Babe
Babe is a registered QH mare who was dumped at an auction and fell into the wrong hands. We were able to rescue her in late April 2026.
Initial evaluation showed she is crippled due to obvious lameness from an old leg injury. The calcification to the joint is significant with approximately 25% range of motion (ROM) remaining in the right front knee.
It’s also clear that Babe was used as a broodmare.
Like all of our rescue horses, Babe was provided with a thorough medical exam to help determine chances for rehabilitation, or in cases like hers, what (if any) quality of life might be possible.
Xray results show there is significant remodeling and “moth-eaten”, proliferative damage to the two distal carpal joints, indicative of a septic joint secondary to an entry wound. These are typically secondary to deep, untreated wounds to the joints or deep traumatic kicks or falls that open up due to joint movement.
Both distal joints are globally affected, with all views showing proliferative and joint-crossing bony changes. The proximal joint is minimally affected, and carpal joint infections or wounds to one joint can either affect the adjacent joint or not at all, as carpal joints can or cannot communicate with each other, as there is high variability from individual animal to the next as to joint communication.
Babe is an approximately 18-20 year old mare with a minimally lactating udder. The left fore toe is overgrown long and untrimmed and both knees have visual and palpable evidence of soft tissue and hard swelling. ROM is decreased in both carpi by about 75%. There is a soft tissue swelling mid-cheek teeth on the right side of the upper 100 arcade, which is reducible.
She has white hairs and thickening skin at the withers, which may indicate poor saddle fit and trauma, or evidence of a genetic disease common in QHs (HERDA), which causes cutaneous skin scarring, sloughing, and renders the horse unfit to ride/pack.
This mare may have delivered a foal 30-60 days ago, or historically, and she now is prone to precocious lactation. Her degree of poor range of motion (ROM) in both knees (carpi) may have contributed to the neglect or inability to trim her front feet, either from inability to bear weight on a single front limb, or inability to flex sufficiently to have either trimmed in an elevated or extended position.
Her facial swelling could be due to feed packed into a gap in the arcade caused by a missing tooth, fractured tooth or neglected mouth with surrounding tall teeth.
Due to the obvious deterioration of her leg joints for which no treatment protocol could relieve chronic/acute pain, Babe was humanely euthanized to end her suffering.
More About Babe
- In Assessment
- Dun
- Mare
- 2008
- QH
- Colorado