Re: Fw: Arab Slaughter Horses etc...!

["Linda B. Merims" <lbm@naisp.net>]

"Karen Sullivan" <greymare@jps.net> wrote:

>Again, it gets back to some risk...With the rescue horses,
>you have no idea if they have internal damage from parasites...
>

Morgan breeder and historian Mabel Owen got her hands on
a wonderful Government-bred Morgan stallion (one of the very
last) called Black Sambo (f. 1948, Magellan x Ambition).
Black Sambo had spent most of his life in the hands of
a farm with "casual" management practises, and he was not
lent to her until his 19th year of life.  Mabel remembers this
stallion with great fondness because, apart from his conformation,
he had a truly wonderful personality.  "A real woman's horse,"
Mabel called him.

He dropped dead one day at 20, after less than one year on her
farm.  Mabel had the vet do an autopsy.  His heart was a mass of
scar tissue:  all parasite damage from his younger years in the
1950's and 60's on a farm that didn't practise worming.

Worming is kind of like vaccinations for childhood diseases.
We all take it so much for granted that it doesn't occur
to us how much damage parasites can really do if this
piece of routine maintenance is neglected.

Linda B. Merims
lbm@naisp.net
Massachusetts, USA