Bedouin Proverb: "My treasures do not clink together or glitter.
They gleam in the sun and neigh in the night."
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Unionville, MO
ellen@antiquityhill.com

Zeena's story of amazing healing

Night of Terror
The horse that was nearly lost.
Written by Elizabeth Schnakenberg, age 12
~with notes by Ellen Schnakenberg

It all starts out when my parents decide to go and finally pick up our new white pickup truck from near Sedalia, MO. My brother had gone out before me to give the horses their hot water to unfreeze their water buckets. While I was getting dressed to go out myself, my brother calls down to the house on the phone, saying, "Come down here now. There is a horse hurt, and I don't know what to do. Hurry up."

I put the receiver down on the jack, and, being as arrogant as I was back then, took as much time as I possibly could getting dressed, thinking my brother was bluffing. When I finally got out there, my brother was angry, but kept his voice quiet. "Where have you been?" he demanded. "The horse is in there. I think she's badly hurt." I peered at where he was pointing, finally getting the hint that he wasn't joking. There, standing in our workshop with the door halfway closed, was Zeena, the mellowest mare on the place. She was standing with everything drooping, including what looked to be her eyes.

I finally got the guts to look inside the workshop, and the sight horrified me. There was blood everywhere imaginable. Her chest had been sliced, and was practically pouring blood. My hands started shaking when I whirled around to look at Aaron. "Call Bill. His number is on the inside of the cabinet by the phone. Hurry." I turned around to look at the mare again. She was standing the same way, as listless as ever. When I looked into the mares eyes, my shakes got worse, and worse. The phone rang, and I shot up to get it. "Bill's on his way, but it'll take him an hour to reach here."

"OK. I'll see if I can try to get a hold of mom and dad." I replied. I tried to get the cell-phone about 20 times, each time unsuccessful. When I sat back down, the phone rang. It was my dad calling to see how we were doing. I told him to get mom now. He called for her, and asked what's wrong. "Zeena is hurt. Badly" I responded.

My mom got on the phone, and I told her the situation, while just about balling my eyes out. She told me to calm down, and that she would call the Sheriff's department where she worked and see if they could send someone out here to help us. I told her OK, and that I would stay out here until they were here. After I hung up, I called my brother, and told him to call around and see if we could get any help, and to bring out a few blankets for me.

After about a half an hour, a load of people came. I couldn't name them all now, because I don't know their names. But if I had the chance, I would say "thank you" to every single person there, for they helped save Zeena's life. They detached the broken door from the hinges, and moved it out of the way. Then they physically helped her walk into the stall right across the aisle way. By this time I had the blankets, but was still shaking from shock.

Bill came a little later, after almost everybody had left. He got to work right away. He inspected her wounds, and looked inside the workshop at the gallons of blood that was on the floor, walls and ceiling. He then inspected the neck-wound that we had discovered when we got the mare out of the workshop. While he was sewing it up, he told us that the wound had nicked the jugular vein, and that we were lucky to have found her alive.

He stitched up the rest of her wounds - the neck wound, one slice that ran from her brisket and had cut her udder in two, the chunk of shoulder that was missing, plus a slice than ran along her shoulder and other cuts along her legs. When Bill was done, I knelt down to pet Zeena, but she was sedated, so she couldn't show any appreciation. I laid my head down on her belly, and just listened to her breathing.

I knew that Bill and my mom were talking on the cell phone, but I couldn't hear them, for all of my attention was on the horse. A little later, my mom made it home and told me to go to bed, and that she would watch Zeena. I was grateful, but still didn't want to leave Zeena's side. She made me go down to the house where I washed up, laid down, and quickly fell asleep.

I will never forget the efforts of all those people who helped Zeena, my brother, and me through those horrid hours. Zeena is still alive today, but shows the scars of running through that plate glass window that February night. And I have a special thanks to Bill Mclintock, who actually saved the horse from bleeding to death.
_________________

"...and of all the creatures of this world
none of them surpass
the beauty of the man and horse
as they go riding, past and past."

"The Creatures Things"
By: Elizabeth Schnakenberg

~ Sedalia is a large town that we were near, approximately 3 1/2 hrs from our farm.
~ Zeena was recuperating from a suspensory injury at the time of this incident. Because of the copious amount of mud present everywhere, she was given the run of the aisleway of the barn during the day and the other horses were shut out. Unfortunately, a door was left unlatched, and a dominant mare found her way into the barn, chasing our sweet natured Zeena to the end of the aisle and literally thru the steel door of my husband's workshop, breaking it in half and shearing part of her shoulder off in the process. When she hit the "stuff" in the dark workshop, she stopped and tried to back out. As her rump hit what was left of the door, it closed behind her. We don't know how long she was actually in the workshop, but surmise that she finally saw an escape route through the plate glass window and tried to jump out. Many friends and acquaintances were there to help that night including a Sheriff's dispatcher, Deputy Sheriff, a friend Bud Roland and his teenage sons, neighbors and boarders the Henderson family and others. After suturing what he could of her wounds and leaving the rest to heal and drain on their own, Dr McClintock phoned me to let me know that she was still alive, but it was touch and go. The Sheriff's dispatcher had already prepared me for the worst. Because of the extent of the blood loss and injuries Zeena went into shock. We used a Salamander heater to heat her stall and the electric blanket from my bed was hastily draped over her and I spent the remainder of the evening until the next morning with her.
~The amazing end to this story is that not only is Zeena still alive, but she is doing very well. Equine wounds heal like no other I've ever seen. Huge gaping holes such as Zeena had where her shoulder had once been, simply get smaller and smaller until there is only a tiny scar left. Her shoulder was missing a piece as big as a dinner plate, yet now, only an inch long scar and a small dimple remains. The worst of the injuries was the jugular wound and that scar is a mere 3" long, again with a small dimple. A horse's capacity for blood loss is also unbelieveable. That 20 x 12 workshop had standing blood covering the floor over 1/2 inch deep. If we had been near a veterinary hospital and if Zeena had the strength, there's no doubt she would have been taken there and transfused, however those were not our circumstances. Bill assured me that a horse's spleen stores many times the number of red blood cells than the normal horse actually needs and that she would soon be fine. I had my doubts, was it was soon proven to be true. I have learned long ago to trust our vet, and he has shown great faith in our nursing abilities, however this was a stretch and we knew it. It took nearly a year for the wounds to eventually heal, and the initial suspensory injury and cut actually took the longest at 1 1/2 yrs healing time. The amount of time to nurse her back was very hard- Zeena is worth the wait tho.
~To the credit of Dr. McClintock, he was on his way to C-section a cow when he received the urgent call from my kids. The trip that he thought would take an hour took a mere 20 minutes. He had to have been breaking the sound barrier to get to our Zeena, and it is something we will not ever forget. My own 3 1/2 hr trip took not quite 2. Not sure how I did it, but I guess God was on my side and knew Zeena and my children needed me there. I barely even remember the trip other than the urgent calls made en-route.
~For more information on the healing process, or the wounds themselves, please email me at ellen@antiquityhill.com . Sometimes it helps knowing that there are others out there who have made the long journey from a near-death experience with their horse, to see the other side.