Someday this will hurt much less
As many of you already know there comes a time in horse ownership where we have to make difficult decisions on behalf of our horses and in their best interests. As horses get older in years or suffer from untreatable lameness the most difficult decision of all, euthanasia, is often the best option and the kindest one as well. For us this time has come again and we were forced to make this choice with two of our beloved school horses. Both Charlie and Prancer, though not particularly old, were suffering from chronic lameness issues that were impacting their quality of life. In both cases each of these horses with their respective conditions were nearing a time where they would likely face a much more painful and catastrophic injury. Below is a little history on each horses and their conditions.
Charlie: I am sure many of you have noticed but Charlie has not been able to join the western string this year. Charlie was able to have his first summer off since he had been donated. In fact this may have been the only summer off he has ever had. When we tried to bring him back into work it was very obvious that something was wrong. In true (stoic) Charlie fashion he did not show us a physical lameness, but more of an (uncharacteristic) unwillingness to work. When attempting to work, even just a few minutes into a work out , Charlie would simply stop, refuse to go forward and begin to bite at himself as well as the rider’s feet fairly violently. As we all know there is very uncharacteristic of him so we determined that he must be uncomfortable somewhere and this is how he was communicating to us. Dr. Foltman came out and did an initial examination on him where we were all shocked to find that he was in quite a bit of pain everywhere. When flexed in his hind joints and asked to jog off, Charlie was physically incapable and would struggle to even walk. From there on we started to perform some routine joint injections. Dr. Foltman injected both of his hock joints and we agreed that we would see how that helped or did not and go from there. Upon re-evaluation, it was clear that the joint injections had made only a very minor improvement. At this point it was difficult to pinpoint where to go next. Dr. Foltman’s gut feeling was that he was having problems with his left hind suspensory branches due to the obvious swellings on his left hind (most of which was present when he arrived, but which had never been problematic on palpation). A few days later we had Dr. Christina Cable and Dr. Michael Ball examine him as well. Both vets immediately went to the left hind pastern. As this was the first time they had seen Charlie, they would certainly look to the most obvious swelling first. Radiographs were taken to show that indeed his left hind suspensory branches were causing him problems. Radiographs showed us that this is something he had been dealing with for some time. The previous damage to the branches has begun to calcify in order to fill in the lesions to the suspensory. This was causing so much swelling and enlargement in the ligament that even the splint bone was being pulled visibly away from the cannon bone. It was immediately made clear to us that Charlie would never again be a riding horse, nor would therapies ever make him comfortable to even enjoy turnout. Even a wrong step in the paddock could turn tragic for him. As we all know Charlie was never, in our time with him, a friendly horse. We now know that some of his negative disposition was possibly due to what he had been quietly putting up with for many years. This is a true testament to how stoic a horse can be and what they will do for us.
Prancer has been battling several lameness problems over the years. As you know Prancer had less than ideal conformation, but amazingly performed well as a school horse for many years-mostly due to his good nature. More recently he had been in and out of work with lameness issues that we have not been successful in fully treating. While our first desires were to be able to have Prancer back in the riding program, that progressed to just a desire to have him sound and comfortable enough to place him in a retirement home. The most obvious of his problems and the probable main cause for much of his discomfort is that he suffered from Degenerative Suspensory Ligament Desmitis (DSLD) in both hind legs. There has been a significant drop in the angle of his hind pasterns in the last 6 months. Currently his pastern angles were level with the ground. For quite a long time we have been able to make him more comfortable with shoeing changes but recently that has not been as effective as it has in the past. Prancer had become very uncomfortable, with chronic swelling in his hind pasterns as well as the stress over his back and hind legs due to the negative impact of the progressive conformational changes he had been facing. The discomfort had most recently caused him to lose his desire to eat or even put his head down to graze has much as he normally would. After much discussion with Dr. Christina Cable as well as Dr. Kelly Foltman (when this first became a problem), it was been determined that there are no others options to keep him comfortable.
Both horses were humanely euthanized early this morning and are buried on the property. It gives us all comfort in knowing that they will not longer suffer from the problems that have been facing them. They were wonderful school horses and I am sure many of you will agree they were some of the best.
Stefani J. Watson
I loved charlie very much. he desereved better then this. he should never have been allowed to stay. and prancer was a good and generous boy who i enjoyed very much riding the summer i rode Zip......now their both gone becuase people are stuipd and do stupid things. I loved them both. and someday this will hurt less.
Run Free......your friends are waiting for you and those of us who loved you understand and miss you. Theres nothing to be grumpy about now Charlie......you have TURELY reached Candy Mountain. Thank you for all the memories you especially gave me....i treasure them. I treaure you all.