By Lisa Peterson

After my longtime equine companion of 23 years, Speculation, had been put to sleep at age 30 last year, I was lonely for a new horse to call my own. A furry body to groom, a muzzle to nuzzle with, a partner in swift gallops or just having that special horse in the barn to give the last carrot of the day to. Riding is one thing but horse ownership is in a realm of its own.

Enter Thunder Bay! A handsome bay Thoroughbred at 22 years old, a mere youngster I thought. A former racehorse – grandson of the Belmont Stakes winner Nashua – was foaled on February 27, 1978 in New Jersey. He was then known as Diplomatic Bag. I’m glad someone changed his name. As a three- and four-year-old, with 38 lifetime starts he won four races with earnings of $13,220. Okay, he wasn’t Secretariat, but that boy could run when he wanted to. I bet it was his gallop on his resume that landed him his second career as an event horse in Virginia for many years.

About eight years ago, Thunder Bay, now know affectionately as Bud, found his way to the MacMillan family, where he eventually become the sole charge of daughter Beth. Beth had many years of showing, eventing and hunter pacing. I remember Beth telling me that in cross-country he always had faults for going too fast. He had great success with her in the junior division at hunter paces across the area. Winning two consecutive times at the Bedford pace. You can see Thunder Bay etched in the silver trophy there. Those same two years, Bud and Beth won the year-end junior division award for the Associated Hunter Pace series.

However, no horse is perfect and I believe Bud didn’t have a fondness for those really wild colored stadium jumps in the ring. One of my favorite pictures of him is on Beth’s bedroom wall as he is planting his front feet in the terra firma and sending Beth ahead over the jump to check it out for him.

Last year as Beth graduated from college it was time for her to focus on her professional career in marketing and Bud became my charge. Once again my only complaint (and believed me I loved every minute of those gallops) was during hunter paces last year when we always came in too fast for the pleasure division by 10 to 15 minutes! My hunter pace partner David McCauley and I vowed to pace in the hunt division this year.

The year started out great with a few spring paces. All was going well. I was gearing up for the fall paces when Bud had a slight colic episode and a fever of 103 degrees on August 6. I stopped riding him.

Dr. Stacey Golub of Connecticut Equine Practice came to the barn to treat him and noticed he had a jugular pulse. I hadn’t noticed it. Dr. Golub also detected a heart murmur and arrhythmia. She decided to take blood samples. Besides finding an elevated white blood cell count – which indicated an infection – his GGT liver enzyme was elevated. This enzyme measures the amount of bile secreted from the liver bile ducts. The reading was nothing too outrageous, but not normal either. Something was beginning to block the bile ducts. Plus, he had been loosing weight and drinking more water.

After a treatment of antibiotics for 10 days and another blood test we found the infection gone but the GGT was rising. We took him off his maintenance Bute to see if that was causing the problem. Another blood test three weeks later showed his GGT had risen yet again. The jugular pulse appeared to be getting worse. However, clinically he didn’t look that bad. The rest of his blood work was normal. He was eating and leading his normal life of enjoying turn-out and flirting with the mare at the barn.

After talking with my vet, Dr. Ned Schankman, he consulted with Dr. Mary Rose Paradis at Tufts University who suggested an echocardiogram to look at Bud’s heart.

Déjà vu was about to set in.

Dr. Schankman sent Spec to Tufts last year where Dr. Paradis was his vet during his battle with colic. As with Spec, David McCauley hauled Bud in his trailer for me. We even had lunch at the same restaurant in Massachusetts.

The echocardiogram, performed by Dr. James Ross, showed Bud had a ruptured Sinus of Valsalva that had shunted into his right ventricle. He should have been dead when the valve ruptured. It is the kind of ‘horsey heart attack’ that plagues young racehorses that drop dead on the track. The only problem is that unlike a human heart attack when the heart muscle stops beating, in a horse the muscle keeps going and only the valves explode. In Bud’s case, his big heart kept pumping away and keeping him alive. We learned blood leaking from his heart was surrounding his organs and clogging his bile ducts, thus the elevated GGT reading. He was, however, a walking time bomb with only a few weeks left at best.

Dr. Ross and I shared a few thoughts and then it was time for me to summon up the courage to give Bud his dignity. And while I stayed with Spec during his last moments, it is not a sight that one needs to have over and over again. I left Bud in the same paddock that Spec spent his final hours. While it isn’t any easier the second time around to put a horse to sleep, I had brought with me courage to do the right thing. Last year I did it for Spec and my 14-year-old Norwegian Elkhound bitch Roxanne. I am getting good at sensing from my animals when their time with us is over. I sensed Bud was letting me know it was time for him to move on. I gladly gave him a respectful end to a quality life.

As with Spec, I released Bud’s body to the students of Tufts University for a necropsy. Since his condition was rather rare I knew they would learn a lot from him. One of my personal philosophies is to always try and find some good in a difficult situation.

Last night I spoke with Laura Daros, one of Bud’s former owners, and we shared some good Bud stories. But we both agreed that his favorite passion was to find that big field and kick his gallop into overdrive and just run. He was a Thoroughbred with a big heart who touched the hearts of many. While my horse friends have been kind to me and offered their horses to ‘ride’ I look forward to the day I enter that very special realm of horse ownership once again.

 

Lisa Peterson is an avid horsewoman with more than 30 years experience. She is the owner of Peterson Pet Sitting and can be reached at 270-1732 or elvemel@usa.net.