Tegan
Tegan was saved from entering the slaughter pipeline in July 2025. Used up, she was dumped at a low end auction and left to very likely end up in the wrong hands.
Tegan was in bad shape upon rescue. The veterinary exam indicated that while she was weight-taped at 880 pounds, a visual estimate of her weight is closer to 750-775. Her body condition score (BCS) was 2.5 out of 9, emaciated.
More from the veterinary evaluation:
Tegan has pronounced bilaterally symmetrical muscle atrophy, indicative of chronic inadequate caloric intake or a malabsorptive disorder. She has severe mucopurulent ocular and nasal discharge bilaterally.
Tegan has a multitude of superficial to moderate skin wounds throughout the face, neck, trunk and peripheral limbs. She has a large scabbed, hairless sarcoid lesion on the left cheek (under where a cheek piece of a bridle would lay) that is approximately 2.5″ in diameter.
She has a hard proliferative swelling of the left carpus, and both carpi are positively painful to gentle flexion.
Tegan is bilaterally stiff in both forelimbs, with lameness that is even in both thoracic limbs.
Xrays were taken and results showed:
Both views display chronic, severe remodeling of the proximal carpal joint, with alternating proliferative and moth-eaten (re-absorption) patterns evident. There are several lateral and dorsal mineralized lesions dissected from or separate from the joint or bone, with the soft tissue spaces.
This proximal joint is the most mobile, with the greatest range of motion, and as such, can have the greatest potential for maladaptive pain. These lesions may be a result of genetics, diet, or trauma, and in the case of a unilateral lesion with bilateral pain, could be a singular trauma such as a kick from another animal directly to the joint.
Due to a very poor prognosis for any type of pain management which would mean Tegan would suffer in great pain, she was humanely euthanized.
Sadly too many horses end up just like Tegan. And what for? A ribbon, a trophy, a cash prize, a belt buckle or some other award — or from never-ending use by owners until a horse can go no more. And then off to a horrible auction to be exposed to illness (like strangles or other respiratory disease) and downward from there, often sold to a kill buyer.
More About Tegan
- In Assessment
- Red Roan
- Mare
- 2005
- QH
- Colorado