Sound Equine Options received a call from a Klickitat County livestock deputy about an abandoned horse. The horse was found extremely underweight and wandering down a road. A good samaritan put Duke in her round pen and gave him food and water. Duke has a dramatic gait abnormality that a local vet thought might be fibrotic myopathy.

The county deputy searched for the horse’s owner for 3 weeks but with no luck, so he called to ask if we could take in the horse. If not, the other option was to run him through a livestock sale. As we were driving to pick him up, we thought for sure he would need to be euthanasized, but then we met him.

He is a sweet, handsome, 9-year-old gelding that seems to having training. He loaded in the trainer like he had done it 100 times before, and we headed straight to our veterinarian’s office for a full exam. They confirmed that he did indeed have old scar tissue on his hind end that was restricting his ability to extend his left hind leg. We named him Duke and took him home to the barn while our veterinarian started the process of contacting a surgeon at OSU to see if there were any good treatment options. After putting a little weight on Duke he went to OSU for surgery.  Although his gait is still abnormal it is dramatically improved and does not cause him any pain.

Duke stands well for the farrier, load and hauls easy, bathes and clips.  He is currently in training to help fill in a few holes but should be ready soon!

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NAME: Duke

AGE: 8

BREED: Quarter Horse

GENDER: Gelding

HEIGHT: 15.1 hands

COLOR: Road

STATUS: In Rehab