Spice’s Story

I have known for a while that I wanted to write the story of my girl Spice, but I have also held off writing it until she had her foal safely born. I wanted to know that we were on our way to a happy ending. This is not one of my typical “God” posts although I feel as if God sent her to me, but this is a post that I sincerely hope helps others who love and care for this breed to understand them a little better.

The very moment I saw the post advertising Spice for sale, something spoke to my heart. She was priced well above what we had spent on all of our other horses to date, but anyone looking at her could see what a beautiful horse she was, and I will say to this day, she is the best looking horse on our farm. I proceeded to negotiate a price for her and after going through the extensive importation process and documentation, she finally arrived at Finch Farm in March of 2023. Dave’s first words when he saw her were “She is the most beautiful horse I have ever seen.” And she was; but was was lurking under that beauty was a problem that would take us months to uncover and one we are still in the process of solving.

The first thing I noticed about Spice seeing her in person was that she had a massive amount of muscle development on the left side of her neck. I knew that her previous owner had sold her because she “trotted to fast” and I, as well as my equine friends all attributed it to rider error. I started riding Spice to work on her anxiety, but before long she came up lame. I attributed it to a shipping injury, gave her some time off and brought her back to work. We had similar results. She would be sound for a period of time and then come up lame. This problem became exacerbated with the arrival of spring and grass turnout. I turn out all of my cobs three and over with grazing muzzles, but even with the muzzle, Spice ended up dead lame. We rightly attributed it to grass induced laminitis and put her in the dry lot. Unfortunately, unlike others, her problems and lameness did not resolve with a few days off of the grass and we ended up doing x-rays. I think anyone who has had a horse can guess at the devastating results we found – coffin bone rotation. What I didn’t know and won’t ever know because I didn’t do a PPE, is if it happened here, or if I bought her with it. But, even with the coffin bone rotation, none of us (my vet included) understood the extent of Spice’s heath concerns.

Summer turned to fall, (we were finally able to breed Spice once her lameness was resolved by keeping her on a dry lot) and I got back to riding my girl. I focused on trail rides because I wanted her to know that being ridden was a place she could be happy – and she was – until she went lame again. Concussion lamenitis. There was no grass to be blamed this time – it was purely the result of being ridden and we all knew we needed to look deeper. We needed to do blood work.

I want to say that the diagnosis of insulin resistant, while hard to take, wasn’t a total shock – by this point I knew something more was going on – now I needed to know how to fix it. I took a course online about how to feed metabolic horses with PPSM, Insulin Resistance and Cushings. We made changes to her diet and her blood work improved and then it didn’t. Months of tweaking diet, soaking hay and adding medications – Insuline Wise and Metformin to get her blood sugar levels down to no avail… because she was pregnant and pregnancy does it’s own thing to a body.

We tested Spice’s blood almost monthly from November onward to try to get a handle on her Insulin Resistance, to try to find out what was and wasn’t working. And although her numbers weren’t going down, something was – that big lump of “muscle” on the left side of her neck which I know recognized for what it was – a fatty deposit – a huge red flag of her insulin resistance.

There was nothing I could do to bring Spice’s insulin levels down while she was pregnant. I could and did make sure she was comfortably shod with 4 weeks between trims and pads. (I will post photos of her laminar wall separation and it’s grow out along with her neck.) And I maintained her diet and medications, and we waited for baby. On July 2, Spice gave birth to a beautiful filly whom we will absolutely be keeping and that filly will 100% be a part of helping our girl Spice regain her health. In a week of nursing I have seen the fatty deposit on the side of Spice’s neck shrink dramatically. Spice is a very attentive mother and chasing after Baby Bea keeps her moving in a way we couldn’t naturally do. Finally, I will not breed Spice again until I know that her blood sugar levels are in the normal range. It has taken her a full year to open up and trust us, I won’t let her down now.

I share Spice’s story in the hope that I can help someone else who has a gypsy vanner or a gypsy cob and sees similar signs to what we saw in Spice. I share this story to encourage others to get blood sugar and insulin levels tested. I have tested any horse in my herd over the age of three. I do not share this story to accuse. I have so many experienced horse people around me, including my vet – none of us thought of insulin resistance until November. But if you are considering purchasing a gypsy, make sure your PPE includes blood work, so you know what you are getting into.

Not for a single second would I change our decision last March to purchase Spice. She needed us and we need and love her and we will do whatever it takes to keep her healthy and happy.

God bless,

Meredith