Hoofbeats

Stallion Vega Dies At Age 4

The Abaco wild horses lost another stallion on April 8, 1999. The strawberry roan stallion VEGA was found dead in the middle of a main road on Bahama Star Farm. Farm personnel who found him said that there were no signs of violence and absolutely no blood.

Vega was a strawberry roan (one of only three of this color in the herd) and he was only four to six years old, a contemporary of ACRUX who had to be destroyed a few weeks earlier due to a massive infection..Video tapes of VEGA taken only last week showed him to be active and behaving normally. He did have a lot of scars from fighting, but no open wounds like those on another stallion.

Consultations with veterinarians Dr. Robert Allen and Dr. Brian Weeks have, for the most part, ruled out poison. VEGA was part of a herd (though he remained on the fringes of the group, he was not the head stallion) and it would not make sense that only one horse would be affected. The horses will not accept any food offered by humans.

Another possibility is that VEGA succumbed to a tetanus infection. He had several large gashes on his body from the hooves of horses he fought with, and all of them had scabbed over. Anaerobic bacteria, sealed off from the air, could have developed and killed him literally overnight. It is interesting to note that ACHERNAR, the other badly scarred stallion, has wounds that are open but healing from the edges.

Two weeks ago another stallion, ALTAIR, suffered a huge gash in his face, about eight inches long and three inches wide, probably from a fight. That big wound has healed without any problem and he now has only a thin scar on his face.

Our herd of wild horses is now down to 19.

The Abaco wild horses lost another stallion on April 8, 1999. The strawberry roan stallion VEGA was found dead in the middle of a main road on Bahama Star Farm. Farm personnel who found him said that there were no signs of violence and absolutely no blood.

Vega was a strawberry roan (one of only three of this color in the herd) and he was only four to six years old, a contemporary of ACRUX who had to be destroyed a few weeks earlier due to a massive infection..Video tapes of VEGA taken only last week showed him to be active and behaving normally. He did have a lot of scars from fighting, but no open wounds like those on another stallion.

Consultations with veterinarians Dr. Robert Allen and Dr. Brian Weeks have, for the most part, ruled out poison. VEGA was part of a herd (though he remained on the fringes of the group, he was not the head stallion) and it would not make sense that only one horse would be affected. The horses will not accept any food offered by humans.

Another possibility is that VEGA succumbed to a tetanus infection. He had several large gashes on his body from the hooves of horses he fought with, and all of them had scabbed over. Anaerobic bacteria, sealed off from the air, could have developed and killed him literally overnight. It is interesting to note that ACHERNAR, the other badly scarred stallion, has wounds that are open but healing from the edges.

Two weeks ago another stallion, ALTAIR, suffered a huge gash in his face, about eight inches long and three inches wide, probably from a fight. That big wound has healed without any problem and he now has only a thin scar on his face.

Our herd of wild horses is now down to 19.