The All American Quarter Horse Congress is a show dreams are made of. For most owners, it’s the place where dreams are either made or dashed. Last year, the latter was true for Sandy Reese of Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. Her horse, Pretty Much Kruzin by The Krymsun Kruzer and out of Reserve Congress Champion mare, Pretty Much Perfect, suffered one of the worst accidents many at the Congress say they’ve ever seen.
Early in the week, the three-year-old gelding, who was slated to show with trainer, Chris Gray, in the Three-Year-Old Hunter Under Saddle Futurity, rolled in his stall and his front leg became trapped between the stall partitions. According to Gray, “We were about to leave the barn for the night and heard him lay down. It sounded like he hit the stall wall. It wasn’t abnormal for him to get cast, so we came around the corner expecting to have to roll him over. Instead, we found his leg stuck in the back corner where the four stalls connected.”
Chris, his partner, Jerry Clark, and good friend, Clint Ainsworth, didn’t panic, but they knew instantly the situation was bad. “When he rolled, the force of him hitting the stalls caused the top of the panels to open. His foot slid in, between the partitions, and when the partitions closed his foot was captured,” Gray says.
“We tried to sedate him, but his adrenaline had kicked in, and it didn’t take effect well.” Even though the horse knew he was stuck, he didn’t initially panic. But Gray says once the seventeen hand gelding knew he wasn’t getting loose, he began to thrash.
Gray remembers, “It was especially bad because the weight of his body was pulling down on the pin that secured the stalls shut. I sat on his body and tried to keep him still. Several other trainers came over, and I was just trying to keep him from thrashing. We called Hassinger’s Equine and Dr. Alison Roth and an assistant were here in twenty minutes. Thankfully, Dr. Roth was able to get him sedated. At that point, we had to call the fairgrounds maintenance crew to saw the stalls apart.”
Brian and Darla Lee of Plain City, Ohio were stalled in the next aisle way. Lee says he remembers the night from the 2014 Congress well. “We were getting ready to saddle to ride. It was about midnight and we heard a crash and our pad rack was thrown into the middle of the aisle.” Lee says, it’s times like that when the horse industry comes together. “As soon as you heard it you knew it was bad. Fortunately, quite a few people were around, and everyone pitched in to help. Still, the horse was down quite a while and his legs tore through several of our stalls. It was a very bad situation.”
Though the situation was dire, Gray kept his cool. The trainer from Spring Mills, Pennsylvania is accustomed to keeping a level head while managing a barn full of horses and clients. Once the horse was sedated, Gray sent someone for Reese. She shares, “A good friend came to the trailer to wake me up. She told me Kruzer was in trouble. When I got down to the stall, he was still hanging by his leg. I honestly was in shock, but, being the wife of a veterinarian, I’ve seen a lot of bad situations. So, I didn’t panic; I just had faith it was going to be okay.”
It would be shocking for anyone to see their horse hanging from a stall by one leg, but for Reese, it was especially heartbreaking. “We bred and raised him; I was there the morning he was born. It’s hard to see any horse in trouble, but when you’ve raised them there’s a special attachment.”
Even though the fairgrounds maintenance crew arrived in short order, it took a great deal of effort to free Kruzer. “He hung there almost two hours until they got him cut free, one bar at a time,” says Gray. “All I was thinking about was getting him loose, but I was pretty sure his future as a show horse was done and that he’d have career ending injuries,” he adds.
Reese says, “There were so many people here helping; I just kind of stood back and allowed the vets to do what they needed to do. I was so appreciative of all the people that came. When I got here, there were probably two-dozen people trying to help, most of whom I didn’t know.”
After almost two hours the vets, maintenance staff, and trainers were able to free the young horse. Reese says, “They got him up and he was bleeding profusely. He ended up with over sixty stitches. It was amazing that he didn’t pull his hoof off, or break his pastern.”
Dr. Alison Roth shares that Kruzer’s accident was the worst she’d ever seen. “I’ve never seen a horse stuck that bad. I thought it was great how everyone came out in the middle of the night. They stayed all night to make sure he was okay.”
The next morning Reese and Gray walked the horse to the vet trailer, expecting him to be severely lame. “When we took him to the vet that very next morning, he walked over ninety-five percent sound. The vets were absolutely amazed at how he walked in. People in our barn were calling him the miracle horse,” says Reese.
Roth says she was surprised seeing the horse that next morning. “My jaw dropped when he walked in. He looked so good. I was completely shocked there was no infection, no nerve or joint damage. It was all just superficial.”
Within a few months he was back in training with Gray. “Three months later, once the swelling had gone down and the wounds had healed, I started to feel like he could come back,” says Gray.
Come back he has. Currently the gelding is seventh in the nation in Junior Green Hunter Under Saddle for the AQHA Honor Roll, and he is close to completing his superior in Green Hunter Under Saddle with limited showing.
Sunday, Gray made the finals in a tough Green Hunter Under Saddle class at the Congress. Gray says, “I felt he showed very well. He lacked a little maturity and show finesse that some of the other horses above us had. But all in all, I was extremely happy with him. I feel he will go on to have a very successful career.”
Watching the big bay gelding show Sunday was especially meaningful for Reese. She shares, “It was very exciting and satisfying to watch him show. I am very proud of how far he came, and honestly, that he survived and was able to come back this year to show at the level he did. He’s a special horse.”
Reese would likely add that she’s involved with a very special industry, one that isn’t afraid to come together and lend a hand in a desperate situation. Because sometimes, with a little luck and help from above, miracles still happen and dreams can be made.
