We call Indy the miracle horse of the barn. In horses, Indy’s color is called grulla, a form of the dun color. He has the dorsal stripe, and you can occasionally see faint stripes that run at right angles to the dorsal stripe.
A few years ago, he had a nasty condition called gutteral pouch mycosis. Horses have an opening inside their heads called the gutteral pouch in which the carotid arteries run very close to the surface of the skin. Indy had developed a fungal infection there which threatened to erode the walls of the artery, eventually leading to death when they gave way. This is a rare disease anywhere, and almost unheard of here in Colorado.
At the CSU vet school, after conferring with the vet who had developed the procedure, a veterinarian went in and cauterized the area, cleaning out the infection and sealing the artery on that side. Indy had some nerve damage for a while, but even recovered from that after a month or so. His owner rarely rides him, so this spring, with her permission, we started seeing if he would make a school horse. He loves the attention, and seems to be starting to enjoy the little jumps as well.
The youngster who is riding him is also a gymnast. She was a bit baffling when she started taking lessons because she kept coming off the ponies. She would usually land on her feet, with a big smile on her face. Finally, after talking to her mother (a gymnastics coach) my trainer discovered that all she had to do was explain that usually we don’t