This story didn't
end up the way I expected. When I first began working on the Miraval
Andalusians website in early 1997, the site and this page were
centered around a very special horse and - more importantly -
a very special member of my family, Garbosa XI. However, instead
of writing a page to highlight my foundation mare, I found myself
writing a page to commemorate her.....a tribute to her life, which
ended tragically short of its' time. The most tragic fact about
her death is that it could have been prevented. I will cover that
in this story as well. I believe it is time that we as Andalusian
lovers addressed a critical issue, and I am determined that Garbosa's
death will not be in vain. 
The
knowledge I have gained through her ordeal will undoubtedly lengthen
the lives of some of your horses...either now, or in the future.
Click to enlarge.
Garbosa was my foundation mare, and the realization of a dream. She was a former Reserve National Champion (1986), by the famous National Champion Leopardo II, out of Floridita II. She was full sister to Bizarro X, another National Champion, and the dam of 2-time National Champion stallion Tranco. For nearly ten years, I dreamed of finding the perfect horse to start my breeding program. Never in a million years would my dreams have ever measured up to the reality of Garbosa.Click to enlarge.
Garbosa
was a show-stopper wherever she went, and she passed that trait
onto many of her foals. In 1996, she stole the show at the fair,
when people were saying she would win the stallion class. (stallion
class??) Well, that tells you a little about her presence. But
behind that awesome presence was the temperment of a big sheepdog.
She was a joy in every way....the epitome of the equine spirit.
Every time I walked up to her and she dipped her head to rub against
my shoulder, I was reminded again of how fortunate I was to have
found her. Our time together was much too short, but the impact
that she had on my life will be far-reaching. I feel comfortable
saying that Garbosa's last years were easy and serene.....as they
should have been. Click to enlarge.
Garbosa
developed melanomas a few years back. They started on top of her
tail, and then spread to underneath her tail. She was checked
many times by very knowledgeable vets, each of whom said basically
"this is just something that comes with the territory in
grey horses". Each vet thought it was a mistake to remove
the tumors, stating that they would grow back anyway, and that
they might not heal cleanly. Some discussion was given to the
new treatment of melanomas, Cimetidine, but it was regarded somewhat
skeptically by the vets, and somehow each promise of research
into pricing and effectiveness just slipped through the cracks.Click to enlarge.
Finally in March
of 1997, I took matters into my own hands and started researching
Cimetidine online. I wrote to the heads of some of the country's
best veterinary schools, and was astonished (happily) at how responsive
they were to my questions. Each was eager to share case studies
and research with me. The next step was contacting a local veterinarian
and getting pricing and dosage information. Again, in no time,
I was armed with more knowledge. The only remaining thing was
to get a new vet to look at Garbosa and prescribe the medication.
Again.....things fell right into place. Finally things were looking
up. My new vet understood how precious Garbosa was to me.....and
I had the Cimetidine within 2 days. Click to
enlarge.
Getting Garbosa
to be a cooperative patient proved to be the biggest challenge.
Cimetidine treatments have to be given religiously. It takes dedication
on the part of the owner, since the treatments have to be given
every 8 hours for 1-3 months, and sometimes longer, depending
on the severity and size of the melanomas. The drug comes in tablets
or injections....the tablets being FAR less expensive. I gave
Garbosa's treatments by crushing up the medication and sprinkling
it on the sweetest, stickiest Equine Senior feed I could find
(Purina makes a great one). Occasionally (okay....more than occasionally),
Garbosa would outsmart me and manage to eat every morsel of food,
avoiding the medication. But, I always had the last laugh. The
only other option was to crush up the tablets, add water, and
use a large syringe to shoot them down her throat. I usually ended
up splattered with green slobber, but darn it, she got her medicine!
(I am nothing if not determined) Click to
enlarge.
Within a month,
I began to see noticeable progress. The tumor on Garbosa's tail
was the size of a cantelope, and was very heavy. It was also very
fragile. Garbosa would constantly knock it against things, and
it would seep melanin or blood. It was a management nightmare,
needing to be washed and treated with fly spray daily. Within
a month, the tumor began to harden and the melanin seepage virtually
stopped. The tumor began to slowly dry up from the inside, similar
to a pumpkin. According to the vets I had spoken with, Cimetidine
is only proven to shrink smaller tumors. The solution for large
tumors is to have them removed or "de-bulked", and then
put the horse on Cimetidine treatments to control re-growth. But
the change was unquestionable. My plans were to have Garbosa's
large tumor de-bulked, but no one would treat it until she had
been on the Cimetidine treatment for the required 3 months. Click to enlarge.
As fate would have it, all of our efforts were too little, too late. Garbosa's melanomas had moved internal, and were putting pressure on her rectal passage. Whether the final chain of events was caused by the reaction of those tumors to the Cimetidine, we have no way of knowing. It is a horrible irony to think that the fact that she was getting well was what brought about her demise.
On Thursday afternoon,
May 8, Garbosa went down with a terrible colic. When my vet arrived,
he discovered a tear in her rectal passage, presumably caused
by the pressure of the internal melanomas. It was also determined
that one of the internal tumors had ruptured, possibly from the
same pressure that caused the tear. The tear was healing with
scar tissue already, but the toxins had begun to enter her entire
system. Her white blood cell count was very high. Her prognosis
was poor, but I wanted to give her every chance to survive as
long as she didn't suffer. My vet agreed. We put her on high levels
of Penicillin and Gentocin, along with Banamine to control the
fever and eliminate any discomfort. I moved into the barn, and
for the next four days, we fought day and night to save Garbosa.
She fought hard too, and many times we thought we were winning
the battle. I syringed literally GALLONS of water into her each
day, 60cc's at a time, to keep her from getting de-hydrated and
to keep the antibiotics from harming her kidneys. She was alert,
moving about, and grazing voraciously. Many of the photos on this
page (the ones of Garbosa and I) are stills from a video that
was taken by Terri Wilson of Video
Options the day after her colic. You would NEVER have known
she was even sick, much less that I was so close to losing her.
But on Sunday afternoon, Mother's Day (May 11, 1997), after the
most encouraging day so far......Garbosa took a turn for the worse.
In spite of the fact that on the outside, she was the essence
of good heath - on the inside, the infection was spreading. Her
temperature skyrocketed, and she began to colic again, and that
evening we made the decision to end her life peacefully. Click
to enlarge.
Garbosa was a lady to the very end. She knew what was coming, and she was ready. She left us all in admiration of her strength and grace. Even my vet was moved, as we comforted her on the floor in the barn when she breathed her last breath. One of the few positive aspects of this whole ordeal is that I have found a wonderful new vet in whom I have complete faith. My regular vet was not on call the night Garbosa went down, so as fate would have it, Dr. Randy Lee was the vet who responded to my emergency call......and saw us through the remainder of Garbosa's ordeal.
Horses enrich our lives in ways that we don't even realize
until they are gone. As much as I cherished Garbosa when she was
with me.....I realize now that I didn't cherish her nearly enough.
When she died, she took a part of me with her.....but she left
a bigger part of herself behind. I am not overly religious, but
the chain of events that brought her to me could only have been
part of some divine plan. Garbosa made an impression on every
life she touched.....she was just that kind of horse. I can remember
thinking, on many nights when I would slip down to the barn before
heading up to bed, that she looked like an angel or a unicorn
or a pegasus - the way the moonlight made her shiny white coat
luminous, and turned her silky mane into silver strands. And now
that she has gone on to another plain, I can easily picture her
amongst the clouds.......the eternal "earth mother",
full of spirit in the purest sense.......watching over all of
us and waiting patiently to dip her head for me when we are reunited
again at last.
The moral of this story is: if your horse has melanomas - talk to your vet about having them removed. It is better to have them removed 100 times than to allow them to get as large and ulcerated as Garbosa's became. And check into the Cimetidine treatment. In many many cases, it is successful, and can stop the spread of melanomas, both internally and externally. If Garbosa had been treated with Cimetidine as soon as we discovered the tumors, they could have been controlled or eliminated. Or later, if her large external tumors had been debulked and then treated with Cimetidine, she could still possibly have been saved, if the tumors inside hadn't gotten as large as they did. (Note: I have received letters from horseowners stating that they had used the Cimetidine (Tagamet), but had no results. If you do not apply the appropriate dosage, and if you don't do it every 8 hours (3 times per day), the results may not be as reliable. Results have been recorded at lower and more infrequent dosages, but from what I have read, this isn't as consistent. And, unfortunately, Cimetidine doesn't work for every horse....but it is the most promising and consistent treatment so far.) But the information just wasn't out there. No one knew. And people who DID know didn't talk about it. More on that in the next paragraph.
Melanomas aren't an "Andalusian thing". Far from it. They aren't even just a "grey horse thing". Melanomas occur in every breed, and in every color. As Andalusian owners, we tend to look at the discussion of melanomas as the "kiss of death". No one talks about it. It's like a crazy uncle in the attic, everyone knows it's there, but no one acknowledges it. If we would all communicate, there would be a lot more information out there, and we would all benefit as a whole. Since May of 1997, I have heard from HUNDREDS of horse owners who are dealing with or have dealt with this very problem. You will find many of their letters on the "Letters" page in this section. This is a time for the "already dealt withs" to help the "are dealing withs". If your horse currently has melanomas - or has had them in the past, please contact me. (Nia Ridley of Miraval Andalusians) Your input is very valuable.
Melanomas in horses are different than melanomas in people. You will read more about that in the case studies on this site, and in the links to other case studies. But the one thing to keep in mind is, if your horse has a melanoma.....the bigger it gets, the faster it will grow. This is because each time the tumor splits, it doubles itself. For example: 1+1=2 2+2=4 4+4=8 and so on.
If your vet is skeptical of Cimetidine treatments, or isn't familiar with it, or if he drags his feet about getting information - call another vet. Vets are human. Most of them work 18 hours a day already. My original vet has come to my horses' aid on many occasions, and he is one of the most highly respected vets in our area. But it is impossible for ANY vet to have all the answers. Take matters into your own hands, and don't delay........your horse's life could depend on it. If I had moved more quickly, there is a good possibility that I would have Garbosa around for a long time to come.
Oh, and one parting thought on Andalusians and melanomas. Even if I had known in advance the heartbreak that I would experience with Garbosa due to her untreated melanomas......it would never have deterred my decision to purchase her. Owning (or being owned BY) an Andalusian is an honor that most equestrians never know, and every moment that I shared with her was a wonderful gift. Her presence will be sorely missed......but I was blessed to have had the opportunity to learn from her. She taught me many lessons.......health and medicine issues being the least of them.
------------ In Loving Memory - Garbosa XI -------------
(return to the top of the page and use the navigational bar to the left to access the research page and the many letters from other horse owners dealing with melanomas)
If so, please sign the guestbook. Please write a few words, or (briefly) tell your story. Leave your email address. Your experience could help someone else....or theirs might help YOU. Thank you.
| Read
the Guestbook! Sign the Guestbook! |
| Campanero XI | ||||
| Legionario III | ||||
| Legionaria IV | ||||
| Leopardo II | ||||
| Leopardo | ||||
| Caraquita | ||||
| Lucena | ||||
| Garbosa XI | ||||
| Bilbaino III | ||||
| Bizarro V | ||||
| Bizarra IV | ||||
| Floridita II | ||||
| Zurito II | ||||
| Garbosa VIII | ||||
| Abocada | ||||
Please send all inquiries to Nia Ridley (PS...If any of the links on this page don't work, go back to the home page and try from there. This website has evolved and taken on a life of its own over the years, and some of the links have changed. I try to keep up with them, but inevitably, I've missed some. But they DO all work from the front page. I apologize for the inconvenience!)
