Baby Farana Story

SH Farana
The "Baby Farana" Story

The saga of SH Farana began long before he was born. It started with my interest in finding horses with close-up crosses to the great Kellogg stallion Farana #708 (*Nasik x *Farasin). He was a stock horse of renown, and seemed to be a positive influence in pedigrees when combined with Abu Farwa, Alla Amarward, and other Reese Circle "greats." All too often, though, it seemed that he was the "silent influence" and was not linebred, so that horses with any high degree of Farana blood were rare. Even as I utilized horses such as Lawmoss (Lawseyn x Lawsouma, both out of the Farana daughter Farlouma) in my breeding program, I began to be aware that tail male Farana horses just simply were not to be found. Consequently, I started to search for them.


Farana #708 (*Nasik 604 x *Farasin 615)

Initially, I spent hours and hours combing through the old Registry microfiches, identifying stallions of an age that they might still be alive, that traced their tail male line to Farana. I was only able to identify four. One could not be tracked down. One is DRS Flaming Star, owned by Carole Lee of northern Idaho--a very lovely stallion. But the other two, a father-and-son combo, particularly intrigued me, because not only did they trace in tail male line to Farana, but they were also linebred to him. I received a wonderful letter from the man who owned Arbe El Nafar, sending pictures and old farm ads--but alas, Arbe had been gelded in his later years simply due to lack of interest in traditional old lines and due to the encroachment of suburbia on his owner's place. Later, however, I heard from Jay and Bernice Corcoran, owners of Ibn El Nafar, who not only had 5 crosses to Farana but also had close crosses to two of Farana's full sisters and several other close relatives. "Naffy" was alive and well--and intact!--but had had a crippling injury as a foal. Nonetheless, I made the trek to Palm Desert, near Victorville, CA, to see Naffy and his dam, who was still alive at the time. To make a long story short, he came home with me three years later on a breeding lease, in declining health, but still proud, alert, and a pleasure to be around.


Ibn El Nafar (Arbe El Nafar [Nataf x Ake Ta Lisa] x Junamait [El Amait x Aulani Nisan])

Naffy was unable to stand on his crippled hind leg to cover mares, so we got a handful of mares in foal to him by AI, collecting him while he stood with all four legs on the ground. We lost him the following winter, but his last efforts and our hard work were rewarded when we foaled out two sons and two daughters. One son in particular (out of one of our Lawmoss daughters, who herself has 4 crosses to Farana) was a dandy bay colt--pretty, athletic, with the breathtaking movement and self-carriage of his illustrious ancestor and an inquisitive and in-your-pocket disposition, to boot! Of course, we had to name him SH Farana.

His first hurdle in life was a rather stressful beginning. His dam was a maiden mare, and when I checked her on the morning of July 3, 2002, she appeared to be near foaling. No wax, nothing imminent--just looked close. So I came up to the house, put up some pipe panels for her foaling pen, and decided to duck into the house for a piece of toast and a glass of milk. Half an hour after checking her, I went back down to the pasture to bring her up to her "foaling pen"--and saw her off by herself with a little set of tippy ears sticking up out of the grass! The other mares had not yet discovered her, but they did as soon as he got up--and I was home alone, with the task of packing him out of the pasture with a dozen other broodmares trying to steal him from me and his frustrated mama! Well, we managed--but he and mama were pretty stressed out, which is never an auspicious beginning. He nursed well, and all seemed fine until he was 5 days old--when he broke with a case of navel ill and a septic hock.

Over the course of the next month, he was on antibiotics several times a day and had his hock drained 4 times, but he was a trooper and a great little patient, and didn't complain (much). The hock healed without incident, and he was able to join his compatriots out in the "big world."

Life seemed uneventful, and he was growing up beautifully--he was the pasture clown, the friendly colt that was into everything, and the one who stole everyone's heart. Until I came home on a snowy winter's night in December, and went out to feed, and found him standing pitifully by the fence, one foreleg dangling uselessly, the cannon bone shattered from an apparent kick wound. There was a gaping gash over the fracture site, and jagged bone end were sticking out. My dreams for this colt came crashing to the ground, and my first thought (other than wanting to scream at the horror and injustice of it all) was that it was dark and that I would need help to euthanize him, as I was once again home alone. But I looked him in the eye, and I could swear he was telling me that he just wasn't ready to die.

I called Dr. Todd Tibbitts, who had helped me with his septic hock. Todd was tied up with a couple of other emergencies--but he wondered if I might not be able to get it splinted and get him into town to Dr. Renee Riggleman the next morning, to see if it could be cast. I went back outside with splint materials and a sedative, only to find that one of the mares had bumped into him, and unable to walk, he had collapsed over onto his back into an empty water tub--and was lying there with his broken leg doubled completely over! Another dash to the house, and another frantic call, this time to my neighbor, who came dashing to my rescue within minutes--by which time I had him sedated, had him started on antibiotics, and had a makeshift splint on the leg. The neighbor and his daughter helped me drag him out the gate, where I was able to reinforce the splint (roll cotton, a rasp, and a track bandage) with a better splint (more roll cotton, Vetrap, a 4" PVC pipe cut in half lengthwise, more track bandage, and the last of my duct tape). I put up a makeshift pipe panel pen for him and his mama, and spent a long, chilly night checking on him, ensconced in an oversized horse blanket and a down sleeping bag. Dr. Tibbitts made the trek out first thing in the morning to help me load him for town, after reinforcing my splint with additional duct tape, and pronounced that he looked to be in awfully good shape, all things considered!

Dr. Riggleman got x-rays taken first thing, and was pretty pessimistic. The bone was literally shattered, and the open wound meant that there was contamination at the fracture site as well. His foot was also cold. She asked me twice if I really wanted to "put him through this" but I told her how determined he seemed to live, and that he had a future as a breeding stallion, even if he didn't heal entirely sound, and she agreed to try. He sailed through the casting procedure, and as I was holding his foot to stretch his leg to set it, I could feel it warming up in my hand--the circulation had apparently been diminished, but not cut off.

When he came out of anesthesia, we moved him with his mama to Payback Arabians--much closer to town, for cast changes, and a much better facility for him to stay during what could turn out to be a long winter of recuperation. Because of the open wound, we needed to change the cast frequently, so that we could flush and treat the wound, and check its progress.


SH Farana in his full-leg cast, shortly after his accident

In the first few days after his injury, I searched the Internet for alternatives, should we be unsuccessful in saving his leg. One of the contacts I made was a very helpful man named Roy Scudamore, who runs a company called Equine Prosthetics. Roy has kept in touch with me by e-mail throughout the entire ordeal, and has given us all kinds of good pointers in managing Farana's fracture. He encouraged us to do serial cast changes even more frequently than we had originally planned, and I think this has paid off. The initial cast change was encouraging--although not much granulation had taken place, the wound looked healthy. And most importantly, the lower leg was still alive. The second had us down in the dumps--there was a lot of drainage, the wound smelled bad, and what granulation tissue had formed did NOT look good. We altered his antibiotic regimen, and dreaded the third cast change. But lo and behold, it was somewhat better, and by the fourth cast change, we began to have fairly healthy-looking granulation tissue. And an x-ray in mid-January showed that we had good bone healing started, and no evidence of infection! We were on our way!

But we still had more hurdles in store. While I was out of town for a weekend, Melanie Johnson of Payback Ranch came out one morning to find Baby Farana down, with diarrhea soaking the stall, a heart rate of 128, no gut sounds, and purple gums. Dr. Riggleman came straight out, and got an IV line started, but didn't hold out much hope. Melanie hooked up her trailer and got her neighbor and barn helper Robin to drive her rig with her riding in the back with Farana, on icy roads in freezing rain, to take him to the clinic. She then started trying to track me down by phone so that I could talk to Dr. Riggleman directly. When I got hold of her, she and I were in agreement; horses simply do not survive episodes like this. We discussed at what point to put him down, and how to dispose of his body. His discomfort was under control on drugs, but we agreed that should she be unable to control his pain, or should she get a bad belly tap, we would have no choice but to put him down. I called her every two hours, all day and into the evening, expecting the worst. But each time, he was holding his own. Renee stayed with him until 4 a.m., at which time he had some gut sounds back, was wanting to eat, and had not had pain meds for several hours. By that afternoon, he was back in his stall at Payback, eating and drinking. It took another day to get his diarrhea under control. We still do not know for sure what caused this nearly-fatal crash, but have speculated on everything from a nearly-ruptured ulcer to a larval migration following a deworming 10 days prior. To be on the safe side, we treated him for ulcers, and after he got back on his feet a bit, also did a 5-day fenbendazole purge.

Following the diarrhea/colic scare, we turned our attention back to his leg. The wound was well enough granulated and the bone healing well enough that we opted to put on a cast with a window over the wound to facilitate treatment, so that we wouldn't have to subject him to anesthesia and cast changes so frequently. This worked well for much of February.



Eventually, however, the cast became uncomfortable, and sure enough, due to his growth and to just plain wear and tear over time, we discovered a pressure sore over his accessory carpal bone when we removed the cast. X-rays showed continued good healing, though, so he has now graduated to a short cast, from below his knee over his fetlock.

No leg can remain 3 months in a full-leg cast without consequences, however, and after all that time, his entire suspensory apparatus was extremely lax and could not support his weight. So we've taken measures to help him get past this hurdle as well. We've taken a mold of his leg, and have an articulated brace on order from Mr. Scudamore at Equine Prosthetics. A glue-on shoe with a long trailer has helped him to place his foot properly. And a temporary Robert-Jones bandage over his knee with a carpal pad to protect the pressure sore is giving him temporary support until his brace arrives.

Meanwhile, his cooperative nature and his never-say-die attitude have made it possible for us to continue to help him along the road to recovery. And his excellent disposition has even allowed him to serve as a therapy horse. He is pictured below with one of his best friends--an 8th-grader who is on the honor roll, despite her physical handicaps (which include an inability to speak), and who dearly loves horses. She comes out once a week to give him a good grooming and some moral support.



We will continue to update Baby Farana's Story as his healing progresses.

Update: March 22, 2003

The brace is here! The following pictures show the afternoon's work on "brace day".....


Here is the makeshift support that has been "getting him by" while we waited for the brace. He has a short cast on his cannon under all that duct tape, and a cotton wrap support over his knee. He has pulled off his plastic shoe, and has his foot somewhat supported by duct tape as well. We were READY for the arrival of the brace--can you tell?


Here's how he looks with no support at all. Cannon fracture is well-healed and can support his weight (although the leg is enlarged and likely always will be). But his suspensory apparatus is extremely stretched and is NOT supporting him properly, either at the knee or at the fetlock.


Here he is in his new brace! It certainly gives him the support he needs at the knee, and with the mobility he can now have, hopefully the knee will regain strength as it regains flexibility. It will only allow extension to the degree that you can see in the photo, but will allow flexibility almost to the range that he would have if the leg were normal. (The brace was made by a company called Equine Prosthetics.) But the laxity at the fetlock that allows the pastern to drop is still a separate issue. Although he doesn't look too bad just standing, it really drops when he walks, without support from a corrective shoe.

We looked into glue-on shoes that have a cuff around the toe to help them to stay on. We found a great product called Dalric shoes--they have a "Dalric D" that is made to order for his condition, but only comes in foal sizes, and alas, he is too big for the largest size. They also have what is called a "Dalric Cuff" which could likely have been adapted to a shoe for him--but alas, he is too small for the smallest size of those. So we set out to build him a shoe by reshaping a pony shoe his smaller hoof, which left us with the trailers in back that we wanted for support. We welded a "toe cage" out of plumbers' tape, and adapted some keepers to hold a biothane heel strap in place. The finished product looked like this:


And glued in place, it looks like this:

He still sinks some when he walks, but the shoe is making a substantial difference in how he places his foot. He did manage to pull it off once (although we had it likewise protected in duct tape). We've managed so far to solve the problem by taping a baffle (half of the cardboard roll from the inside of a roll of Vetrap) over the heels of the shoe and behind his own heels, which makes it more difficult for him to "grab" it with a hind hoof.

We'll see how these aids work out for him over the next few weeks, and will update again when we have something new to report.

Update: May 4, 2003

Baby Farana came home from Payback Arabians on April 15, 2003. Like a trooper, he hopped right into the trailer for the 45-minute ride, knee brace and all. He wore the knee brace pretty regularly for several weeks, but went temporarily into a short Robert-Jones bandage while the brace went back to Equine Prosthetics to be resized. (He's growing!) He continued to wear it intermittently after it was resized, but has now pretty much graduated to just a support wrap on the healed cannon. He has also graduated from his special shoe, and travels with relatively normal angulation and hoof posture, as well as no longer being back at the knee. He still struggles with stress changes in the knee on the other leg, but it is now easier to trim his "good" foot, as he can now support himself on the healed fracture while the other foot is picked up for brief periods, without having to be put into his sling. We're hoping that supporting the over-stressed knee and keeping the foot carefully trimmed will help the non-fractured leg to recover from some of the damage it has sustained.

Meanwhile, Baby Farana bucks and plays in his paddock--and he is certainly enjoying being able to be outdoors in a 16 x 32 paddock instead of locked in a box stall!

Update: Early July, 2003

Baby Farana is now free of all wraps or supports. He can stand easily to have his feet trimmed, and he runs and bucks in his paddock. He continues to be a sweetheart and "pocket pet" after all the intensive attention he has received. He is growing like a weed, and while he will never be sound, he seems to be well on his way to growing up to be a breeding stallion. He's a happy boy, and he's alive!

Update: February, 2004

Baby Farana is growing rapidly, and has become a tall, gawky adolescent. Our biggest challenge with him is keeping his front feet adequately trimmed--because his fractured cannon healed shorter and a bit twisted, he puts abnormal stresses both on the foot on the right front leg with the healed fracture and on the knee on the opposite leg. Consequently, he requires frequent trims to minimize the tendency for his front feet to grow crooked and to alleviate the stresses on his joints. But in all other aspects, he seems to be a normal rising two-year-old colt.

Update: November, 2004

Although it is not usually our policy to breed 2-year-old stallions, we decided that in the case of Baby Farana, we should make an exception. We have been very concerned about using him for live cover, given his injuries, even though he is getting around well. After everything he has been through, we just don't want to take the risk. We have had his first mare chosen for quite some time -- Lizzie Bel (Belesemo Trad x Naliza) on lease to us from Michael Bowling at New Albion Stud. Lizzie brings in a cross to Farana's full brother Sikin, and her fourth dam is Farana's full sister Farnasa. Lizzie is the very sort of mare that we'd like to perpetuate in our program and she complements Baby Farana very well.

On September 22, we made our first attempt to ground collect Baby Farana. He was curious about the mare and was quite easy to handle; he was not afraid of the AV, and didn't mind having his humans in close proximity supervising his teasing routine. But he just couldn't quite figure out what we wanted! The following day, Lizzie was still in a standing heat with a good follicle, so we gave it another try. Eureka! It looks like Baby Farana will be as easy to ground collect as his sire was. And despite being just a long 2-year-old in the fall of the year, he gave us a pretty good collection. We AI'd Lizzie, and in mid-October, we confirmed by ultrasound that she is indeed in foal! So we are eagerly awaiting the first of the "next generation" that we so fervently hoped for throughout the long ordeal with Baby Farana.

Below are two photos taken of Baby Farana (not such a baby anymore!) on Nov. 1:





You can get some idea of the irregularity in the healed area of his right front cannon
from viewing even these left-side snapshots.


Heidi Smith, DVM
PO Box 103
Tendoy, ID 83468-0103
Phone (208) 756-6060