Wishbone was a teenage chestnut paint mare, and she was equal parts nice and spice. She lived in the mare pasture at Webb Ranch back when I first started there in 2018. She was used for camp for beginners, and other English lessons on the daily manifest.

It’s very unusual for things to pop up in irregular organic markings on horses, but this particular horse was special.

Pictured above is her incomplete badger face marking that presented itself as a wishbone, hence the name. I always felt like you could break her wishbone with your trainer to figure out what kind of a ride you might have on her, like the whorl theory, but what do I know haha.

She was in the middle of camp one week and for whatever reason started acting colicky as the end of the camp day hit. We monitored her as her camper got off and settled. We untacked her, and started colic protocol. Unfortunately, we had to call the vet out to diagnose the colic further, and there was nothing else we could do. She had reached the point of torsion of the colon, and it was best to let her rest. It was so quick, and I hope for her sake she didn’t suffer long with her “belly ache”.

Colic is a nasty illness, and it remains one of the top causes of death among horses even now. It’s very broad and covers so many issues, which is why it’s so high on the list. That being said one day I will make a post on how to manage colic before a veterinarian is needed, and what to look out for. As a former colic surgery patient she was no longer a candidate for a repeat surgery in that department.

Wishbone was a beautiful mare, and while it was bittersweet for her to wait until her camper was done to ask for vet help, it’s a great hard lesson for us as equestrians. Sometimes there’s just nothing you can do, life is out of our control.