"WAR STORIES"
aka: Mr. Crooks

On May 10th, 2004 my APHA mare gave birth to  a tobiano colt by War Drums Rebel. After much research I was able to trace his bloodlines back through horses such as War Drum to the great Man o' War.  I decided to name him War Stories. At the time I had no idea how fitting that name was to become.

He was a very large foal and his dam was fairly small so he had been quite cramped inside her. Because of this he was severely over at the knees, windswept and he had very weak fetlocks. This led to the nickname Mr. Crooks. In addition to this his height compared to Sky's made it very hard for him to figure out how to nurse. We had the vet out several times that day. Their diagnosis was to wait a bit on his legs and see if there was improvement but we had to get food into him now! We milked Sky and tried bottle feeding him but he didn't catch on. The vet ended up having to use a tube to force some colostrum into him but he was still very weak. After many hours that seemed like days he figured out how to nurse and from then on he seemed to get stronger by the minute.

Then started the weekly calls to the vet about his legs. The weak fetlocks improved drastically and the other two were slowly improving so we all just kept watch. He finally started showing drastic improvement at about three months old. The weak fetlocks and windswept problem were completely gone and he was barely over at the knees by four months old.

After Breyerfest that year he began faintly limping on his right front leg. We all kid of brushed it off as him playing too hard and it went away after a couple of days. Then it returned and went away again. The third time it returned I called the vet out. He checked and felt exactly what we did, that Crooks was playing hard and it was nothing to worry about. Crooks was a very large, strong foal by this time, already almost the size of a weanling, so he was also very active. But this time it didn't improve. Crooks stopped running and jumping and mostly just stood around. We called the vet again and after a quick trailering lesson we hauled him in for x-rays. (I should interject here that my vet really is an excellent vet, he's the vet that actually discovered the use of Pergolide mesylate in the treatment of Cushing's disease in horses and spends part of each year as the vet for many professional events).

The x-rays showed us just about the worst thing we could have found. Somehow Crooks had developed Osteochondritis Dissecans in his shoulder. OCD is a problem that affects the cartilage and bone in a joint, most commonly in the knee. Determining what had caused it was impossible although the vet felt it was most likely due to Crooks size as it is frequently seen in breeds that grow fast. Other causes can be diet, injury, and some believe bloodlines. In the knee it can most often be successfully treated but in the shoulder treatment is very hard. In good cases it will heal enough that the horse can live a semi-normal life, no events but fine for pleasure riding. This is what we were hoping for. At the vets prescription we treated and confined him as best we could. There was improvement for a while but then he became lame again. We once again took him to the vet and the diagnosis was that the OCD was getting worse despite our best efforts. At this point it had progressed enough that the vet felt Crooks would never be suitable for even light riding but we didn't care. If a 1200lb pasture ornament was all he would ever be then that's what he would be as long as he wasn't hurting. We treated him again and again saw improvement for a while. This cycle went on for about 2 months but then he got drastically worse.

At this point we began Legend injections into the joint and started considering surgery. The Legend injection helped at first but we found out that the nearest place that could do the surgery on a shoulder was in WA state which would have meant a very long, painful trailer ride for Crooks. We were also told that the surgery only had a 15% chance of even making him well enough that he could live comfortably and basically no chance of doing more than that. We made the decision not to subject him to the pain of the trailer ride, the surgery, and the recuperation time only to have an 85% chance of it not working. We discussed it with the vet who felt that as long as the Legend injections were working we should continue on that route. We moved him to an indoor stall at a friends stable and kept him confined except for daily walking trying to give the injections and rest enough time to help a little. After just over 6 weeks the injections had moved from 3 weeks down to 1 week apart. He received his final injection 2 days before Christmas 2004. On Christmas Eve I got a call from the barn manager saying Crooks was still in severe pain. They had made the decision to give him some Bute to keep him comfortable but I knew it was the end of the battle. The bute kept him comfortable over the holiday and I called the vet first thing the Monday after Christmas.

On December 27th, 2004 Crooks joined Abbi on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge.

In special memory of War Stories, Linda York has agreed to immortalize him in resin as a companion to Abbi, our 2004 SR resin which she also sculpted. He is scaled to be a weanling, and displays all of the life and fun that the real Crooks would have had if he had not been in pain.

War Stories is currently at Resins by Randy being cast. These copies should be exceptionally clean and will have wire supports. They are expected in hand by late February. Reserve your copy now!

Pricing is as follows:
First Copy shipped within US - $45
Additional copies shipped within US (same order) - $42.50 ea
First copy shipped internationally - $55
Additional copies shipped internationally (same order) - $52.50 ea

ALL PROCEEDS FROM THE SALE OF THESE MODELS HELP SUPPORT REUNION IV LIVE!

To order your copy of War Stories please fill out the form below. Payment in full is due within one week of your order. Sorry, no time payments. All sales are final.

PayPal payment can be sent to noCCpaypal@reunionlive.net (please e-mail me for CC address) or check/MO payment can be sent to Ronni Marcum - 1007 E Idaho - Kalispell, MT 59901

All sales are final.

JOIN THE REUNION LIVE MAILING LIST ON YAHOO! GROUPS