Another: a not quite 2 year old Tennessee Walker filly, healthy and energetic. Fine at breakfast, lying down dead in her pasture at noon.
Very, very sad – this sort of thing is incredibly traumatic for everyone left behind.
Several times. My own horse when I was 18. A stallion that was standing at Hilltop in the '70s (Spouting Horn). A horse that Katie owned when I worked for her dropped dead in the pasture. I am sure there are more, but there are three for ya!
About a month ago ,lesson horse early 20’s ,did a lesson that evening ,found dead in pasture in the am.No apparent struggle.
The following week ,a paint hunt horse ,early 20’s ,during an easy canter in second field collapsed and died just like Hickstead.The owner of that horse had a 17 year old draft horse ,a few years back ,come in for breakfast ,and was found dead in his stall about 30 minutes later. He looked like he just laid down and went to sleep.
So apparently healthy looking horses do just drop dead from time to time.
Once back when I was boarding my horses, several horses in one of the turnouts were bucking and playing and running around in their paddock enjoying a brisk fall afternoon. Then one of the horses in the galloping pack literally just dropped mid-stride and fell still going forward with momentum and slid under the fence and right in front of a lesson kid and her parents. I don’t remember if they necropsied or not. He was senior, but no known health problems…
My mare’s best friend and pasture mate- she was a morab mare between 7 and 10 years old. Healthy as can be and loved beyond loved. Was absolutely fine one day and the next morning was found, as someone else said, as if frozen and tipped over. No sign of struggle or anything traumatic.
One I personally knew, a lovely TB gelding about 8-10yrs. Lessons were going on and suddenly there was a ruckus from the stalls. He was down and more or less gone by the time we got there. Blood out the nose. Not sure if there was a necropsy or not.
Another from the track, Standardbred… He dropped right after the wire. To muddy the waters, someone had claimed him out of that race and once the gate opens you own the horse. Well, he was listed as a stallion but was actually a gelding (not uncommon) and the people who claimed him tried to say they claimed him to breed him (clearly not the case; he was a cheap claimer). I don’t know how that worked out.
And one that DIDN’T die…Another STB, named Siouxland Dan. Going to the half-mile, he dropped like a pile of bricks. Thankfully he was trailing the field so no one else was involved. It was awful. His driver, unharmed, was tugging on the reins in an effort to rise a horse that, from 50ft away, appeared dead. The ambulance went out and they got ready with the tarps (to obstruct view from the public) and darned if Siouxland Dan didn’t suddenly roll sternum and hop right up a minute later. I never saw anything like it. Best guess was that his driver choked him down and he just passed out.
Not exactly a collapse, but when I was a kid one of the lesson horses at our barn laid down one sunny afternoon to take a nap like he normally did, and just didn’t wake up. No struggle or anything. I wasn’t there but I was actually just talking about it with an old friend who I used to ride with back then and she mentioned it.
One of my clients told me about a horse of hers that was acting a little colicky early in the day, but seemed fine by the afternoon. She checked on him and he was eating one minute, then she went to get grain for the other horses and when she came back from the feedroom maybe 5 minutes later the horse was dead in his stall.
Big_Tag, I heard a story like what happened with Siouxland Dan. A trainer I used to work with told me about an instance she saw where there was some really bad riding going on (sorry, this was years ago and I don’t remember exactly what she said was happening) and all of a sudden the horse being yahoo’d collapsed and lay perfectly still for a bit. They thought the rider must have killed the horse somehow but apparently it had just passed out. I wish I could remember the story better, the trainer who told it to me was not known for stretching the truth so I’m pretty sure it really happened. Up until then I hadn’t even realized horses could pass out like that, although I don’t really know why not.
I lost a four year old apendix mare years ago to what we believe was a brain aneurysim. I had only had her a short time but had had a prepurchase done, and had her checked by my vet once she had been with me a week or so. Neither found anything wrong at all, and deemed her healthy and fit. She started having problems cantering on the right lead and would flip out, eventually rearing and flipping over twice, luckily never with someone on her. On the longe line she would canter around all day on the left lead (when it was the incorrect lead). As soon as she would pick up the right one she would freak, run backwards, shaking her head like a fish on a line. The freak out would last a few seconds an then she would just go back to trotting around the circle like nothing happened. The vet saw her after her first episode, thinking it was teeth, or something, but nothing was amiss. On her last day the trainer was longing her, I was right there watching. After a few minutes she freaked, ran backwards and sort of fell away from us. She fell because she was dead, she did not kill herself hitting the ground. As she fell she peed and pooped, and then her legs paddled a little. One difference though was that she had blood in her ears, nose and mouth. She was completely gone by the time we could get to her head, no response, no blinking no breathing. Like Hickstead, had a vet been standing there it would not have mattered. We believe she had an aneurysm, but did not do a necropsy. Humans who survive them talk of horrible headaches before they pass out so my guess is something about moving just that way caused pain and as soon as she stopped the pain stopped. She was a beautiful, incredibly sweet mare just beginning her life.
BO’s 4 year old reining QH gelding, in perfect health and steady work, collapsed and died during a routine training ride. Assumed stroke/aneurysm, no PM performed.
Sometimes, it’s just their time to go. :sigh:
I remember this! There was a huge outcry after he passed. :no:
Just adding to the stories. Saw two die in one day at a polo match. One while a riding was riding it and another while the horses was cooling down.
Also know of another polo horse that died while in a practice chukker.
It happens.
I had a 5 yr old WB mare, perfectly happy and healthy. She was found dead one afternoon. No signs of struggle, just laying there like she was sleeping.
Also, my namesake, found dead in the middle of the pasture. He was a FEI dressage horse, gone.
Neither were necropsied.
Lisa
A friend’s dear old man was acting a little down, and next day, just lay down in his field and died. He was 38 and she had him for 35 of those years, we said that his easy passing was his last gift to her. I can only hope mine goes the same way, on some far-distant summer day.
At one barn where I was a groom, we had a horse who was grazing in his field one minute and on the ground having a seizure the next. The BO saw it from the office and by the time we got there with a blanket, he was on his feet and looking around, wondering what happened. To my knowledge, we never knew what caused it (he may have been a QH, so HYPP, perhaps, but AFAIK we never knew for sure) and as long as I was there, it never happened again.
Years ago, an 11 month old Clydesdale mare, at our barn, that was the picture of health died suddenly; found dead in her stall one morning.
I saw her the afternoon prior, she was in perfect form and personality.
A necropsy performed; kidney failure.
My friend and I were at a show in the hunter hack and her horse fell out from underneath her at the canter. He was probably late teens. He went just like Hickstead- he kicked for a few seconds, then nothing. No necropsy but vet said most likely an aneurysm.
Same thing happened at a former barn of mine over the summer. In the middle of the lesson the horse stumbled, got up, fell again, and could not get up. I do not remember the cause of death, but it was either aneurysm or aortic rupture. he was also in his teens.
I’ve heard some really terrible stories from my trainer. One horse died in a show as he was jumping and crashed through the fence with his rider. Or the time my trainer was in Ocala watching Mclain Ward try a horse in the pony warm up ring for some reason, and the horse dropped dead right there in front of the pony kids. There’s a reason no horses are allowed in the pony ring anymore…
recently at a benefit polo match a polo pony dropped dead; 2 horses at my trainers barn died unexpectedly - one at a show- was fairly young TB and stroked out/heart attack I think mid-jump and the other was a fairly youngish TB mare who also stroked out - that one was pretty awful. Both these were about 30 years ago. Sadly I’ve seen a couple go over the years at steeplechases…
Yes. The BO was training a young grade mare, about 4 years old. He was ground driving her in the alley while his daughter and I were perched on the indoor arena fence watching and talking. He turned the mare when she suddenly half-reared and dropped to her side. Her system emptied itself before she even hit the ground, and she wasn’t breathing. She was in perfectly good health and had shown no signs of anything being wrong. The owner just had her buried, so I’m not sure what the official cause of death may have been. We guessed an aneurism.
at a lamplight dressage show helping the pony clubbers with there fundraiser. Dressage horse in the ring falls over, dead before he hits the ground.
My own mare 21 year old tb. Fine the night before, suffered a horrible stroke during the night and could not move. She was uthinized. Appeared to be in prefect health, was running and bucking the day before 
I want to thank everyone who has posted so far. I know doing this may have dredged up unpleasant memories, but the sudden deaths of both Charlie the NYC carriage horse and Hickstead, the famous show jumper made me wonder just how often this has happened.
I ahd shared about Barney the carriage hrose at the beginning of the thread, but I had one other horse die overnight. Queen of Spades was a multi-champion TWH mare 19 years old. She was “retired” so no work was involved. She had a turnout pasture to herself. She had an odd “habit” of lying down on her sternum and resting heer chin on the ground whe she needed to rest.
She was perfectly fine at her evening feed. She was fine at the 9 pm "bed check- grazing quietly in her small pasture. In the morning when I went to feed her, she was lying down in her “favorite” position - on her sternum whith her legs tucked up under her and her chin resting on the ground. I called to her to get up and get her feed. She didn’t move.
When I reached her, I realized she was dead. She was cold and stiff. She sure looked peaceful. She must have gone during one of her little “naps.” We did not do a necropsy. The vet said that at her age, it probably was a stroke or an aneurysm, and that she probably didn’t suffer at all. That was good enough for us, so no necropsy was performed. We buried her in her pasture.
Lori B. as for who is going to forward this thread and where, I really don’t know. I just wanted to “see” how many other horse people had had a horse that appeared to be in the pink of health, just up and die suddenly. If someone feels like forwarding a link to this thread somewhwere else, it is fine with me. I hope no one has any objection.
I do think the response shows tht sudden equine death is probably more common than most of us would like it to be. I hope everyone hugged their “ponies” today.
[QUOTE=JusticeDraft9875;5946544]
at a lamplight dressage show helping the pony clubbers with there fundraiser. Dressage horse in the ring falls over, dead before he hits the ground.
My own mare 21 year old tb. Fine the night before, suffered a horrible stroke during the night and could not move. She was uthinized. Appeared to be in prefect health, was running and bucking the day before :([/QUOTE]
This is what happened to my poor old Barney, only I saw him actually fall trotting up to his feed bucket. After he went down, he could not move at all except for his head, just a little, and he could blink, breathe and swallow. Waiting with him for the vet to come seemed like an eternity.
