Have you had an apparently healthy horse just collapse and die?

[snowrider]

[QUOTE=cnigh;8809143]
I remember one girl that lost her horse suddenly. She was jumping in the arena. His last jump he took off fine and fell dead to the ground. It was so sudden and shocking no one knew what to do.

I think it is as rare a thing as riders getting hit by lightening. But it does happen.[/QUOTE]

I’ve seen it happen three times myself so not that rare. Ruptured aorta twice and a brain aneurysm in the third horse, due to old parasite damage the vets said.

[Silver_Silence]

My friends mare passed in an unexpected manner a few winters ago. I had been in the barn for the afternoon, checked the horses around 5pm before I left for work, and the BO was home at 8pm and found the mare dead in our large 30 x 40 shelter.

She was a 21 y/o OTTB with no known health issues, never lame or sick, was in very good condition and still in light work. She appeared to have sweated in her blanket. No sign of struggle at her feet however, and very little blood in her nose. Very sad to lose a horse so suddenly like that, though there is no easy way.

[Hayla]

I never thought I woukd be adding to this thread but I feel the need to mark this day. This morning I went out to feed and my 6 year old Quarter Horse mare who always meets me at the gate was not there. She was happy, perky and playing with her brother in the field at 7 pm last night. I found her keeled over dead. The Vet says she must have died suddenly and then fallen because there is no sign of any struggle. I bought her in a neglected condition as a two year old. She was a wonderful horse and always tried to be perfect. Rest in peace Bramble. Maybe it was the worm load or the case of strangles she had when I got her weakened her heart or perhaps she had such poor nutrition her heart muscle had not formed properly. I just had her checked for poisons or other things that could spread the the rest of the herd. My heart is broken

[Blugal]

Sorry Hayla, that’s heartbreaking.

[KBC]

So sorry for your loss @Hayla

I lost my heart horse back in the spring, he laid down to sleep and didn’t wake up again, he was only 16. shocking, devastating.

[BigMama1]

I’m so sorry for your loss. We had a lovely, healthy 12 year old horse at our barn collapse and die in the pasture a few weeks ago. It was awful to watch him struggling for those few minutes but the whole thing was over very quickly. No way to know for sure, but the most obvious assumption, and apparently most common cause of death like this, is aortic rupture. Even while he was still alive and moving, the horse’s gums and tongue were completely white, so there was clearly no blood flow circulating at that point. He was gone before we even finished talking to the vet’s receptionist.

[AltersAreUs]

I know of two that went suddenly over the span of a few minutes.

One was the large pony mare I had as a teen. She was ~18 when she busted through her stall guard while my mom was feeding, ran about a dozen steps and fell over dead. Vet’s best guess was heart attack.

The other was one of the boarders at a previous barn … horse was a gelding in it’s early teens who started acting odd after evening grain and was dead within maybe 15 minutes of them calling the vet. Not super fast but faster than anyone likes to think about.