Thank you all for the input. I’ve thought about what you all have said and made my decision/s. When I read on the internet, I try to exercise critical thinking, so when I read comments from people on this forum who have tens of thousands of posts and a farm url I can visit and snoop, I really respect their opinions.
My largest initial worry was the “bubble.” At this point, based on what the vet said in addition to what I’ve read here, I’m going to hold off on giving Baby a procedure (Caslicks) that could potentially be unnecessary.
Regarding fencing: That was a bit off-topic, but it has given me food for thought. I don’t want any more horses but it wouldn’t be the end of the world if Nicky bred the mare. I would be slightly less enthused if Nicky bred his own daughter, but on the other hand, from what I’ve read; horse breeders do just that and call it line-breeding vice in-breeding. So then, as long as Baby doesn’t have Caslicks done, if she were bred, it wouldn’t be the absolute worst. PLEASE NOTE... I have no plans to breed her; I am just really doubtful that Nicky would or could do it under our current fence conditions. I could be wrong. Hopefully I won’t be back here a year from now whining about unintended pregnancies.
The husband is on vacation and we have some work to do on that section of fence so we’ve talked a bit about various methods of “shoring” up. For example, amysue mentioned the garden fence; not sure if she meant the panels or the stuff on rolls. The rolled stuff is flimsy and hard to work with in my opinion, but the galvanized panels are really sturdy and pretty affordable. So that might be an option to add a little more security.
I’d also like to say a big thank you that no one lectured me about how I should geld our old, blind guy. I’m just not taking that risk to his health. One neighbor was visiting and after observing me cuddling Nicky, she commented that I loved Nicky more than my husband; she maybe was right, or close anyway.