For most of the years I have lived here at Happy Acres, there have been horses on the property. In 1980 I renovated the horse pasture and boarded horses at Happy Acres for about twenty-five years. I fed the horses twice a day, rain or shine and had to put up with their pushing and jostling at feeding time while carrying a large plastic bin full of oat hay or flakes of alphalpha, often in very mucky conditions. There were four feeding stations in close proximity and the horses spent quite a bit of time up there, thinking that perhaps if they were in attendance, more food would appear. In the wet winters, between their manuring and general stomping around, the ground became quite a quagmire that could easily pull the Wellingtons right off your feet.
I was out in the pasture shoveling up manure for the compost pile one afternoon when I noticed one of the horses acting strangely. She was walking in a tight counter-clockwise circle with her head bent to the left. Upon closer examination, I could see ropes of viscous discharge coming out of her mouth and nose. I immediately thought of the Rinderpest viral plague that had annihilated domesticated herds in colonial Africa. I had read a couple of historical novels about Kenya under English rule (“Uhuru” and “Something of Value”). In addition to the tse tse fly and the Mau Mau rebellion, the Rinderpest was perhaps the biggest challenge facing the colonial settlers.
The local megafauna, over the eons, had built up an immunity that the recently introduced cattle did not have. The virus was spread by drinking at common watering holes. Symptoms included a drunken gait and a mucousy discharge from the nose and mouth. The disease was extremely contagious and almost always fatal. I feared greatly that Hallastra might have picked up something similar. Happy Acres is proximate to the miles of trails in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which makes it popular with my horse owners as they don’t have to trailer their horses anywhere.
I have hiked all the trails in the area and I noticed that there are several cisterns and ponds that the old Portuguese and Spanish land-grant ranchers used during Marin county’s rural past. These watering holes are shared by the many horses that are ridden on these trails as well as by our local fauna. I feared that something similar to the Rinderpest had befallen our poor Hallastra. I phoned Duffy, the owner, and explained what I had seen. She was understandably upset. Duffy was the most involved of my horse owners and wanted nothing but the best for her steed. This meant a certain amount of work on my part to “horse proof” the property, which I didn’t mind. I learned a lot over the years from my horse owners about horses and providing a proper equine environment. Duffy, in particular, did a lot over the years to turn this place from an undeveloped homestead into a serviceable horse pasture.
The local vet wasn’t able to nail down a diagnosis so Duffy trailered Hallastra up to UC Davis, renowned for its school of veterinary medicine. The diagnosis eventually arrived at by the astute horse doctors of UC Davis was “Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis (EPM)”. No, I did not remember the name of the malady off the top of my head. I had Google to thank for that. All I remember Duffy telling me was that her horse had picked up the protozoa from drinking water contaminated with possum poop. Some horses are more immune than others and it’s estimated that as many as 50% of private mounts in possum habitat have been exposed.
Due to Hallastra’s advanced age, her immune system was probably compromised, allowing for the opportunistic infection to take hold. The UC vets did what they could but told Duffy her horse would never be totally free of the symptoms. Indeed, on the trailer ride back to our pasture on hiway 101, the horse lost its balance causing Duffy to swerve, knocking the trailer to its side with the horse kicking and screaming inside. As you can see by the weathered newspaper clipping below, the poor horse and its banged up trailer were in the process of being righted. Hallastra proved to be no longer rideable and was put out to pasture elsewhere, presumably in an equine assisted living arrangement. The second picture is what she looked like before she became ill.
She was a beautiful horse; gentle and friendly. And her offerings made very fine compost for my garden. There were many other horsey adventures and misadventures over the years, including the time one of the horse owners left the gate open and our little “remuda” of four wandered down to Muir beach for an overnighter with the horses at the Muir Beach stables. But that’s a story for another time.
Happy trails, Mickey da Mayor of Happy Acres
Here's what Hallastra looked like before her illness
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