Apollos Story: The Healing Power of Love and Community

Apollo is one of our beloved lesson horses. He is a Norwegian Fjord Cross that came here in December 2014. Were we really looking for another lesson horse? Not really, but the Universe has a way of putting things in my life. I never would have imagined the journey we have already gone through together, but one thing was for sure that he was meant to be here with us. Apollo was named after the Greek god of prophecy, medicine, music, art, law, beauty, wisdom, sun and light. There is no coincidence then that what we soon embarked on together was one of healing, finding beauty in grim times, and great wisdom.

It was early April.  The vet had just come out to do routine vaccines and coggins. Everything looked healthy and good. The next week, buffalo gnats came out in full force. Apollo had developed a large edema (swelling) on his abdomen.  I had assumed because of the buffalo gnats biting, that he had an allergic reaction. Cold hosing and liniment was working, but very slowly, so I decided to pick up some Bute (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory). This was taking the swelling down much quicker, but along with it he started to get diarrhea.  So I took him off the Bute, despite there being some swelling left. His diarrhea was not improving after a few days, and he was becoming dehydrated and noticeably depressed.  We started giving him electrolytes with little success.

I remember the first night I realized something was more seriously wrong than just a bad case of diarrhea.  He was laying down a lot more than usual, his weight was noticeably decreasing more than just what he had lost in water from the dehydration. I brought the horses in that night, and he wasn’t interested in food.  He kept lying down, getting up, walking lethargically. It was 11pm on a Thursday and I was to be up at 6am the following morning. I left his stall door open, asking him what he needed to feel better. He would walk out of his stall and walk a lap in the arena, poop (nothing but liquid), lay down in his stall, get back up, walk to the gate to go in the paddock, lay down, poop…This continued for about 30min. 

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