden carts, which are sad to see.

We reached camp in the dark, which was an interesting experience, particularly on the last section, which is a boat ride up the river in the pitch black and then disembark into the forest the other end. It is very remote and beautiful, particularly in the daytime, but in the dark with no lights its ‘interesting’ but we all saw it as part of the adventure and it was with much laughing when we realised the river was low and the only way onto the bank was to try and walk through deep mud with our heavy bags to get to the river bank, it was hilarious. We seemed to forget about the risk of hippos and crocs as we all slipped and clambered to shore. We were filthy by the time we got to camp but nothing a cold Julbrew beer wouldn’t sort! It was fabulous to see Anna and Alex again, the volunteers who were still there from last year and doing an amazing job.

The following day we were getting to know the resident animals and starting to get ready for the show, sorting headcollars bits, equipment, gazebos went up and bunting was made and hung and we were well ahead of time for show day which was proving to be a huge event in the local calendar. People travel for days and miles to get there, far further than we would ever consider when the only way is on foot. Many of the horses came from the other side of the river so are swum across and others walk for miles on rickety, potholed roads. On the show day we all had jobs to do from checking the horses and donkeys in and finding out where they had come from, swapping bad bits and rope for new ones, and fitting many head collars, taking lots of photographs! Unfortunately, we ran out of small headcollars and many of the cob and full size are just way too big so it is something that is desperately needed still as we can’t ever seem to get enough. The Gambian staff are very good at altering some of the larger ones so they had a couple of big piles to work through. We ushered any horses that looked sick or injured to the vets tent for worming and teeth, wound dressing, etc. but the vets tent was reasonably quiet this year as most animals were pretty good. Sal and I noted a massive improvement on the health of the horses and donkeys from previous years, its really inspiring. There were only a relative few really poor ones that came on the day.

Along with Joni, my mum and a couple of others, I was judging mares and female donkeys and female project donkeys. Its was a hard task. The donkeys were partially tricky as were all looking good, which is fantastic, we ended up having to be ruthless and turfing out any that had the tiniest scar, as we had so many and needed to get down to six. We felt so mean but competition was hot! We had a big turn out of mares and they all looked better than previous years, however the mares do tend to look a bit poorer than the stallions as they are always pregnant or have foals on them as well as working hard at the same time. The winner was the best by miles, a lovely dun mare called Tiger, the girlfriend of last years stallion winner, Lion. They obviously cared for their horses well. We all decided we felt so mean judging, as it means so much to everyone involved. However, you can’t keep them all happy as we had 40 or so in a class. A health and safety disaster waiting to happen but in true Gambian style things just worked somehow!

The stallion class was packed, word had got out that there was a big prize at steak so the best stallions all came out to compete and my word it was busy. Potential carnage ensued when about 25 stallions came into the main area all very on their toes and with the mares not too far away, it could have been a disaster, however there was the odd skirmish but nothing too hair-raising. I give the Gambian guys their due as they handled those horses very well. I didn’t see anyone smack any of those horses; yes, there was some rearing and prancing but they all coped amazingly. As they were whittled down, the ones sent out had to go through crowds of people with tiny kids running about along with a multitude of other animals and nothing untoward happened, thank goodness! Last years stallion, Lion, was not placed as he looked a little lame but the winner was a worthy one, a stunning bay stallion with not a rib or scar insight and lovely to handle.

The winning stallion

Anna and Alex had taught the donkey club boys the Gambia equivalent of horse ball played off donkeys. As the kids all love football the idea of putting team football shirts on and playing a donkey version of football on donkey-back, was a roaring success and was demonstrated in the main area, everyone; young and old was in hysterics. It was nice to show people that animals can be fun as well as the hard working ‘ beasts of burden’, which I think they are usually seen as. I think it was really beneficial and hopefully creates a better human/animal bond. It starts with the children and, if they can realise this, a lot of progress can be made. Donkey Ball

All the boy’s donkeys have names and they really seem to be extremely fond of there own donkeys. Progress is being made. When we were heading back from one of the villages the day after the show, we saw this cloud of dust coming towards us and it was the donkey club boys charging down the dirt road with their medals and rosettes from the day before, it was a bit like the charge of the light brigade. It was a sight to see. All in headcollars or basic bridles and no saddles just their own balance keeping them on, they all waved on their way passed us and disappeared in a cloud of dust and speedy donkeys!

Donkey Club boys Three Donkeys at camp

After the massive clear up that evening and the next day, we were all exhausted, camp was peaceful again and we spent time with the resident horses giving them some TLC, grooming, etc. The following day, half the group including Sal and my mum, left to fly home but Joni and I stayed on. We got to spend more time with the resident horses and go out with the vets to some Lumos (markets) which was an interesting experience and made you realise even more, how important the charity is as without their help a lot of the animals would be in very desperate states. We saw some very healthy animals but also some very sick ones: infected tendon sheath, wounds, teeth in need of desperate attention, Tripps (a common parasitic infection of the blood affecting the vital organs but fairly easily treated if caught before it becomes life threatening), lameness, worms. I saw for the first time a massive worm infestation in a horses droppings, bot lava like I have never seen! There is a horrible, fatal neurological disease striking many horses and donkeys at the moment out there and the vets in the UK and abroad are trying to find out what it is. Horses never really recover from it and it results in paralysis and death. Several healthy horses at HD have died from it and we saw an early stage case in a donkey that had lost coordination and just walked in circles, this leads to loosing use of back end and then death after a period of time … just horrid. Joni had a nasty experience, which I am sure she may well enlighten on, but basically was with the vets to a call to a sick horse with this disease which had to be PTS and then a post-mortem, so samples can be sent for analysis. Hopefully, the many vets and scientists working on this will find out what new disease this is and how it is spread. They think its an STD or spread by mossys and if it can be cured …. there has been a lot of interest in it from the vet schools etc .

There were some very Special case horses up at camp so i thought i would give you a few details as to where many of the kindly donated supplies will be used:

Phoenix – A stallion I was very interested to see after some horrible pictures I’d seen earlier in the year he had been brought in in July with horrific burns to most of the top half of his body after the stable he was in had caught fire and he managed to break free, unlike his companion who sadly died. All of his back and head and neck had lost all of its hair and his ears had been completely burnt. They consequently fell off!! In the UK we would have PTS straight away but there isn’t that easy option in the Gambia as there are generally no drugs available to do this. Like Molly that you all saw pictures of last year, Phoenix has that real will to live and has healed amazingly well. Its only the very top of his back that is still sore and he has a daily coating of aloe vera juice squeezed straight from the plant and an aloe based cream (kindly donated by someone on the group!) and his healing is really miraculous. When he first came in he was covered in aloe vera gel and cling film and obviously kept in, in the shade, his prognosis was very guarded but with a lot of time and TLC is doing amazingly well. It was odd how you got used to seeing a horse with no ears. It was a shock at first and we soon realised how much we rely from looking at a horses ears to judge its mood! He is a really sweet stallion, considering how much pain he must have been through. Whether he will we able to wear tack or harness again is still unknown but the vets seemed pretty hopeful. We took him out for some walks and he was a really forward little horse who seemed to like people and have a real zest for life. He really struck at my heart strings, but we are all very hopefully he will make a pretty much full recovery.

Phoenix – having his cream applied to his healing burns. When he first came in, he had no hair from his stifles and elbows up; he only has a sore patch on the top of his back now .... and no ears ....

Molly, Oliver and Happy – the 3 Orphan Annies, as I like to call them. These three little ones all hang out together and are all rather special. Molly, who had horrific burn injuries when we saw her last year, is doing really well and after a couple of set backs, is looking good for her, and just needs to put on more condition. Happy had surgery for a big hernia when we were there and recovered really well and was running about again in no time. Little Oliver, well what can I say, he is ‘special’ in more ways than one. He was found very near death and Anna, who is the permanent volunteer there and who nursed Molly back to health, took him on to try and bring back from the brink. He is the dearest little thing you could imagine and I hope he grows up into a ‘normal’ horse; however, time will tell, as it’s not quite clear whether he is all there or not! He picked up amazingly and even had a little canter and buck when we were there giving him some one-to-one and his favourite boiled pumpkin with equvite body builder, that some kind person had donated. He waited at the bottom of the house stairs every morning and whinnied for his pumpkin. Bless his heart.

Little Oliver waiting for his breakfast at the bottom of the stairs..

Snowy – A lovely little mare, almost pure white, with some strange parasite infestation that has got under the skin on the face and her side leaving granulated areas with almost marble like nodules under the skin, which had to be removed and popped out, gruesome but fascinating at the same time. Usually this starts off on the face and can be knocked on the head by some strong doses of wormer but for her it kept reoccurring and the wormers didn’t help, the only option was to remove the nodules. She was amazing and, although the areas were numbed slightly to start, she was happy for her face to be debrided regularly without flinching a muscle, even without local anaesthetic as it wasn’t always available, she just let people get on with it almost knowing we were helping her. Hopefully now they have all been removed she will heal OK and be able to go back to her owner, who obviously cared for her as she was in relatively good condition.

Rachel – A little bay mare who came in in a terrible emaciated state. Frustratingly enough, she was owned by some British expats and was so thin you could see every bone in her body, what sort of example does this set to the Gambians I wonder! She was signed over to the charity so she arrived a few days before we were leaving but was already chomping through her feed after a good teeth rasp and a bit of TLC including cleaning out a maggoty wound on her chest. Hopefully she will make a full recovery as, other than this, there didn’t seem to be too much wrong with her. This case made me particularly angry!!!

Rachel the day after she came in .....

Stallion with no name – we called him Big Willy for obvious reasons. He came in emaciated with a broken penis, poor boy. This stallion had the most beautiful Arab head and was flea-bitten grey. He was very thin and his penis had a 90 degree bend in it and was very swollen. Nobody could tell us how it happened but it must have been incredibly painful. He let us scrub him up as best we could so the vets could get a good look. He was made a sling for it as he could not retract it. He was given a lot of painkillers, steroids and antibiotics in the hope the swelling would go down and it may be usable again. He was also starving and had no trouble eating when given a bucket of ground nut hay so the thinness issue was more lack of food than anything else. We were not sure however if this horse would survive as he developed very bad diarrhoea and began looking really not well; we did wonder if there was more to it than met the eye . Time will tell but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear if this lovely boy passes away; lets hope he get better.

What continually amazed me, and I think Joni, was how well behaved all these horses were, most of the time they never needed sedating for some procedures that over here we would have knocked them out for. Whether it is the fact they resign themselves to their lot in life and just accept whatever is done to them or that they are just of amazingly good nature, I don’t know. From being lifted into open back trucks to be transported to being taken upriver standing in a small boat, or having to swim, being tied to a boat, to many other undignified and not always pleasant treatments, they seem to be amazingly calm on the whole. The donkeys have real attitude, and I know where they get their stubborn reputation from. They are particularly strong willed and don’t think twice about tanking off with you. This is probably why they can survive as they do better than the horses.

We could have offered many ideas on better ways of handling but is it fair to open up the horses and donkeys to a gentler kinder way of handling and making them more sensitive when you know they will be manhandled and dragged about as soon as you go. They have almost discovered a coping strategy I think and personally think it would be wrong to sensitise them unless you know 100% they are going to be handled the same way with care. It’s a hard one and we saw many quite healthy animals being pulled and dragged about but where do you start. There are so many issues to address that the ideas you go out with, with regards to handling etc. soon pale into insignificance when you see that basic daily survival of finding water and food is the main priority for people and animals alike. Things have to be put into perspective and you have to work with the people, not against them, with the idea being to eventually make them self sufficient in many areas and to have fit healthy well cared for working animals within the boundaries of what is realistically available in the Gambia. With education, training and support from the Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust, things are really progressing and on the whole it was a very positive, moving and inspirational experience. Most of this couldn’t be possible without the generosity of the supporters, so thanks to you all.

There is so much I could write but I hope this gives you a bit of an idea of what we were doing.

Vicki x