Juno is a young, beautiful Appendix horse that will most likely never be able to compete again. After losing almost all motor function in her hind legs from a unique strain of the EHV 1 virus, Juno is being sent home.
Her owner, Clara Mungai ‘22 is a member of the St. Lawrence Equestrian Team. Mungai said the EHV 1 virus affected about half a dozen of the school’s horses, causing severe neurological symptoms in two of them. “It usually just makes them get a cold, but something about this strain made them really sick.”
According to the American Association of Equine Practitioners, neurological symptoms can include bladder incontinence and a severe loss of motor function in the lower limbs.
Dr. Dorothee Gilmore, DVM of Rivendell Equine Hospital in Lisbon, N.Y., says it is uncommon that a horse would present these symptoms. “They develop as an immune reaction to the virus, which causes small blood clots near the spinal cord,” she said. Gilmore compares the experience of a horse with neurological symptoms to that of a stroke in humans.
After qualifying for nationals at zones, the SLU riders had to find a way to train. The answer came from a private barn down the road, called Honey Dew Acres. Mungai said that without the help of Honey Dew, the team may have never made it to nationals. “They were willing to open their doors,” she says. “That’s the only reason we were able to get here, because they let us ride their horses.”
Only a select few members of the team will actually be competing. As one of those select few, Chris Joyce 22’ is excited about his first nationals experience. “As a freshman, obviously it’s a bit nerve racking,” he says. “From my zones experience, riding for your team is a much different feeling than me riding at home for myself.”
Joyce will be competing in the Novice Flat Class, which does not include jumping but judges his level of proficiency as a rider. Joyce says that only the riders competing in jumping races are still training at Honeydew because the SLU horses are not up for the challenge. However, they are on the mend, thanks to the hard work of the non-riders.
While the riders training for competition were at Honey Dew, the rest of the team were able to band together to heal their horses. Mungai says that her and her fellow teammates were dedicated to making their horses well again. “A lot of us were there some nights until 2 a.m., running fluids to make them feel better when they had fevers,” she says. “We took their temperatures twice a day, everyday. We helped give them meds three times a day, every day. There were about 50 of them.”
Joyce said that those efforts from his teammates made nationals possible. “I definitely think everyone was supportive of each other and the riders are very thankful for those who stepped up while we couldn’t.”
SLU horses hopefully will be able to perform next season. Dr. Gilmore says that the residual effects of the virus are dependent on the severity of the symptoms and the physical demands of the horse. “If you have a horse competing at the Olympic level, even minimal residual problems are an issue,” she says. “But if you have a horse competing at a regional level, it might not be that big of a deal if there’s an occasional foot placement that is not 100 percent,” says Gilmore.
After eight consecutive years of making it to nationals, the stakes were high. Joyce said that after dealing with EHV 1 outbreak, the team was unsure if they would qualify. “At zones we did not actually get first or second. Cornell got disqualified so we got in,” he said. “So, there were a lot of mixed emotions about it. We were obviously afraid we wouldn’t get into nationals but now we are so it’s been kind of a rollercoaster.”
As for the team, Mungai says that they are closer then ever after sharing this experience. “The fact that we managed to qualify as a team made everyone feel like we beat this disease. We didn’t let the fact that we have this stop our team from succeeding.”