Lee Pearce
Whiskey is an orphan BLM mustang. Whiskey was orphaned a few hours into his life in the Hardtrigger area of the Owyhee Mountains in SW Idaho. Whiskey left the range for my house on the drop-down seat in an extended cab pickup that fateful day in February 2003.
Whiskey has faced many difficulties in his life besides being an orphan horse. The difficulty that I want to write about is metabolic laminitis. Mustangs are tough horses that have adapted to eat the poor quality feeds that grow in the arid regions of the Western US.
Whiskey is no exception, and when he came to my place, he lived on pasture grass. The rich diet of pasture grass took its toll and Whiskey developed metabolic laminitis. As I wrote earlier, Whiskey is a tough horse, but by early January 2011, Whiskey would no longer stand. His condition broke my heart and I thought that my experience with my orphan mustang was over. I stood beside Whiskey, I thought about the hardships in his life, and I cried. I called my vet and I called a very good friend. Naomi Preston and her husband Lee Pearce came over and we tried to rouse Whiskey and get him to the trailer. It took a concerted effort to get Whiskey to stand and we had to place Easyboots on Whiskey’s front feet so that Whiskey could even walk the few steps to the trailer.
That day, January 3 2011, was another episode, in a series of setbacks, for Whiskey due to laminitis. We took Whiskey to my vet, Steve Hardy DVM, and we took more x-rays of Whiskey’s front feet. Steve and Lee placed wedge foam boots on Whiskey’s front feet, and Lee went on to place wedge foam boots on Whiskey’s hind feet too. Whiskey was very noticeably more comfortable with the foam boots. Whiskey’s comfort gave us optimism. All of us talked, and Lee and Naomi agreed to keep Whiskey at their home in eastern Oregon for a month or so and begin Whiskey’s therapeutic shoeing.
Whiskey’s story now moves ahead a few months to May 2011. I was preparing to leave SW Idaho for Saint Joseph Missouri, the eastern terminus of the Pony Express Trail. My plan was to take my two horses, Frank and Whiskey across the US, from the bank of the Missouri River to California, on the Pony Express Trail. By the end of the summer, many horses and riders had participated in the trip and Frank and Whiskey were there for the whole journey from end to end. Either Frank or Whiskey was on the trail every day and each horse went well over 600 miles. When I think back and remember the prairie, farmland, mountains, rivers, and deserts along the XP trail, I am very proud of my two horses and especially proud of Whiskey. It wasn’t easy for him, but Whiskey is a tough horse and he kept going westward across the country.
My farrier, Lee Pearce, gave Whiskey the treatment Whiskey needed to overcome laminitis. Proper shoeing is critical for Whiskey to remain sound and Lee helped me arrange to meet two other farriers, Kevin Sanders and Mike Sussex, halfway across the Pony Express Trail in Torrington Wyoming. Lee helped me find the two farriers through the Natural Balance network. Mike and Kevin spent the whole day in our camp in Wyoming shoeing and treating the horses on the Pony Express Trail.
Today, Whiskey lives in a dry-lot section of my pasture. Whiskey’s diet no longer includes pasture grass. Whiskey still wears pads on his front feet and Natural Balance shoes on all four feet. Steve Hardy takes lateral x-rays of Whiskey’s front feet in the spring to help Lee correctly place the shoes on Whiskey’s front feet. Whiskey and Frank both continue to do 50-mile endurance rides.
Whiskey has not had an easy life, and Whiskey is not an easy horse, but Whiskey is a tough horse. Whiskey owes his life to the care and concern of Lee Pearce, Steve Hardy, and many others. Whiskey is a good horse.
—Tom Noll (Meridian, Idaho)