Re: RC: [Fwd: RC: heart attacks in horses]

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated 4/11/00 7:21:42 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
wsabg@t-online.de writes:

<< we had one dead horse in 1992 at a ride. I was the manager of that ride 
and got a
 call that a horse died few hundred meters after a vet check. A veterinarian
 pathologist examined the horse and found out that the gelding died because 
of a heart
 attack. We took a look at the vet card and even the ride vet, who checked 
the horse
 in the vet check, said there were no irregularities, the horse came in with 
48 bpm
 (!). The rider had to wait for his wife, whose horse took a bit longer to 
meet
 criteria, and they went on in slow trot. Suddenly the horse groaned and fell 
aside.
 He was dead within seconds. >>

Thank goodness such things are rare, but they do happen.  We had a horse die 
at a ride where I was vetting several years ago, about 3 miles from the 
start.  The rider left camp last, quite sedately, going out for a "picnic" 
sort of a ride.  Mare was in excellent health, had vetted fine at check-in, 
and did not appear at all stressed leaving camp--just curious and alert as 
one would expect.  She reared up and flipped over dead.  Was apparently a 
ruptured aneurysm in the brain--could just as easily have happened at home in 
the pasture, and likely would have sooner or later...

Heidi