This young gelding was in a fray with other geldings this week and got his leg stuck in barbed wire; then, of course, he panicked and ripped his leg to pieces. The geldings were all trying to get to a mare in season who was on the other side of the fence separating the two pastures. The mare herself was backing her butt up to the fence. The damage to the gelding’s leg is so severe that he is now sentenced to complete stall confinement for FOUR weeks and THEN he can start to be hand walked.

Barbed wire meets horse

I don’t think I want the job of walking him that first day out…

Apparently the fence has been there undisturbed for over 9 years (this used to be a dairy farm so it was originally put up for the cows). Unfortunately, the run of extreme good luck has just run out.

Sage was once in a fray with barbed wire – it had been covered by blackberry bushes and hidden from view. I think even the barn owners had forgotten about it. In any case, she must have acted more like a cow and not panicked too much because her worst injury was some scraped skin off of her hind legs and superficial wounds (still painful). We were very, very lucky. Your heart beats fast when you get a call from your barn, but it beats even faster when you hear the words “barbed wire“.

Fences may make good neighbors – but not when its barbed wire and you are separating horses. Please send your good thoughts for a speedy recovery for this gelding.

UPDATE 8/9/10: The barn management made a speedy removal of the entire length of barbed wire fencing and then installed instead a fence that is hot wired. So the horses are all hanging around, grazing safely as a herd in the field; the gelding himself is still in stall confinement but is doing well and getting lots of attention. He should make a full recovery.

One could say that the barbed wire should not have been there in the first place, but I prefer to focus on the fact that the barn made immediate remedy to the situation after the horrific incident happened. I have been to a number of boarding facilities, and I can honestly say that not all would have moved as swiftly…

Looking for clues to a horse health issue can be like trying to find a four leaf clover...

When it comes to figuring out different ailments that have afflicted Sage over the years, I have had to use a fair amount of “holmesian deduction”. For lack of a leprechaun to guide me, I cross the stormy sea to England and that Londoner Sherlock Holmes’ method of deductive reasoning. I may not be adept as Holmes himself, but then again, he did have an assistant…

My latest case began a few months ago in the height of the wet weather in the Pacific Northwest. Out of the blue, it became supremely difficult to brush Sage from her golden withers to her mud-brown tail. It was out-of-the ordinary behavior, and I was baffled.

I called my local veterinarian when it did not abate. He was stumped by it too when he came out to examine her. Her skin was super sensitive to the touch and she pinned her ears back at any brushing or touch, threatening to bite. Anywhere near her tail and she would threaten a kick.

It could be a behavioral issue, he said.

I really was not expecting that, but I would find out soon enough that he was not the only one with that opinion. However, I knew my horse, and I knew it wasn’t behavior. I knew it as much as I knew the color of the gray sky that morning that something was physically wrong.

Was it just that I didn’t want the answer to be behavior? Holmes had said to Watson in A Study In Scarlett:

“Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner.”

Was I simply too emotionally attached to my horse to be objective about the situation?

Behavior As A Clue, Not A Diagnosis

When is behavior not a behavior issue but instead a sign of something deeper amiss? I needed more evidence, and in this case, that would involve blood.

We took some blood samples and then began the wait for results. They came back normal – nothing way out of whack, no smoking gun.

The vet then put in a consult call to a specialist at the nearest veterinary college. He called me with the results of that conversation: the specialist first suggested behavior, but the vet reiterated that the owner (me) did not agree with that. The specialist then suggested that we could put Sage on a drug for neurological pain.

I truly was not expecting that, but that was what I was left with. That did not sound right to me either, although it shook me a bit. It was gratifying that my vet had supported me in trying to go further than simply an answer of behavior. However, I knew that it was up to me now to continue my search for clues and evidence to get to the bottom of the Case of The Horse That Wouldn’t Stand For Brushing.

Dogs In The Night

Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”
“To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”
“The dog did nothing in the night-time.”
“That was the curious incident,” remarked Sherlock Holmes.

My horse was behaving differently than she usually did: she normally loves to be brushed, and it usually draws her into a dozy state of bliss. This was odd behavior indeed, and it had come on suddenly.

There continued to be very little change in her symptoms although some days were better than others. I started researching the web for anything about horses having highly sensitive skin. I came up with the neurological form of EHV and the shingles-like physical condition a horse suffers after a shedding of this dormant virus within their body. Further study showed estimates of up to 80% of horses as carriers.

This was great information, and even better were the references saying that lysine could help. It was inexpensive and a simple amino acid, so I decided to pursue it with the blessings of my veterinarian.

Sure enough, after about four days she was much, much better and I could actually brush her from head to toe. Whew. Now I knew that all I needed was to dump a little lysine into her if this happened again.

Not so fast Ms. Holmes

By the next weekend, Sage had returned to the whole-body sensitivity. I was more than a bit dismayed. I could not give up, though, until I had found the culprit.

A clue that evaded me for a few weeks was that the weather of the weekend of lysine had been sunny, uncommonly warm, and dry. I remembered this when a small bald patch appeared at the base of her withers.
Investigating it closely, I found that with a little rubbing, the hair would fall away – along with the tiny little scabs that scream out RAIN ROT. The miserable skin condition caused by that mischievous offender, Dermatophilus congolensis, who acts as both bacteria and fungus and loves wetness and warm winter coats.

So I hadn’t lost my position in the herd, my horse wasn’t being resistant and bossy, and she didn’t want to be touched or brushed for a very good reason. Her rain rot had presented differently than most cases (is she allergic to congolensis, or does she just have extremely sensitive skin?), but not every case is by the book or simple.

“Excellent!” I cried. “Elementary,” said he.

I have leaned that when it comes to my animals, a respectful relationship with my veterinarian is critical. My current veterinarian understands and can appreciate that I know my horse’s individual behavior, and how she shows pain, better than he does. Animals and humans are still mostly a mystery to veterinarians, doctors, and especially us laypersons. We all do the best we can, but we must take care not to tag something as only behavior until after we have ruled out everything else with our careful Holmesian deduction.

Anything less would be criminal.

From my website’s home page:

“I do not profess to be an expert; I am far from that. I leave that job to the horses. Watch, listen to, and know your horse well; there are no better teachers.

Lastly, I know a little bit about a lot of things, but I know a lot about my own particular horse – and that is what seems to matter most.”

For those of you who want to know how I am resolving the rain rot:

I have given Sage two doses of a homeopathic medicine that is based on her constitution and symptoms (picked from past discussions & trials with a homeopathically trained holistic veterinarian); I have kept her blanketed with a waterproofed sheet on rainy days but not on sunny days; and very gently brushed with a rubber curry soaked in a tea tree oil solution. I have a spray bottle with a tea tree oil solution that I soaked her to the skin with on a few different occasions.

Probably the biggest contributor to her fighting off the rain rot has been the warming weather and shedding coat. At last check yesterday I could not find any more large scabs and her coat was looking beautiful, hinting at a rich, golden color for her summer glory.

P.S. This is not my first encounter with the little bandit Dermatophilus congolensis; last year he reared his ugly head along Sage’s neck. She was wearing a blanket, however, since she was not stalled at all and her sole shelter came from one scraggly fir tree (she is currently in at nighttime, enough time to dry off I thought but apparently not). The rot was restricted to a patch on her neck, so she did not experience the raping and pillaging of her innocent skin like this time. She didn’t immediately lose the hair this time so it went unrecognized and undiagnosed for weeks. You can read all about that first exposure here.

From now on, Sage will be a veritable blanket model from Fall to Summer…

I thought I would post my response to him here as a follow-up to that article:

“Thanks for writing; I actually agree with some of what you said. What I wanted to convey in my article is that the rope halters are just not as “natural” as people think – usually when you attach that word to things it gives people a warm fuzzy feeling. People also think snaffles are no big deal but we know in the wrong hands they can cause more pain than a curb bit in the right hands.

I just wanted to give a different perspective on the whole thing; I wasn’t even suggesting banning rope halters or not using them at all. I just know that a lot of people out there have no idea how much pain that things they use on their horses can inflict. I know that my horse gets kicked and bitten (she is on the low rung of the ladder as far as her position in the herd). But I am not bought into your argument there (I used to be). You see, my horse actually hangs around and is best buddies with the mare in her little herd who is just about the same level as her – not the one who bites, kicks, and bosses her.The boss of the herd of 4 is actually a big grey gelding who hangs out by himself a lot. I don’t want to be him. I started changing a lot of my thoughts on this in reading Mark Rashid’s books, and I found myself gravitating to his philosophy (so its not just my vet ). I just personally think its better if you can get results you want without causing/inflicting ANY pain. A fly can cause a horse to move too.

I have learned not to take any one person’s opinion as best for me and my horse; if you read my website, you will understand why. I sincerely and strongly believe that everyone needs to do what works best for their individual horse.

Also, I have a very sensitive horse, and the rope halter probably gives her way more correction than she needs. The other point of my article is that you need to figure out what is best for your own horse, not just what someone tells you to buy or what everyone else is using.”

Ultimately, if I can get my horse do what I ask without the use of pain or extreme discomfort, isn’t that better in the end?

I hope to always remember and respect the lightness of a fly and the spirit of my horse.

See also Mark Rashid’s article on Passive Leadership on his website.

p.s. just for the record, I receive NO benefit from the sale of any kind of halter

My early days with Sage; ah, we have come so far, yet have so far to go.

Maybe it was good preparation that I took a sailing class in my early twenties in the windy Berkeley Marina of California.

Below are the top ten “teachers” that I have had over the past eight years with Sage. While my biggest teacher is Sage, it won’t do my readers any good to list her here. Suffice to say it is a given that your own horse is going to teach you a lot.

I do want to list some people as well as sites that have been instrumental in helping me along my path. I have gleaned a little bit from each of them, or even a lot, and they have all built upon one another.

Check them out, and see if they resonate true for you and your horse. I haven’t always bought into everything that each one of them has said, but I have gleaned many pearls of wisdom from each of them. Some, like Mary Ann and Dr. Seeyle, I am lucky to live within driving distance of; the others I have absorbed some knowledge through their books and websites.

It may seem like an eclectic mix, but sometimes that is how the pieces best fit together for a complete picture. Or making a beautiful quilt; let your knowledge blanket you and be a comfort when you have difficult decisions to make.

1. Dr. Suzan Seeyle, DVM
2. Dr. Madalyn Ward, DVM
3. Dr. Martin Goldstein, DVM, small animal vet
4. Mary Ann Simonds, equine behaviorist
5. Catherine Bird
6. Mark Rashid
7. Linda Kohanov
8. Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer
9. Pete Ramey
10. Dr. Mary Brennan, DVM

Thank you so very much to all ten above!

Sage herself, grazing

On a related issue, I have recently updated the Equine Ulcer page with multiple new links to articles about stress, diet, and ulcers. I will continue to keep a vigilant eye out for these updates since it appears from all the evidence that painful, often debilitating ulcers are almost completely man-made and preventable.

Not all animal abuse is obvious – much of it is subtle and even goes unnoticed by the majority. One could say that it is abusive at some level – or at least an injustice – to put a horse in a box stall 12 or more hours a day. And its amazing how so many horses get “retired” as broodmares – have these people that do this never been pregnant and given birth themselves, not to mention raise a baby? Of course, these mares do not actually have to raise the baby for long since it will be taken away after a few months, and quite abruptly, as she will most likely be re-bred. I suppose if the horse is in great physical condition and happy and healthy, it is not such a terrible issue (except for the weaning – the examples I have seen of this have been heart wrenching and cruel in my eyes). I have seen too many mares, though, with physical conditions that take them out of the riding pool, forced to have baby after baby. One mare that I came across at a boarding facility a few years ago could barely stand – I believe that she had severe laminitis – yet she was bred to have one more baby before she was going to be put down. It sickened me, and I could barely look the owner in the eye the one time that I saw her; I wish that I had reported her to humane officials or said something to her. Neither of those things, unfortunately, would have probably done any good.

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were. Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee…” John Donne
The great poet John Donne believed that we are all diminished when anyone dies, and I think that we are all diminished in some way by Eight Belles’ death. Or perhaps just every other living horse is affected since they are all connected to her in horse-kind, but one could argue that if a horse is affected then his owner is affected. When I read the story of Eight Belles’ last run, I felt the pangs of loss even though I had never known her, in fact had never even known of her. You see, I stay away from horse racing (and I cannot say that I follow any sport that involves the use of animals) ever since I went to a horse race several years ago – my first and last – and saw horses refusing to enter starting gates and being whipped through to the finish. I am just not one to stomach most of the things that I hear about, see and read when it comes to the use of animals, especially horse racing.