Rendezvous 3, Competed by Courtney King-Dye, Shatters Pastern Bone, Humanely Euthanized
15 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Rendezvous 3, Competed by Courtney King-Dye, Shatters Pastern Bone, Humanely Euthanized
MILLBROOK, New York, Oct. 21–Rendezvous 3, a 14-year-old Danish Warmblood mare owned by Francine Walker and competed by Courtney King-Dye, shattered her pastern bone in a turnout paddock and had to be humanely euthanized.
Courtney’s 2008 Olympic mount Harmony’s Mythilus was euthanized 10 days prior to Rendezvous’ injury, from complications during a colic surgery.
“It is pretty devastating,” Courtney told dressage-news.com of the death of Rendezvous on Monday.
She said that the horse had been turned out in a paddock that was “postage stamp sized” specially to minimize the possibility of injury.
“She did one little buck, kicked up her heels, and the groom heard a sound like she had kicked the fence,” Courtney said.
The small pastern bone was broken in several places down to the cannon bone.
“We consulted with the veterinarians on every possible way to save her. We were told there was a long shot that the bone could be pinned so RV could eventually be saved to become a broodmare. But even that was doubtful and would require a minimum of one year of stall rest. It could have been a lot of suffering for her.”
Courtney said that in her 22 years of being involved with horses she had never lost a horse.
“To lose two horses in 10 days… it is devastating,” Courtney said.
She said that she and the owner had gone over plans to bring Rendezvous to Florida to compete in Grand Prix during the winter circuit.
One of great things about Rendezvous, she said, was the that horse had been competitive at the higher levels but the owner loved riding her as well.
