Arabian Horse Stories

Hanging on for Dear Life

Miraculous Birth: Confined to a rescue sling due to an injury, Zemina gave birth to her foal while she was still attached to the sling.

I can still remember the look of total shock on my father's face. I knew immediately that something really bad had happened. He walked over to me and said, "Lindsay, Zemina went down and she can't get back up. We need to go help her." I couldn't believe that this was happening. When I got Zemina last year for my 12th birthday, it was the happiest day of my life. She was my first horse, and we clicked right away. As my dad wrote out the check, I remembered mom saying, "I feel like I just won the lottery getting a horse as wonderful as Zemina." A beautiful Polish Arabian by Pobeditel and out of Persona, Zemina was imported when she was 2 years old. She was shown in halter and western pleasure and used as a broodmare, but spent most of her life as the personal riding horse of Yale Freed, a former IAHA president in the early 70s. At the time of her accident, Zemina was 19 years old and six months in foal to Desert Heat VF (Fame VF x MCA Matilda Bay), the '98 U.S. National Reserve Champion Stallion.

A few weeks prior, Zemina had injured her left hind leg when she went to roll in a paddock and cast herself under a fence. Less than a week later, when I was returning her to her stall after a short walk, she slipped on a wet mat and fell, damaging muscles and possibly nerves in her hind end.

I couldn't bear to see Zemina in such pain so I stayed with my grandmother while mom and dad drove to the boarding farm. Dad called again and said the vet and people from Horse Rescue were on their way to put Zemina in a rescue sling so she could be taken to the veterinary hospital at the University of California at Davis.

When Mom came home at 10 p.m. without Dad she told me what had happened. "Getting Zemina to her feet was quite an ordeal," she said. "In fact, it took several tries, including one approach, recommended by the vet, that involved tying her tail to the fork lift and raising her by the tail while pulling her head with a lead rope at the same time. It was very painful to watch. I thought they were going to pull her tail right off."

Mom recalls that after several failed attempts to raise Zemina, the sling frame was attached to the forklift and the sling was attached to Zemina who lay calmly on the dew-soaked ground as if she knew we were all trying to help her. The vet gave her an injection to calm her down. By then Zemina had been down more than seven hours and was very tired and weak from all her brave attempts to get up.

"When they raised Zemina the first time it was like raising a rag doll," said mom. "She had no inclination to stand when the forklift brought her back down to the ground." Before they raised her a second time, Mikki, the lady from Horse Rescue, re-adjusted the sling and the vet gave Zemina another injection to counteract the sedative.

Still glassy eyed and lethargic, Zemina was once again raised and lowered to the ground, but she made no attempt to stand on her own. Everyone surrounding her was instructed to begin vigorously massaging her legs. Mikki shouted at mom, "Slap her in the face and wake her up!" It took almost 15 minutes, but Zemina finally responded by planting her fore legs first, then her hind legs, one by one.

"Everyone cheered and then sighed with great relief, especially dad and I," said mom. "When we saw Zemina stand on her own we thought it was a miracle. One minute we thought we might have to put her down and then, all of a sudden, she was on her feet!"

The whole time Zemina never got upset. In fact, Dad said even while they were working to get her up she was trying to eat the grass where she laid with her head flat against the ground.

Fortunately Zemina made it to the clinic without any problems and quickly adjusted to the sling that hung from the ceiling of her stall. She was taken out of the sling after two weeks and walked nearly every day. She seemed to be making great progress until quite unexpectedly she went down in the tie stall. A technician found her still hanging by the ropes tied around her halter. Unable to get up, Zemina had to be sedated, raised with a forklift and put back in the sling, where she lived for several months.

Finally, the doctors said that Zemina's injuries might take as long as a year to heal and advised us to find a more suitable environment for her to give birth. So mom and dad decided to buy a sling ($3,000), and then they researched places that would take a horse in a sling. Eventually they found Whisper Equestrian Center, owned by Julie and Ken Mabie. Before we could bring Zemina home, Dad worked with an engineer and a local building contractor to construct an elaborate steel "I" beam support structure in Zemina's stall strong enough to hold her weight, the sling and the chain hoist that connects the sling frame to the I beam.

Mom and dad went to U.C. Davis a day early to get training from the hospital technicians that cared for Zemina during her stay. When the horse transport arrived the next day, dad said, "Practically the entire U.C. Davis Vet staff came out to say goodbye to Zemina." She had apparently become everyone's favorite patient during her four month stay."

Dad helped Chris Macri, one of Zemina's primary care technicians, put Zemina's new sling on along with a training strap so that she could be walked in the sling. Zemina hesitated at first but then, when prompted by Chris, she stepped into the trailer without tripping. She walked right over to the sling support and waited patiently as Dad and Chris unbuckled her training strap and attached the sling straps to the hanging frame for her four-hour trip.

The drive was uneventful, but when it came time to unload Zemina, she lost her footing getting out of the trailer and tumbled onto the hard asphalt. We were all horrified when we saw Zemina go down after all the precautions we had taken to ensure her safe transport. Mom telephoned our vet. Mikki took Zemina's pulse and then evaluated her for injury. We tried to calm Zemina as best we could when of a sudden her eyes rolled back into her head, and she began to have a seizure.

The seizure only lasted about 12 seconds but it seemed like hours. When she stopped, Dad gave her some grass growing along the road where she lay. Unfazed, Zemina perked up and ate it. Minutes after the vet arrived, Zemina had another seizure. Our vet, Sheri Cronin, said that seizures are not well understood in horses and that she did not want to administer any sedatives while she was in this condition.

At this point it was getting dark, and Zemina was still lying in the street. Zemina continued to eat grass with her head flat against the pavement. She seemed content and over the initial shock and stress of her fall. Later Dad said that when he first saw Zemina have a seizure he thought she was dying.

Mom was pretty much a basket case through out the entire ordeal and couldn't stop crying. Dad called a guy with a tractor to help get Zemina to her feet. Dad and Jim attached the sling frame from the horse ambulance to the tractor's front loading bucket. The driver then slowly moved the tractor next to Zemina, lowering the frame to within 24 inches of her body. Dad, Mikki and Jim quickly unfastened Zemina from the training strap and attached the sling straps to the frame that hung from the tractor. The tractor driver raised her above the pavement. When he brought her down, she planted all four of her feet at once but seemed a little unsteady on her hind legs.

Out for a Stroll: Zemina and her foal, Rising Heat ("Razin"), out for their daily exercise.

They then detached Zemina as quick as we could from the tractor and re-installed the training strap. We also gave her lots of fresh green grass throughout the process to distract her and to keep her standing. The tractor then slowly moved away and Sheri led Zemina up the driveway to the barn and into her new stall. Dad and Jim unbuckled her from the training strap and attached her to the new sling frame that hung from the ceiling. Less than two hours had elapsed from the time of her fall until she was safely in her stall, but it was the longest two hours of my life.

In less than a week Zemina recovered from her injuries. Sheri advised us to wait at least three days before we started walking her again. When it came time Zemina was a little stiff but she stepped out of her stall without hesitation. For the next 55 days straight we removed Zemina from the sling and walked her, gradually increased her walks to one hour.

Getting Ready for Baby

Her walks helped her become stronger and steadier. Taking her in and out of her sling quickly became no big deal for us or Zemina. In fact, Mom calls us the "Sling Team." We can now take her sling off in less than three minutes and get it back on in less than four. Dad said, "It's too bad horse slinging isn't an Olympic event because we would definitely win the gold."

When Zemina was 10 months pregnant, she got her pre-foaling vaccinations, and we started preparing for the birth by reading books, watching foaling videos, acquiring supplies, etc. Dad even made arrangements to have Zemina's stall under 24-hour surveillance by means of a video camera and monitor that would be set up in a RV parked next to the barn.

Based on everything we had read and Zemina's foaling history, we calculated her due date between May 11 and May 16. Our vet advised us to induce labor because her pregnancy was considered "high risk." However, Zemina had other plans.

Thursday, May 10, 2001 started off like any other day. We all got up a little after 6:00 a.m. I got ready for school, and mom and dad got ready for work. Before work Dad stopped by Zemina's barn to clean her stall, fill her water, feed her and give her a carrot or two.

Later that afternoon my mom and dad decided to go ahead and take her for her daily walk. It was about 4 p.m. when they returned Zemina to her stall. She went right back into her sling like clockwork. As Dad was securing the last sling strap, he and mom noticed Zemina pawing at the floor of her stall.

Mom said, "That's strange, she's never done that before." Dad said later it reminded him of one of the foaling videos he had seen where a mare had pawed at the ground then immediately went down and gave birth. Within just minutes of the pawing, Zemina had what appeared to be a contraction and literally dropped in her sling taking weight off her legs.

Mom said, "I think we're getting real close. I'll go call the vet, and you go home and get Lindsay and the camera. All our foaling supplies are here."

The Birth

Dad drove as fast as he could to pick me up. I jumped in the car, and he grabbed the video camera. In the meantime, Mom had more than she could handle on her end. When she returned to Zemina's stall after calling our vet, she couldn't believe what she saw. Zemina was practically kneeling on both her fore legs as though she was trying to lie down. Two feet and a nose were coming out of her vulva. Zemina was still completely secured in her sling with the rear support completely in tact. Mom told a little girl waiting for her riding lesson, "Go and get Julie and tell her Zemina is having her baby."

Julie and Ken returned to the stall just in time to help Zemina. Ken lowered the sling frame about a foot to put some slack in the sling. He thought by lowering her he could create a more comfortable birthing position because there wasn't enough time to remove her from the sling as originally planned.

"Everything happened so quickly," Mom said.

Julie pulled the legs of the foal as Zemina pushed during one last contraction. According to mom, "The foal just came shooting out like a Slip 'n Slide."

As my dad and I drove into the barn parking area my friend Heather ran up to our car and said, "Zemina had her baby, and it's a little colt."

I could hardly believe it. After everything we did to be prepared, Zemina surprised us. Dad and I missed the actual birth by only a couple of minutes. It was now only 30 minutes from the time mom and dad returned Zemina to her sling after her walk. Zemina had done the unthinkable. She gave birth in a full body rescue sling without lying down or being induced and without any major complications. Suddenly, all our issues with the delivery became non-issues. In fact, the way Zemina decided to give birth wasn't even an option we considered. Talk about a smart horse.

Give Me a Kiss: "Razin" nuzzles his owner, 12-year-old Lindsay Casale

Miracle Colt We named the colt Rising Heat, "Razin" for short. Razin was not able to stand and nurse within the first couple of hours so we helped him to his feet and tried to guide him to his mother's udder. We tied up the sling straps that went under Zemina's udder, but he would still get clobbered in the head by a loose buckle. Dad finally put duct tape over the lower buckles.

Not only was Razin not nursing, but Zemina had not passed her placenta, so Dad called the vet who arrived and immediately expressed nearly a pint of colostrum-rich milk from Zemina's udder, which we tubed down one of Razin's nostrils into his tummy. Then he removed Zemina's placenta. Mom and Dad took turns cat napping on a bale of straw in Zemina's barn and left at 4:30 a.m. We all returned at 7 a.m. concerned that Razin had not nursed on his own because he seemed to be sleeping in the same spot. Then we ran into Julie Mabie who said, "Razin was up nursing on his own about 5:30 this morning." Boy, was that ever the best news of the day.

Razin, by no coincidence, is a chestnut just like his mother and father with a star, stripe and snip. He has three white stockings and one short white sock on his left fore leg and incredibly long legs, two ears that nearly touch when they stand straight up and a face any mother could love.

Looking back on everything our family has been through this past year with Zemina makes me proud that we never gave up. Dad says as far as he is concerned the whole experience has strengthened our family because we are all committed toward a common goal, that is, getting Zemina out of the sling. I believe our faith in God, the love in our family and the strongest horse we have ever known gave us the strength to get through Zemina's pregnancy and on the road to recovery.

Every day when I see Zemina hanging from the sling in her stall, I see a courageous Arabian horse unlike any other horse I've ever known or read about in books. It used to break my heart to see her in her sling, but now she just amazes me like everyone that hears her story. I have no doubt that "Rising Heat" will some day become a great champion, the kind of champion that comes along only once in a lifetime.

The Casales can be reached at: (831) 688-2514; email: richardJCasale@cs.com; 414 Dorsey Ave., Aptos, California 95003.

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