18yo TB/WB gelding lost to colic Submitted by Shannon In the early hours of Thursday morning, November 13th I lost my lovely horse, Jay, to colic. He had colic surgery eight weeks previously and had 17 feet of intestines removed. Everything was the same in his routine back in September, he was living out at night and came in for a few hours in the daytime. He survived the surgery,  [ Read More ]

I was Raised with Quarter Horses and Paints my entire life, so I was never a huge fan of Arabians. Twenty years later I met Concert – an Arabian who took my breath away. The woman who owned him said, “this horse will change your mind about Arabians, he loves people back.” At this point I wasn’t really sure what she was talking about until she said, “watch.” The owner  [ Read More ]

On January 31, 2013, my trainer found my horse Tippy colicking. Tippy was trailed to Virginia Tech Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center and had to go into surgery. He had displacement colic where the last 10 feet of his small intestine had gone through a hole in his abdominal wall and died, causing the rest of the intestine to back up. The surgeons had to go in and resect  [ Read More ]

Author: Aimee Robinson I received that same call. The call saying, “I think your horse is showing signs of colic.” All the emotions I felt just a year ago came rushing back to me. My hazard lights were flashing, speeding to the barn and away from Milwaukee, hoping we could save her again. But deep down knowing, without surgery, these would be my last moments with Mercedes. I pulled into  [ Read More ]

Author: Rosemary Watson Grady colicked on December 1, 2011. The vet came to our barn to treat him and determined that he had a displaced intestine that wasn’t going to right itself. Two days later we decided to go ahead with surgery. Grady went through colic surgery wonderfully and appeared to be making an amazing recovery. Unfortunately, after he was released from the vet, he started to get a fever.  [ Read More ]

Author: Karyn Cowdrey On Saturday, September 20 at 8:30am, I heard the words that every horse owner fears: “Come up to the barn quick, I think Poncho is colicing.” I hurried to the barn and found Poncho pawing at the ground and trying to lie down. Walking on the lead began in earnest, and a call was placed to our vet right away. Poncho had coliced once prior to this,  [ Read More ]

Author: Shelly Edson It’s a horseperson’s worst nightmare. Just hearing the word “colic” makes many of us cringe because it can mean so many things. Perhaps you’ve had a horse colic in the past and they came out of it just fine in a day or two with no lasting affects…or maybe it was a more serious condition that required surgical intervention for the horse’s survival. And even worse, having  [ Read More ]

Author: Tracey, Top Flite Farm I met A Clever Way To Go, aka C.Bean as a two year old. She was a young race horse and I had just been hired to breeze her for her owner. The moment I met her something passed between us and I knew my life would never be the same again. C.Bean raced for 2 years, and when her owner finally decided to sell  [ Read More ]

Author: Lyndsey White I was only 16-years-old when I lost my beloved Thoroughbred “Ben” to colic. I had taken Ben out for a ride after school on a Friday evening. We hacked out down the bridleway to the recently ploughed stubble field where Ben loved to gallop. As we reached the field, Ben would normally start to get excited and pull forward in anticipation of being given the go-ahead to  [ Read More ]

Author: Liam of Abbeyview Equine This is a cautionary tale of how one horse had some very bad luck. Whiskey was born on my family’s Abbeyview farm in 2001. A typical bay thoroughbred foal, she was destined to race on the flat. Whiskey’s first bout of bad luck came two days before she was due to travel down to Kildare to be prepared for the Goffs yearling sales. She ripped  [ Read More ]