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Sport's Story
How a horse built an Education Center
In 1996, years after completing my last year of school, I met my greatest teacher. After
many years away from horses due to health and financial problems, I began to ride again. Not long after getting back into the saddle, a dear friend dragged me out to see a horse. Knowing full well my spending that kind of money was certain grounds for divorce, I went along - “just to look.” (You know where this is going, right?) Of course, it was love at first sight. A few hours later I was settling my new sorrel gelding Sport into a pen at a nearby stable, and trying to figure out how in the world to tell my husband that we were now horse owners.
My education began almost immediately. We were riding regularly with endurance riding friends, who dragged us along on 4 to 5 hour rides. Confident and excited, we soon headed to our first endurance race. Lesson One: Within literally the first few miles, Sport threw a shoe, and ended up bowing the tendons in both front legs. An ultrasound showed his legs were full of scar tissue and adhesions from old bows. Two different vets pronounced him permanently unrideable. Fortunately, the vet who soon would become my mentor took a different view. He advised a combination of light and magnetic therapies, plus nutritional supplements. After six months of treatment and stall rest, we resumed riding and training. Sooner than expected, all the old scar tissue had disappeared and Sport was sound and ready to go. I was thrilled!
But by now fly season had started, and with it came Lesson Two: Within weeks, Sport had lost 100 pounds and was rubbing huge sores all over his body. We sent a biopsy off to WSU, and received a diagnosis of “Equine Nodular Collagenetic Granulomas”- a fancy way of saying “fly allergies complicated by immune deficiencies.” We immediately went on emergency fly alert: sprays, blankets, fans, feed-through wormers, oatmeal packs, etc. Nothing worked. Sport continued to drop weight, and soon the sores were too big to cover with diapers. It was a waking nightmare, and I steeled myself to possibly losing my heart companion.
I finally called another friend and mentor who was into “new age” alternative medicine. She gave me the single greatest piece of advice I have ever received: “You don’t have an immune problem because of flies - you have flies because you have an immune problem.” Huh? She reworded it - “Flies don’t bring garbage - garbage brings flies.” This concept revolutionized forever how I viewed the health of my animals.
We immediately removed all the poisons from Sport’s environment - fly sprays, wormers, chemically preserved sweet feeds - and put him on immune system building supplements. Within eight days every sore on his body had dried up and scabbed over, and he rapidly put on 150 pounds and rebounded to amazing health. Now Sport gets immune system stimulants each spring and weathers the fly season with nothing more than a fly mask. We rarely even break out the herbal fly spray.
By now I was completely holistic with everything that I used to feed, treat or put on my animals. I now “knew” that it was the only way to approach a problem. So of course, two years later as we hit the warmer season, in came Lesson Three just to keep me humble. Not only did the sores come back, but Sport also developed a cherry tomato-sized growth on his heel bulb. When we cut it off, blood spurted everywhere, hence the vet’s guess - Cancer.
But once again, the WSU biopsy came back with a diagnosis of auto-immune problems. It seems Sport’s body was creating tissue custom made for incubating fly eggs - but this time there were no eggs, and no flies! The heel growth was back within days. And this time he itched so badly no amount of immune system support could stop him from rubbing his dinner-plate sized sores. I wondered if we would have to admit defeat and reach toward “western” allopathic medicine for help. Once again, my willingness to learn a new approach was rewarded. A modified approach of steroids to control the itching, plus homeopathics to counteract steroid damage, helped him turn the corner. I now understood I needed to apply an “integrative” approach, to accept help from both “western” and “alternative” practices.
Over the next few years, Sport’s virtual cornucopia of health problems directed me to study holistic nutrition, Reiki, massage, acupressure, light therapy, energetic structural rebalancing, iridology, homeopathy and other treatments I could learn and apply myself. Many mentors and teachers came into our lives. Soon I found myself sharing this information with those around me, and working on animals at dog shows, horse shows, endurance races - wherever people took a serious interest in the health and performance of their animals. I began working with a local vet who was using ozone and other alternative approaches to treating cancer and infectious diseases. We dreamed of a center where people could bring their animals and learn to use these approaches for themselves.
In September of 2005, the dream became a reality. We purchased the historic “Sonoita Stallion Manor.” Originally built for the famous QH stallion Lightning Bar, this incredible facility had a tragic past: over 150 horses, including Lightning Bar, died in the 1960's from an outbreak of a viral infection that decimated the herd. Subsequent breeding operations were all short lived and the ranch had simply moldered for decades. But fortune smiled on us, and by January 2006 the massive barns were once again open for business, the original breeding clinic now converted into our educational center.
While all of our other horses got fat dumb and happy on 50 acres of belly deep pasture, Sport ushered in Lesson Four: He steadily lost weight and muscle condition, for no apparent reason! We tried all of the usual diagnoses: teeth? Parasites? Yes, his teeth were affected by changing from cut hay to daily grazing on fresh pasture, but balancing his teeth brought no improvement. Herbal worming and detoxification didn’t help. Back to the vet! Tests confirmed a probable ulcer. How to treat it?
We chose an ozone and homeopathic treatment called Koch Therapy, and once again Sport has been transformed: his coat is again shiny, and his massive energy is back. He continues to gain weight and strength and is back under saddle this week! He enjoyed being the focus of attention for our first BioEnergy Analysis classes, and will be my partner for April’s “Yoga on Horseback” weekend, and my demo subject for our Equine Massage Class.
Will Sport have more to teach me? Undoubtedly. But I keep telling him he can stay healthy and let some new teachers take over – like Breeze, our newest therapeutic boarder, whose “mystery ailment” was a spine broken just above the tail. She is already responding well to innovative therapies Sport guided me to learn!
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Sport, featured in the April issue of
Arizona Horse Connection
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