HGG Community Forums

There's quite a bit of stuff going on back in my hometown's equine community and I feel like I need to talk to other people about it and to give others a heads up for future reference.

Please note that all of the information below is second or third hand information that I have received from a very close friend whose parents board at the barn involved.

In the last week or so, dozens of horses primarily at the same barn (though there have been a couple of other barns exposed) who have been extremely sick. Two of them died and we're shipped to Ohio State's Veterinary Clinic for autopsy. For almost a week, the illnesses were a complete mystery, but one of my best friends has pieced together most of it. We still don't know what the official diagnosis is, the primary barn is on state mandated quarantine with a state assigned vet, and all other barns in the area are also on lock down.

The one thing all of the horses who initially got sick had in common was they had been worked on by the same equine dentist in the same day. This dentist is well respected in the industry and even sits on the state board of equine health (unfortunately I don't recall his name). It has been discovered that (at least) one of the horses he was to work on had multiple blisters inside the mouth, which according to my friend, he has admitted to popping even though he knows he shouldn't have. So by popping these blisters, the virus became airborne. He also continued to work on other horses with the same tools after doing this.

I am appalled by his actions and my heart breaks for the horses and owners affected by this. Fortunately, my friend's parent's horses had received their updated shots a few weeks prior to this for attending Equine Affair, and only had minor case which cleared up after receipt of booster shots. We are hoping the results of the autopsies and biopsies taken from the other horses should be done sometime this week.


There was a second thing that I learned from the same friend right after hearing about all the the stuff above, was that one of her former horses is now owned by someone who has not been taking very good care of him. She didn't even recognize him when she first saw him at a local show. He used to be a stocky, thick built gelding (block was another way to describe him) who was stubborn as all get out. She ultimately sold him because they just weren't a good fit together. At this show she said that he was supper ribby and the only thing that tipped her off to his identity was his markings. She confirmed by calling his name and he turned to look at her.

The rider and trainer were unable to get him to go into the warm up arena, so they warmed him up in all three gates on concrete. His rider is a younger girl and was apparently wearing rockgrinder spurs. I don't know how all of you feel about rockgrinder, but I believe that they should be used very, very rarely and only by people who have a lot of experience and know how to properly use spurs.
After doing poorly in a class, the trainer took the horse to "school" him, which my friend said was very difficult to watch as the trainer was basically just beating up on him.
My friend then informed me that these people have a second horse just for contesting/gymkana. And that it is a horse I had worked with extensively several years ago. My friend said that they are running her into the ground. It breaks my heart because if I had been in a better financial position, I would have bought her from the previous owner who I know well and trained under. This horse is a super sweet mare who would now be in her mid to late teens, and deserves better.
My friend tried to find out where these people live, but no one seems to know. She is also trying to find out if there is a way to buy her former horse back.

This is all just making my heart hurt so much.... And probably not helped by the fact that I saw Avengers: Endgame this weekend too.

Thanks for listening... Or reading I suppose.