An injury almost cost Aragonas his competitive career, but his dedicated owner didn’t give up hope.

Laura Whitford just knew she’d found her dream horse the first time she saw him. She was so certain, in fact, that she purchased Aragonas on the spot, the night she tried him.

Whitford, of Shadow Fox Farm in Haymarket, Va., has been showing horses since the age of 11. But it wasn’t until that fateful night in March of 2002 that she truly felt that she’d met her ideal competition partner.

“You know how it is when you fall in love? When it’s a perfect match? The first time that I saw him, I just knew he was the right one for me. He was my little sports car,” said Whitford.

Aragonas, nicknamed Sporty, is an Oldenburg (Argentinus–Saskia) who was bred in Germany. He’d been imported to the United States two years earlier.

“He was so much fun. A friend who was with me said, ‘This is the one–this is the Ferrari. This is the sports car that you’re looking for,’ ” said Whitford.

Unfortunately, only two weeks after she brought Sporty home, she noticed that something was wrong. “I’d only had him a short time when we became aware of the injury,” said Whitford. “There was no incident that we can trace unless it happened in shipping. You never know with these injuries.”

Whitford took Sporty to see Kent Allen, DVM, of Virginia Equine Imaging, in Middleburg, on March 20, who diagnosed the horse with proximal suspensory desmitis of the hind limbs, a common injury in athletic horses that results in a sudden onset of lameness.

When Whitford heard the news, she was understandably shaken. “I was crying. I was really upset,” said Whitford. “I’ve had a lot of horses over the years, but this one was special to me. I was disappointed because I had just gotten him and he was going to be my main competition horse.”

According to Allen, proximal suspensory cases of the hind limbs are always significant injuries. Although the cause of this particular injury is unknown, Allen said that these injuries are usually athletic ones incurred when, during a workout, the horse hyper-extends its hind limbs.

“We told Laura that this would be a difficult problem to recover from but that there were both medical and surgical treatments available for it,” said Allen. “If a case is a candidate for medical, we usually try the non-invasive procedures first.”


The Last Resort
Allen treated Sporty with shockwave therapy and prescribed first resting and then walking the horse. On April 18, Sporty was found to be sound during his exam and seemed to have responded well to the therapy. However, in May the lameness recurred.

“For rehabilitation, we keep the horse at a walk and steadily progress,” said Allen. “He was in that process when he became lame again.”

Having exhausted the available medical options, Allen referred Whitford to Nat White, DVM, of Virginia Tech’s Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, Va., for surgery.

White, a world-renowned equine surgeon and director of the center, conducted a lameness exam on July 2 and diagnosed Sporty as having grade 1.5 lameness. At the time, White was leading a study on the results of a new surgical procedure called proximal suspensory desmoplasty that he had engineered for treating proximal suspensory desmitis.

According to White, the procedure is used for injuries of the dispensary ligament at the attachment to the bone that do not respond to rest. “For some patients, those lesions and ligaments will not heal, so I created this procedure to stimulate the healing process,” said White.

Using an ultrasound-guided desmoplasty knife, incisions are made to the suspensory ligament to allow splitting along the entire length of the core lesion. This decompresses the area of injury and stimulates the development of new blood supply and cells to heal the defect. It also appears to help the ligament re-attach to the back of the cannon bone.

“We want to stimulate the core lesion, which constitutes a loss of normal suspensory ligament fibers in the center of the ligament,” said White. “We use the surgery to release the pressure in this area and to encourage healing.”

White recommended Sporty as a candidate for this innovative technique and advised Whitford that Sporty’s chances for recovery were approximately 80 percent. The study later concluded that 85 percent of the participating horses were able to return to full work after undergoing surgery and rehabilitation.

“We had a number of horses that had gone sound after this surgery,” said White. “These were horses that had had relapse injuries or had experienced months of lameness and had not responded to shockwave treatment. The chronicity of Sporty’s condition left this as a last resort for curing this problem.”

Meanwhile, the emotional strain of seeing her beloved horse continue to battle for his health began to take a toll on Whitford. “I was to the point of almost giving up on horses,” she said. “As a breeder, I’ve had my share of issues since mares and foals are also quite fragile, but this one was extremely disappointing.”

Whitford was grateful for the emotional support that she received from White during that difficult time. “I remember when I was in the parking lot crying and Dr. White put his hand on my shoulder,” said Whitford. “He has an excellent bedside manner and is very compassionate.”


Patience Rewarded
On Dec. 18, White performed a successful proximal suspensory desmoplasty on the horse. Sporty was released from the hospital the following day with strict instructions for a controlled rehabilitation that included gradually increasing exercise.

“It requires a month of absolute stall rest after the surgery and then an increasing exercise routine,” said White. “First at hand walking, then walking under saddle and then walking and trotting under saddle over four to six months. The level of exercise is determined by the sequential ultrasound examinations of the ligaments after surgery. The rehabilitation is just as important as the surgery itself.”

Whitford described the initial stages of the recovery process as tedious. “In the beginning, I was concerned about whether it was going to work or not,” said Whitford. “Sporty was really stiff at first from standing so much. It was hard to tell what didn’t hurt.”

Under the guidance of trainer Jim Koford, she worked patiently to ease Sporty through the beginning stages of rehabilitation. As the signs of Sporty’s recovery became more apparent, she knew that the time spent on rehabilitation would be worth it.

“The fitter he got and the more he walked, the better he got,” said Whitford.

During the remaining 21�2-year rehabilitation period, she worked slowly and carefully to bring Sporty back to top athletic condition. “He tolerated all of his rehab and care pretty well and with good humor,” said Whitford. “He is sassy, but at the same time very well-behaved. I can tell you that there are not too many horses that after nine months of stall rest would allow Dr. White to perform an ultrasound of the area behind the hock while seated at a vulnerable angle with machines and vet students standing up close and personal and with absolutely no sedatives.”

She decided to be overly cautious and not to rush the horse into competition until he was fully healed.

“I was wondering if I would ever be able to compete him, but by the end of two years, he was so greatly improved that it was amazing,” said Whitford.

Another benefit of the rehabilitation was an enhanced relationship between the horse and rider. “It gave us lots of one-on-one time–time to talk about his rehab, our goals together, and how to solve the world’s problems,” joked Whitford.

Her patience and dedication were rewarded when Sporty competed in his first post-surgery competition, the VADA/NOVA Summer Show in Leesburg, Va., in June 2005. “That was a scary one,” said Whitford. “He was a bit shaky but we were glad to be there.”

Now, four years after Sporty underwent surgery, the two have moved up to the FEI levels and currently compete at Prix St. Georges. Whitford cautions against pushing a recovering horse beyond its limits, however.

“Continued vigilance to guard against overwork and bad footing is a must! Riders should always check the footing to make sure it’s not too deep,” said Whitford. “This is very important.”

White noted Whitford’s perseverance as an essential ingredient in Sporty’s recovery. “Laura was persistent, and she did everything that we asked her to do,” said White. “That includes the fact that when we told her she needed more time for recovery, she was willing to take the time.”

When asked what in particular she loves about Sporty, Whitford notes his loving nature. “He’s a great horse because he has so much heart,” said Whitford. “He’s talented and tries hard. He’s a showman. He always seems to know when he has an audience–which sometimes is not good as he’s a bit of a show-off–but I also think that that is what makes him a good competition horse.”

If she were able to give advice to other owners whose horses suffer potentially devastating injuries, it would be to have faith.

“It takes a lot of rest and rehabilitation work, but you have to be patient,” said Whitford. “You have to be committed to going through the process. Don’t push the horse too fast after the surgery and don’t give up.”


Marjorie Musick