A Greater Good

Peach did not survive her neurological disease, but we hope her case will provide information that can save generations of foals to come.

- Garnet Blatchford And Hannah Arington

In the spring of 2013, one of our favorite mares gave birth to her first foal, a strapping bay colt we named Winston. At first, Winston was strong and athletic. We taught him to lead, longe and respond to other handling while his watchful mother stood nearby. On all counts, he seemed a healthy and promising baby. After just a few weeks, however, we could see that something was wrong with Winston--- he was becoming weak and uncoordinated. We called our veterinarian out for an examination.

The diagnosis was cervical vertebral compressive myelopathy (CVCM), commonly called wobbler disease. A catchall term for compression of the spinal cord, “wobbles” in older horses is often related to arthritic changes or trauma, but in foals as young as Winston the condition is typically due to malformations and abnormalities of the vertebrae. Winston’s condition deteriorated rapidly, and soon he began to have difficulty lying down and getting up on his own. At this point, our family made the grim decision to end his suffering and euthanize him.

Several veterinarians we consulted told us that Winston’s case was an anomaly and extremely unlikely to reoccur on our farm. And we had no reason to doubt that. We’d had two or three homebred foals annually on our farm for the previous nine years and not one had any known neurological issues. So, after a year of rest, we decided to give Winston’s dam another chance at motherhood, matching her with a different stallion. We wanted this healthy, kind and wonderfully bred mare to have the opportunity to raise a foal. In the spring of 2015, Hope was born. Her name symbolized the bright future that seemed to stretch ahead of her.