We were hosting a pony club clinic and one of the girls was cantering around a course and her mare did the same thing Hickstead did, only they were cantering…mare staggered, and went to her knees then went down. Thankfully, the girl was able to get off safely. She didn’t die immediately though, probably 10 minutes went by before she was gone. It was awful. Mare was about 12 years old and healthy.
10 YO Reg’d QH mare. Had just been turned out so thankfully BO was watching - cantered about 20 strides, then just fell and convulsed on the ground. Dead with in a few minutes. Never had any known health issues. Such a sad day for 15 year old me 
Not my horse but I saw a very healthy, fit 17 year old who never had any previous problems have a heart attack and die in a fairly easy polo game. He actually had it happen in the line up, standing still. Crumpled & down. He was still in the ownership of his breeder, and had never had a poor day of care in his life – it absolutely does happen and it is not anyone’s fault when it does.
I have another friend whose horse died in the show ring underneath her in a flat class. Again, no warning, no previous sign of problems.
Forgot the weirdest one - 24 year old horse, in the middle of being shod, reared up, broke the cross ties, fell over dead in the aisle. Definitely didn’t have his heart rate up at the time or anything!
At the barn that I boarded at, my mare and her pasture mate were waiting to be brought in for the evening. BO brought in my mare. Put her in her stall and went to bring the other mare in.
Other mare had collapsed exactly where she had been standing and was dead. No sign of struggle. Small amount of blood from her nose (appeared that she hit her nose on the way down).
Beautiful Arabian mare - 13ish? - good health, fit, and had been fine 3 minutes prior when he brought in my mare.
No necropsy, vet thought anuerysm or heart attack.
Yes. I lost my beloved horse, Beauty, overnight. The ranch owner checked the horses at midnight. I found her dead the next morning. NO physical cause, no thrashing marks in the sand. she was just down and dead. We guessed that she must have got down to roll, hit her poll, and died instantly??? I’ll never really know and not a day goes by that I don’t miss her. She was the love of my life.
Mine did. Last year on Halloween morning. He was healthy and 8yrs old, a TB. Found him dead in the pasture. No struggle, no marks in the soft ground and no wounds. The only thing was he had done was put his upper teeth into his upper lip so probably hit nose first when he died. Didn’t do a necropsy but the vet said it was likely an aneurysm because it looked like he’d been standing and just dropped.
This happened years ago at the boarding stable I was at at the time – a fellow boarder came back from a normal trail ride on her healthy, fit, teenaged warmblood dressage horse, turned him out in the arena to let him roll, and he laid down to roll, rolled a bit, and then simply did not get back up. I don’t remember the necropsy results exactly, but it was his heart. And it was a very sad day at the barn.
Lost my 20 year old QH overnight. He was semi-retired and healthy, in light work. He was fine at 10 pm barn check, found down in his stall at 5:30 at turnout time. He didn’t have a mark on him, and there were no signs of a struggle. The vet said it was most likely a ruptured aneurysm, and we did not do a necropsy
Yes, I lost my 19 year old OTTB gelding to what we believe was an aneurysm or heart attack. My brother was home and heard a bang in the barn like he kicked, then saw him gallop down the hill and collapse at the bottom. No visible marks or injuries. We chose not to do a necropsy as we were heartbroken and it wouldn’t bring him back. He was the picture of health and I had ridden him the day before. We had a lovely gallop on the trail, no signs that anything was wrong. The next afternoon he was gone. Most awful experience of my life 
[QUOTE=Vesper Sparrow;5944401]
Copying from my post on the H/J thread:
Interesting speculation on the cause of Hickstead’s death in the Globe and Mail this morning:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sport...rticle2228690/
Research at Woodbine racetrack is suggesting heart arrhythmias may be at work in the sudden death of some horses after intense work, according to an excellent article by Beverley Smith:
"Dr. Physick-Sheard’s research has produced some unusual findings: a flurry of irregular heartbeats that occur after the horse finishes.
As he explains it, the autonomic nervous system that regulates heart rate has two opposing parts, the parasympathetic system, which shuts down when a horse reaches top speed (because it slows heart rate), and the sympathetic system, which works to increase the heart rate.
While a horse’s resting heart rate is from 16 to 18 beats a minute, it can climb as high as 270 beats a minute during a race. When the horse finishes and begins to pull up, the parasympathetic system comes back into play, but in an irregular manner, showing a lot of turbulence.
In most horses, the arrhythmias produce no ill effects in the long term, as the heart rates finally return to normal.
But sometimes the arrhythmias deteriorate into a fatal condition or sudden death. Dr. Physick-Sheard is still trying to find out why."[/QUOTE]
This is interesting bc when i was in south america, we never ever jumped around and then walked, we always jumped around and then trotted a couple laps and then walked, to go from exertion to relaxation slowly… They always told me it was better for their hearts.
We had a horse were I worked who collapsed and dies within seconds. He was brought in from turnout, fed and goomed before I let him back out. He was only inside for a few hours when I personally let him out. He had eaten all his feed and did not show any signs of discomfort. After I let him outside, which is 30 seconds from the barn, I walked back to the barn to get the next horse. Another employee called before I could get the next horse and told the barn manager that a horse just collapsed and dies. I walked outside and the horse was dead. It was probably only 2 minutes from the time I let him out to the time I walked back out to see what had happened.
He was an UL event horse that retired from eventing and became a trail horse. He was a TB/QH/something else and was 25 when he passed. One of the best horses ever!
A 3 yr old QH belonging to a boarder - simply collapsed in her stall while eating.
I just lost my beautiful 5 year old yesterday. He was fine in the morning, ate, drank, pooped, appeared fine at 11am. Then at the 3:30 feeding the ranch hand opened his stall and found him layed out peacefully, gone. No struggle. No signs of anything. The vet says it must have been an aneurysm. He was a rescue but had recovered seemingly completely. Everything but his heart I guess. I am devastated. It helps to read the other posts, I know I am not alone. No necropsy performed
[QUOTE=Teresa G;6947100]
I just lost my beautiful 5 year old yesterday. He was fine in the morning, ate, drank, pooped, appeared fine at 11am. Then at the 3:30 feeding the ranch hand opened his stall and found him layed out peacefully, gone. No struggle. No signs of anything. The vet says it must have been an aneurysm. He was a rescue but had recovered seemingly completely. Everything but his heart I guess. I am devastated. It helps to read the other posts, I know I am not alone.[/QUOTE]
Wow, what a horrible thing to have happen. I am so sorry for your loss.
Sheilah
Thank you Sheilah. A very sad thing to happen.
So sorry for your loss, Teresa.
I was at Oaklawn last Saturday to see the Arkansas Derby. The couple in front of me had been there for the two previous days of racing also, and they were talking about one who collapsed during a race on one of those days. They said specifically that the horse did not move at all after, just went down like a ton of bricks. The privacy curtains were brought out, but they watched him for a few minutes on the ground until then, and not a twitch. They were convinced he was already dead as he fell.
We lost my daughter’s 13 year old TB last summer. We don’t know what happened since we didn’t do a necropsy. He was fine at pm grain and dead an hour later. There were powerful storms moving through the area, and we know lightning hit the barn he was in, several other horses died during the storm as well. . He died in his in/out stall with nothing but a small mark on his lower leg where the hair was removed. We don’t know if he had some sort of natural event or if the lightning came up through the ground and killed him where he stood. His sire, Dixie Brass, died suddenly of unknown causes at the same age.
We lost my daughter’s horse last summer, a 13 year old TB, strong, healthy eventer. We don’t know what happened since we didn’t do a necropsy. He was fine at pm grain and dead an hour later. There were powerful storms moving through the area, and we know lightning hit the barn he was in, several other horses in the local area died during the storm as well. . He died in his in/out stall with nothing but a small mark on his lower leg where the hair was removed. We don’t know if he had some sort of natural event or if the lightning came up through the ground and killed him where he stood. His sire, Dixie Brass, died suddenly of unknown causes at the same age, so we don’t know if he had some genetic defect, if it was the lightning, or some combination thereof.
My first horse went this way. Healthy her whole life;never had any problems (except when her pasture buddy died, she went off her food for a few days and was really lethargic). I had ridden the evening before (nothing strenuous) and she was her normal self and put her back in her paddock for the night (she was on pasture board). In the morning (approx 12 hours later), I get a call from the BO that my horse had died overnight in the paddock. No marks of an attack and she was laying in the furthest corner of the field (she normally didn’t go back that far) so whatever happened, she knew it was coming. It was 4 days before her 20th birthday.
