Horse dies from allergies?

[Lynette Helgeson <helgeson@lansford.ndak.net>]

Hi everyone,
We just received some bad news. I was into
breeding pinto ponies and because of time
limitations decided to quit. So I sold my
two main pony mares to a good home and
someone who wanted to continue with the
breeding of these two fine mares. Both
mares were in top conditioning when they
left and they have been open for over the
last year, so they were not being used
too much.

One week after they arrived at their new
home, one of the mares, Dolly, was found
dead in the pasture. She was checked on
the night before and was in good shape.
The mares had adjusted to the situation
well and were eating good. They fit right
in and they had each other. The new owners
had Dolly autopsied and the vet said the
mare had died because of an allergic
reaction to something different in the feed.
When she was here she was still out on
pasture and was on no grain. Our pasture
is pretty much dead and I had just started
them on grass hay.

The corral she was put in at the new place
had some weeds in it, but other then that
she was given grass hay.

Has anyone ever heard of this? To me this
is incredible. She was only 7 years old.
Had not been used heavily and was well
taken care of. I don't even know how to
tell my kids about this. They had ridden her
a lot and they were not too happy about
her going. But they are into the bigger horses
now and she was not getting used. She was
a very pretty and good pony. They just did
not come any better then her. She will be
missed.

I am also wondering if I owe any thing to
these new owners. They only had the mare
for 1 week and they paid good money for
her. I feel bad about the whole situation.
But if the vet is correct, it was no one fault.
Just one of those things that happen. The
new owners are not demanding anything
but I was thinking maybe I should offer
them something, like a free breeding to
my Arab stallion for the one mare that is
left? What do you guys think?

Lynette Helgeson ( a very, very sad horse owner today)