On February 23 2010, we lost Bandito to cancer. Up until 6 weeks ago, we were blissfully unaware that anything was wrong with him. He was in great shape, moving, eating well. In fact I had commented that before we start training him this year we should exercise him without a rider for a while to drop some weight, to make it easier to get him back into shape.

Then he had a flare up of what we thought were bug bites. He had been treated for bug bites approximately 3 months prior. Little lumps would appear on his skin around his chest and under his belly. Bugs had always been an issue, but it seemed he was particularly venerable. This time though it appeared that he was the only one the bugs found desirable – leaving the other horses totally alone.

At the same time we had another horse who had lost condition, was moody and we could not fatten, we had blood work done and it was agreed to try ulcer treatment for him as he displayed symptoms of having an ulcer.

We mentioned that Bandito suffered some of the same symptoms but had not lost any condition and we decided to give him a course of the same treatment. Around that same week we put out a mineral block containing salts, minerals and molasses. Bandito loved molasses and in a couple of days managed to demolish a large chunk of it himself.

Within a couple of days Bandito had developed a lump under his jaw. Two days after that his sheath swelled and his appetite was extremely low. We ceased the ulcer treatment on 20 January, and left him to recover for a week. His weight continued to plummet and he was taken to the vet on Monday 31 January.

Blood work was taken and he was treated for worms. He had a couple of worms but not of any significant number. Some blood was sent to WA to be tested for noxious diseases whilst the rest was tested for various viruses flu’s and cancers. The tests failed to reveal anything except low protein levels. He failed to improve.

On Sunday 6th February he was again taken to the vet as his sheath became more swollen and a large edema had developed between his legs. He was given plasma, had more tests run and had stopped eating for 3 days whilst at the vets. He was brought home on 14th February

Bandito’s energy levels were low, he was eating very little and it was noted that sometimes when he did eat his gut sounds could be heard several meters away. His coat did not loose its brilliant shine, he displayed no temperature or other illness. When brushing him no painful spots were evident on his body. I estimate that he lost 150 – 200kg in 2 -3 weeks, I personally had never seen anything like it before.

On the morning of Tuesday 22 February Bandito suffered a bout of colic and the vet was called. When he stablised, he was taken back to their surgery to try and figure out what was going on. The vet did an ultrasound and located a mass in his bowel approximately 15cm in length. It was determined to be lymphosarcoma.

Research I undertook on this deadly tumor revealed that it may be more common than previously thought. Veterinary Journals tended to state that it 1 in 10,000 horses that will contract this tumor. But Barry has now lost 2 horses to this cancer in the past 6 years, and he has not had 20,000 horses! The number of horses to come and go through Barry over the past 6 years would be lucky to be 30.

I was fortunate enough to discover an article about a thoroughbred in the USA named Lost in the Fog who lost a battle with this disease in 2006. This horse was 4 years old and a very accomplished racehorse, and was in full training when he started to display discomfort and intermittent lethargy and low fever, which followed with reduced appetite and abdominal discomfort on approximately August 9 2006. He was treated by their regular vet. Blood work was taken apart from mild anemia nothing else was evident When his condition did not significantly improve and another bout of colic occurred on 13/08/2006 the horse was referred to and admitted to Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital, University of California-Davis renowned to be one of the best equine medical facilities in the USA.

He immediately and underwent a series of tests and examinations including an ultrasound which revealed an abnormal mass deep within the abdomen. This horse went through some chemotherapy but unfortunately was put down on September 17, 2006.

It was found that Lost in the Fog had two football-size tumors, one in his spleen and the other near his spine. Further he had another egg sized one in the ligament supporting his spleen.

It has been theorised since then that this form of cancer is responsible for a lot more deaths than the supposed 1 in 10,000. This is because many deaths following colic are not followed up with autopsy, and cause of death is “colic”.

Symptoms are not diagnosed early unless the tumor is seen growing externally, but it is the internal ones that are the silent killers. In Bandito’s case he did not get colic early, his was very late. If he had presented with colic a month earlier and died as a result, then this article would not have been written and I would be none the wiser about this deadly disease. The “bug bites” would have remained as “bug bites” and his cause of death would have been as a result of “colic”.

He died of equine cancer on February 23rd. An autopsy was not performed, so it is unknown if there was more than one growth. From my own research (books, internet, journals etc) it is probable that there was more than one given the presentation of the little lumps on his chest that we assumed to be bites, and then the larger lump on his jaw which occurred at the same time as the rapid weight decrease.

At this time there are no blood tests that can identify that there is a tumor growing. So until it presents itself there is nothing you can do about it, and of course once it does present itself its too late to do anything about!

Suzy is an 8yr old black clydesdale/appaloosa cross. She had some sort of accident in her earlier years that resulted in damage to her coronet on the inside near front hoof. The incident went undetected until she came to us, and the “feathers” were lifted for a trim. We found that she had very little hoof wall over her inside quarter and it continually breaks away.

Holding a shoe on this foot is a nightmare, and with a little bit of convincing from me, we decided to try her in some boots.

We had her fitted and found the easyboot gloves did not come in her size. She had a round foot that measures nearly 150mm in both length and diameter. Our fitter recommended Easyboot Epics. Suzy completed the 40km, however we experienced untold mishaps with the boots.

Five km’s out the boot (on her bad foot) came undone, and it seemed every few km’s we were getting off to do up the boot again. At the 15km mark we called for help. In our request for help we asked for some paper clips, tape and pliers. I found an environmentally friendly bag in the rescue cars and cut that up and stuffed that down the back of the boot as the gator appeared to have moved from sitting over the boot to having a big gap. I used the paper clips to put through the holes at the clip on the front (I believe there are special clips for the Epics, to stop the clip from lifting, but we did not receive any with the boot) The paper clips did the trick with only one more incident at the 30km mark where one of the paper clips on the back boot broke and allowed the clip to open.

An examination of the boot with our fitter after the event found that gator had given way and a new gator was needed. I also expressed that I could not seem to get the boot tight enough and it was decided that shorter wires might do the trick. Size 3 wires were supplied and I volunteered to fit the new gator and wires.

I watched the videos, read the instructions and it took me 2 hours to get the new gator and the smaller wire on the boot. I must admit I was never into meccano sets or even lego for that matter. Changing the wire on the other 3 took me about 15 minutes per boot. Very fiddley.

Will be giving them a test run tomorrow.

Barefoot was not something I had considered and had just assumed from childhood that if you were riding distance or going over rough ground then you should put shoes on your horse. This same childhood experience quickly showed me that if I did not have shoes on, then my horse often finished up lame. I had no mentor or other information available to me, nor did I seek other information, to challenge this belief.

What an eye opener the barefoot clinic was. This whole new world opened up before me. Suddenly I found myself watching whether a horse landed heal first, paid particular attention to hoof angles and heel height. Quickly I discovered that I had been very naive and I set about changing that status.

The clinic showed me how to trim to natural parameters, and gave me a good overview of the dynamics of the horses hoof and leg. Further research at home mainly on the internet led me to some amazing sites and barefoot trimmers and advocates such as Pete Ramey and John the Vet along with Barefoot for Soundness, Natural horse trim and the Strausser method of trimming. I’ve spent countless hours pouring over this information to the point where my partner finds it very rare to find me on the computer without at least 5 websites up with information about horses feet!

I am in the fortunate position where I have access to 10 sets of feet practice my new found skills on and now that the endurance season has commenced it was a natural progression to move into hoof boots. I had been training barefoot, but the terrain I train on compared to the terrain where the endurance rides are held are chalk and cheese. Home terrain is soft lush grassy laneways and fields, endurance country is rocky and mountainous, riding this country without protection on a horse not trained on it is asking for lameness.

So a few weeks ago a trained professional barefoot trimmer came in and measured us up for boots. I was very pleased when she commended my hoof care, it was a real buzz. We fitted two horses for easyboot gloves and one for easyboot epics. The only reason we went epic for the other was because gloves dont come in size 4! The horse in question is a clydesdale appaloosa cross and has big feet.

I will be capturing each horse’s progress in boots in further articles.

On 19 April 2009 the Kuranda Endurance Ride was held at Tolga.

Jameel and I came in first and completed the course in 6 hours 25 minutes and went on to take out fittest horse in the Open Weight division.

This is the first time Jameel or I have won fittest horse, so I thought a photo was in order of the perpetual trophy.

I did not take a camera with me on this ride, so there are no photos taken from horseback this time. There are some images that I have put into the gallery that have been extracted from video that was taken.

The course was easy compared to the rides held at Wondecla, for one thing there was only one gate for the whole 80km, that is a bonus specially when your horse is tall and your not. The weather was perfect and the ground firm.

The stats:
Vet score – total 168 points
Heart rate score – 17
Surface factors – 7 out of 10
Appearance – 8 out of 10
Gaits – 24 out of 30

Time score
Maximum 200 points

Weight score – total 67 points
The heaviest rider weights minus riders weight, subtracted from 100

The North Queensland Endurance Riding Season has commenced, with the first ride being held at Wondecla on March 29 2009. Wondecla is a small town on the Atherton Tablelands that has abundant state forest and incredible ride trails.

Barry & I competed in the full ride, being 82 kilometers.
We were first over the line, and successfully vetted through.

Jameel was again the ‘camera horse’ and some good pictures were taken from his back, his ears can be seen in many of the endurance ride pictures I have taken, which are in the photo gallery.

The full endurance ride commenced at 6am and the weather was kind, which is a bonus in Wondecla as it can be freezing, however I guess that had something to do with the time of the year as well.

We were about 4km out and I noticed that Jameel appeared a bit fresh giving a couple of pig roots and jumping around a bit, when we were 5km out and Barry says “Stop, you have to stop and get off” I thought that’s strange so I stopped and jumped off, only to find my girth had come undone and flapping around his legs. No wonder he was jumping around.

We caught up with the riders that had passed us around the 20km mark and continued on to make good time. I finished the 82km in 7 hours 1 minute.

The terrain for the two legs was hilly, but not as rough or as steep as some of the other tracks that Wondecla has to offer. I think they were being kind to us, given that it was the first ride for the season. I was pleased that it wasn’t any tougher because coming up to the 60km mark was tough for me, my knees, feet and thighs were hurting. At the 66km mark all I could think about was there was only 14km to go and that was less than our regular training circuit. Then I saw the 70km marker and that meant that in one kilometers time I would be in single digits and it would be over soon.

I didn’t tell Barry that I was totally over it at the 60km mark, how could I! He is 72 years and he wasn’t complaining! Barry Akers – you are incredible.

Stacy Westfall on the Ellen Degeneres Show 3/14/08 Part 1
Stacey Westfall part 1
Part 2
Stacey Westfall part 2

The season is drawing to a close as I write this with only 2 rides left up here.

We went to the Pioneer Endurance Ride held at Wondecla, Queensland. The Pioneer is a 5 days ride with riders able to compete in a marathon of 80km per day for 5 days, or choose between a 20, 40 or 80 km day on each and any day.

Go to the Photo Gallery to see more pictures.

The Far North Queensland Endurance Riders Association second event called the Kuranda ride was held on 20th April 2008 in Tolga.
Since my last entry the horse I rode on the previous ride looks like he has been sold, so I rode another Arab named Bandito. Bandito is Barry’s preferred horse however an injury to his foot delayed his training. He is an experienced endurance horse and I found the ride very pleasant.

Annika rode Early again and completed successfully. Barry was Chief Steward and therefore didn’t ride. Deb rode the full 80km ride on the horse Barry rode in the previous ride, Metharina Mahzada (pronounced Mazarda) and was the first back, winning her division.

On the last weekend in March we attended our first endurance event for the year it was held in Herberton North Queenland Aust.
The one I mentioned previously was canceled due to copious amounts of rain.

Barry completed 80km and won his division, whilst Anika and I completed our 40km event. All the horses got through the vet check without any problems. Though having said that my horse who’s heart beat is usually quite low, was very unsure of the covered arena and all the other horses around him surprised me with a 52 heart rate on the Saturday to qualify for the event. To qualify they must have a heart rate less than 55 beats per minute. Ironically after he had completed his 40km and was near his own pen, his heart rate was down to 40, however once again when he got into the arena he managed to scrape in a pass with another 52 beats per minute.

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• Show jumping became an Olympic event for individuals in the Paris Olympics in 1900
• Team show jumping and individual dressage and eventing were added in 1912 for the Stockholm Olympics.
• Team dressage was added in 1928 for the Amsterdam Olympics.
• In Berlin in 1936 Germany won all 6 gold medals in the equestrian events.