The Importance of Warming Up Your Horse

by Shauna Winters

I saw something a few weeks ago that I never want to see again. I went to a Rodeo because my brother was competing as a calf roper. As we were watching the team roping, this team came out and roped their steer. They got their ropes off the steer, and the steer cut back towards the roping chute. The heeler went to head the steer off, and as he turned, his horse went down. The horse fell on its side and it began convulsing. It was horrible. I can remember grabbing my brother’s leg because he happened to be sitting right next to me (poor guy). I kept saying, “What’s wrong with that horse?” over and over again. My brother thought that maybe the horse had had a heart attack.

People, of course, went out to help. A man from the audience yelled to get the saddle off. He thought the cinch was too tight. The poor kid who was riding the horse began tearing the saddle off. By this time, a vet who happened to be in the audience went running across the arena. A huge group of guys came in carrying a panel. They rolled the horse over on the panel and carried it out of the arena. The horse died.

My brother went to take care of his horses and when he got outside he ran into the vet, so he asked her what had happened. She said that it was a pulmonary embolism--the main artery to the horse’s lung had burst and the horse had basically drowned in its own blood. He then asked what had caused it. She said more than likely the horse had been out to pasture, was a little bit out of shape, and was not warmed up as well as it should have been. It was very cold the night of the rodeo, so I am sure that the combination of all of these things didn’t help. I don’t know for sure exactly what caused this to happen.

Even if there was a previous problem, this was a good reminder. Please make sure that your kids, or anyone else for that matter, realize how important it is to warm up their horses. I know sometimes we get in a hurry or we show up late to the rodeo, but it so important to warm the horse up and cool it out as well. I can’t imagine having that happen to one of my animals if it was something that I could have prevented. It was terrible to have to watch, but a very good lesson for my kids.