Heartbreak Hotel

It started with a phone call from the barn manager. My horse, Elvis, had hurt himself badly and I needed to get to the barn quickly. And so began one of the most emotionally draining days I've had since owning this horse.

But before I go into the details of this experience, I need to give a brief back story as to how Elvis came into my life. I have had him for 5 years and it has been quite the journey. He is a beautiful 16.2H bay Hanoverian and was basically green-broke as a 9 year old when I first saw him. When I bought him several months later, I knew it would be a project. It certainly was, but not the type I thought. He had so much apprehension about life in general that the first year was spent teaching him that the world really was pretty safe.

Later posts will go into more detail about what we did to learn to trust each other. Suffice it to say, he has led me down paths I would have never explored if he hadn't been so different from every other horse I had owned.

But I digress. Back to Monday February 8, 2010. I live near Annapolis, Maryland and we had just dug out from 27 inches of snow that had fallen over the weekend. My husband Rick and I were able to get out and make it to the barn after getting "the call". We arrived to find the barn manager holding Elvis in the indoor arena.

They had been taking turns with the horses and letting them out in the indoor arena so they could get out of their stalls. Apparently, snow had come off the roof when it was Elvis' turn. He spooked and ran and slipped in the corner. His hind end came out from under him and when he got up, he was clearly hurt but kept running. And running. And running. They finally caught him right before we got there.

Elvis was dripping wet and holding his left hind leg up and already there was swelling. The manager had given him banamine and azium and we managed to limp him back to his stall. I called my vet, Dr. G, who lives 5 minutes from the barn. She couldn't get to us because the plows hadn't made it back to her neighborhood so she was stranded.

Calls to other vets either went unanswered or they were snowbound, too. Dr. G recommended that we take him somewhere where he could get a full examination and to do it soon. Another big snowstorm was predicted to start the next day and she didn't want us to get trapped again.

We took him to the Fair Hill Equine Therapy Center in Fair Hill, MD. We had been there last year for a suspensory rehab (again, this will be another post) and I trusted the vet, Dr. A, and the owner of the facility, Bruce Jackson.

While my husband went home to get the trailer, I stood by Elvis' stall to keep an eye on him. He was quietly eating his hay and we had put an ice pack on his leg to help keep the swelling down. He would put a bit of weight on his leg which was reassuring.

All of a sudden, he gave out a snort, spun around, and proceeded to stand in the middle of his stall and kick and spin and kick and spin and kick and spin and kick and spin. Double-barreled kicks and connecting with each wall of his stall. As quickly as he started, he stopped but he was clearly agitated. The barn manager came back in and gave Elvis some dormosedan to keep him quiet.

Rick arrived with the trailer and pulled it up close to the barn entrance so Elvis wouldn't have to walk very far. They walked gingerly down the aisle as I scurried around getting things together for the road trip.

I heard Rick talking to Elvis and then I heard the loud clatter of hooves on pavement and Rick shouting "F**K!, F**K!, F**K!" I ran outside to see that Elvis had broken away from Rick, plowed through a large snow bank, and was now chest deep in snow but still trying to run away. It was absolutely horrible, terrifying in fact, watching him struggle in all of that snow.

We were finally able to catch him after about 5 long minutes, give him some more tranq, and get him on the trailer. The ride up to Fair Hill took longer than normal because of ongoing snow removal on I-95 but Elvis handled the ride pretty well. Dr. A and his assistant met us at the door and helped get Elvis off the trailer.

In subsequent (much shorter) posts, I will tell you about the diagnosis, the plan for recovery, and how things are coming along. It is my hope that you will find this interesting and that you will learn about different treatment modalities for his types of injuries. There will also be posts about other training techniques and philosophies that I explored. Please give me feedback and if you've had similar experiences and can offer suggestions. I would love to hear them!