So much has happened this year… It has been an emotional roller coaster of a year.
Let’s start in January. I began training in the new year with hopes to qualify for NAYC again at the Juniors level with Wonderboy. Training started off fine but toward the end of January Wonderboy started acting differently. He seemed to be uncomfortable and not his happy self as he would be a lot to handle on the ground. I tried to push through the rides and that led to being thrown off twice. The second time I hit the rail road tie that outlines my arena and injured my wrist so we decided to send him for two months of training. We thought perhaps this could possibly be a behavioral issue which was hard to believe because WB was such a well behaved horse. During the nearly two months of training he continued to show signs of behavioral problems however the trainer and I would continue to push through it. WB never felt like he used to when riding although we would get through some of the rides okay but I knew something was still wrong. By the middle of March he was getting worse so we decided to bring him home to be looked at by our vet. The vet thought it might be a hind gut issue and prescribed medication along with no work. After a few weeks I was given the “OK” to work him by lunging in the Pessoa system to get him strong again. He was doing good in the lunging work and seemed to enjoy it. By the beginning of April I decided to get on him to hack him around our property before going into the arena. As soon as I started working him in the arena he would throw his head up, feeling extremely uncomfortable, along with tripping randomly and threatening to throw me multiple times. By May 4th, my last day I would ever ride Wonderboy, I took him to a nearby covered arena, like I had done so many other times, when I got on him I knew he was off balance. There was a professional trainer riding and I asked him to watch us as we went around the arena. This trainer confirmed what I already knew… WB was not lame but he was terribly off balance. My Dad immediately called the vet for a Monday appointment. Monday May 7th, the vet performed a Neurological Exam and suspected WB had Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis (EPM). I had never heard of this disease and was surprised when he explained it. A strong indicator that WB had EPM was when the vet crossed WB’s front leg over the other. In normal cases a horse would naturally move their leg back on the ground to steady themselves.. In Wonderboy’s case he just stood there with his legs crossed. We ran an expensive blood test to see how bad it was. The blood was sent to California and would take about a week before we got the results. In the meantime, the vet gave him medicine to kill off the parasite. It was in a dewormer type tube but bigger. A few hours after the vet left, I noticed Wonderboy was in distress. He showed signs like he was starting to colic by pawing, laying down and getting up multiple times, groaning in pain and then acting lethargic. He looked so sick, My heart was breaking seeing him in such pain and discomfort. My mom called the vet right away who said this was a parasite dying off from the medicine and instructed us to keep him in his stall and give him a second tube of medicine he had left with us for this reason. Finally, Wonderboy’s discomfort started to pass and I was relieved. A week later we received the blood test results and confirmed EPM was 89%. A lot of horses get EPM but at a lower percentage which doesn’t affect them on a a day to day basis. Wonderboy immediately started a monthly medication call Protozil. Wb was getting progresively worse and I noticed muscle loss, weakness, tripping, tiredness, resperitory issues and coughing. We were keeping a close eye on him when he was in his back paddock. By June, we were a month into the medicine and had re-evaluation from our vet to see if he had made any progress. There was no difference but we decided to keep him on the medicine and go another month to see if there would be any progress. At this point WB had become so sickly ill and basically deteriorated.. there was nothing more heartbreaking to watch than seeing your horse go from a strong, muscular and happy horse to now being so sad, with an incredible amount of muscle loss and weakness. He started tripping more and more and eventually falling down in the stall, paddock and pasture. We had to keep him in his stall most of the day and in a small paddock that his stall opened up too for fear he would fall and never get back up. Over time, WB would stay in the stall even when his back door was open. He didn’t have the energy to go outside any longer. It was the worst experience I’ve ever encountered. As WB continued to worsen we had the final evaluation performed. July 11th, While the vet was doing the exam… I was standing in the arena holding WB as we were talking with the vet when Wonderboy collapsed in the arena. We knew at this point he was a danger to himself and the people around him. My parents and I along with our vet knew at that point the treatment had not worked and WB didn’t deserve to suffer anymore. The following day my entire family went out and I gave him a big bucket of carrots and apples and we all loved on him before Wonderboy was put to rest. That was the hardest day of my life. The tears and heartbreak will always be with me. I have to remind myself that I was so blessed to have had such an amazing horse. The multiple wins and championships we achieved together were amazing! Qualifying and competing at NAJYRC and Regionals in 2017 were some of the many highlights of our time together. He was truly a “Once in a Lifetime horse”. These memories will live with me for the rest of my life. He was my “Wonderboy”, my steady companion…. My Best Friend.
I will love you always, Wonderboy!
The Dressage Diary by Jordan Lockwood 