Dressage Life: Cloud Nine Destroyed by Illness
On April 28, 2002, when Focus was born, I looked at her, a mere 12 hours old, and said I would do anything to have that horse. I dreamed of taking this home-bred mare with me to Germany to compete in Young Riders. Later, Focus was given to me as a reward for a year of successful competitive swimming. Before I knew it, I was graduating from high school and Focus was turning 5. I decided that, instead of going to directly to college, I would try to fulfill my lifelong dream of training in Germany.
After a summer of planning and a trip to Germany for an interview, I was accepted for the position and would move in September 2007. Getting myself and the horse to Germany was relatively stress-free. Focus started going to shows in the first summer, and she won with scores of 8.0 in Dressurpferde L and placed second with 7.5 in Dressurpferde M. Every show she entered ended in success. Halfway through the summer, I received an offer to stay another nine months. After a week of considering all my options with school, money and the horse, I agreed. As the second winter went by Focus got stronger. We had planned to show her at Prix St. Georges for the first time during her last month in Germany, at only 7 years old.
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But, with the sudden onset of a 40-degree (Celsius) fever, we had to scratch the show. It was a Monday morning when I went into the barn and saw that Focus wasn’t eating. As I took her blanket off, her hair stood on end, and she started shaking. I took her temperature, and she had a fever. The vet came and gave her some medicine to bring the fever down and boost her immune system. Later that night, her fever had climbed even higher. After another emergency call to the vet, she received stronger medicine to help the fever so she could at least get through the night.
The next morning, her fever was down. But, suddenly, her fever spiked up 39.4 degrees Celsius, and she was shaking again. Once again, I called the vet and Focus received another round of medication. From this point things improved, and she got through Wednesday with no fever. On Thursday, we took Focus to Frankfurt, where she went into a three-week quarantine. The trip was fine, and her fever stayed down. Not being able to see her for three weeks was not easy, especially after the stress of the previous days.
Two weeks had gone by. Every time I phoned to check up on her, everything was OK. In what was supposed to be my last week in Germany, I made plans to travel to Frankfurt again to see Focus on a Monday. As I arrived in the stable, I had never been more excited to see my horse. It was the longest I had ever gone without seeing her. I looked at her in the stall, and she had the same happy-go-lucky look in her eye. She even nickered to me as I called her name. There is no better feeling than that of being reunited with your best friend.
As we brought her out of the stall, I noticed Focus was unusually stiff. I thought it could possibly be that they worked her a little harder in the recent days. Then, while leading her to the indoor, I noticed that Focus was walking strangely. As the rider started to trot, I could see immediately that Focus was not OK. Not knowing better, I said, “Put her in her stall. I will come back tomorrow, and we can have a look again.”
That night, I did not rest easy, not knowing what was wrong with her. As I pulled Focus from the stall the next day, I saw that her condition had rapidly deteriorated. Not only was she stiff in her hind legs, she was dragging both hind legs on the floor and swaying left and right without coordination. I called the vet immediately. He informed me that it could be one of three things: a pinched nerve, in which case we would need a chiropractor, a broken vertebrae or Equine Herpes virus. The treatment for all three things would be the same but, if it was herpes, she would need an immune system enhancer and a blood test. We drew blood and started the treatment.
After another two sleepless nights, I returned to the barn. The good news was that she had not gotten worse the previous day when I was not there, but this day, Thursday, we thought that she was in heat. The vet said, this could be the next symptom, loss of bladder function. Therefore, we did a test and determined that she was in heat.
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