The Horse:Your Guide To Equine Health Care provides monthly equine health care information to horse owners, breeders, veterinarians, barn/farm managers, trainer/riding instructors, and others involved in the hands-on care of the horse.
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41 February 2016 THE HORSE TheHorse.com SPORTS MEDICINE SARAH EVERS CONRAD TheHorse.com/Sports-Medicine T here are exceptional equine athletes in every discipline—those stars who stand out from the pack and win awards and titles time and again. We typically expect these athletes to be at that magic age where horses peak for a specific breed or discipline. However, some exceptional horses are defying logic, competing well into their senior years. Retirement doesn't seem to be in the cards anytime soon for some of them. We talked to the owners and riders of three senior horses who still have plenty of "get up and go" and continue to excel in their disciplines. Meet Your Elders Currently the United States Eventing Association's highest scoring eventer of all time, Ballynoe Castle RM is a Belgian Warmblood/Irish Thoroughbred cross owned by Cassandra and Carl Segal and ridden by Bruce (Buck) Davidson Jr., of Riegelsville, Pennsylvania. The 15-year- old bay gelding's lifetime accomplish- ments include helping the U.S. eventing team to a fourth-place finish at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games (WEG) and competing at the 2014 WEG. He ran fourth at the 2013 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event and third in 2014. In 2015 "Reggie" was still winning a slew of top level events. Hadji Halef Omar is a purebred Arabi- an endurance horse who has logged 8,575 lifetime miles over 170 American Endur- ance Ride Conference (AERC) rides with owner and endurance veteran Stephanie Palmer-DuRoss. In 2014 the gray gelding completed the Tevis Cup, and in 2015, at 23, he placed in the Top 10 in 11 out of 19 rides. Palmer-DuRoss, of Queen Creek, Arizona, calls Hadji irreplaceable. Smart Snap, a Quarter Horse owned by Nadine Galbraith, DVM, has earned National Reining Horse Association and American Quarter Horse Congress championships with three members of the Galbraith family, who own Morning Star Performance Horses, in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. The now-17-year-old bay stallion, nicknamed "Snap," has competed in France, Italy, Germany, and Canada and won 150 events. Bumps Along the Way Although these veteran equine athletes are still in tiptop shape, the road hasn't always been smooth and straight. Each owner knows his or her horse well and has always put the animal's needs first when health problems have cropped up. "The horse has to come before any com- petition goals," says Davidson. "I think if you do that, you're going to be more successful more times than not." Reggie's biggest health problems have been related to laryngeal hemiplegia, a condition involving partial or total paraly- sis of the nerves controlling the arytenoid cartilage, which opens the larynx for breathing and closes it as the horse swal- lows (to keep food out of the trachea). La- ryngeal hemiplegia—known as roaring— can severely impede breathing, and Reggie first started experiencing problems with this during exercise early in his career. He underwent a vocal cordectomy (surgical removal of the vocal cord) in 2008, but started having problems again while in training for the 2012 Olympic Games. So Eric Parente, DVM, Dipl. ACVS, professor of Surgery at the University of Pennsyl- vania School of Veterinary Medicine, did an arytenoidectomy to remove the arytenoid cartilage. In the fall of 2015, Parente performed Reggie's third surgery, a tie-forward, due to dorsal displacement of the soft palate, to further help Reggie's breathing and prevent food aspiration. Reggie now travels in his own box stall trailer with room to lower his head and cough out inhaled irritants, and he receives regular massage and acupunc- ture. He has also battled pneumonia. In fact, in the lead-up to the 2014 WEG, Reggie underwent several hyperbaric oxygen chamber treatments to effectively help treat an infection and to enhance the effects of antibiotics. "He has a heart of gold, and the Segals do everything known to man to make sure that Reggie has whatever Reggie needs," says Davidson. Super Senior Sport Horses At 23, Stephanie Palmer-DuRoss's Hadji placed in the Top 10 in 11 out of 19 endurance rides. SUSAN KORDISH A look at three equine athletes that are excelling in their golden years, along with how their owners and veterinarians keep them feeling young