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SpitfireSpitfire was foaled on February 28, 2001 and has been with us since August 2001. Her owners wanted to sell her because their other horse, an older Quarter Horse gelding, didn't get along with her and had kicked and injured her. We were looking for a companion horse for our mare Cinnamon, and when our vet found out and told us about Spitfire, another patient of her, the deal was made. At the time her name was Twilight, but after we got to know her we decided that her name didn't fit her. Our dear friends at the B&D Barn nicknamed her "Hellfire", but they don't know her the way we do. Spitfire is a real pretty sorrel filly with a star. She is a cross between an Arabian and a Morgan but her spirit is all Arabian. She's quick and naughty, and her big, soft eyes will fool you. Two days after Spitfire arrived at our place, we noticed she had a problem getting up. When our vet came out to check her, it was determined she possibly had a stifle problem. To make a long story short: Several trips and vet checks later, we decided to take her to the University in Gainesville, FL, where within 10 minutes the diagnosis was made. X-rays were taken of the affected area, and the result was a problem that is extremely rare:
This type of injury can be very painful and could require several months to resolve. She was to be confined to her stall for a period of 30 days and return to the University for evaluation. The prognosis I went home with that day was not very good. There was no guarantee that the month of stall rest would actually help Spitfire, and if there was no improvement after 30 days, I was told I might consider putting her to sleep. We kept her in her stall, which wasn't an easy thing to do with such a lively filly as Spitfire...and no matter how bad I felt about it, I wanted to do everything I could to pull her through. During this month, Spitfire had changed from being this sweet, lively filly, into this fury that would rear, buck, kick, and would try to bite your head off every chance she got. We went back after 30 days and again x-rays were taken for comparison. Nothing had changed; the lesion still had the same size, but appeared to be a little smoother. There really was no way of knowing if she would ever be alright. It was decided that we would try a very slow and rigorous rehabilitation period of approximately 2 months, starting off with hand walking for about 10 minutes per day for 2 weeks, and gradually increasing the type of exercise and time. Considering Spitfire's attitude, I asked if she could at least have a paddock, which was okay as long as we kept it small enough. During the first 2 weeks of hand walking, I found out that that type of exercise with a filly like Spitfire can be very harmful to your knees. All in all her therapy lasted 3 very long months,. and then came the big day: We were going to turn her loose in the roundpen for 30 minutes. She ran, bucked, reared, kicked the whole time. It was then that we decided that Twilight was not a good name for her. Spitfire was the name that came up immediately...and that was her name from that day on.
We have been lucky; Spitfire hasn't had a problem with the lesion even though, after all this time, it is still there, still the same size. She gives us a show every morning running wild in her pasture. She tries her best keeping up with our 4 year old Thoroughbred Cindy, which she can't of course but she will win in the sprint, and her turns are the sharpest. We have just started her under saddle and she is doing great. And oh yeah...she is still very naughty!
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