Kim Vaughn & Shesa Silver Spoon

Then on May 12, Vaughn, Longmont, Colo., received a call from nearby trainer Kenny Platt. A horse that he’d taken to Utah for clients Dwight and Kathi Fisher, Denver, Colo., was dead.

It was equine herpesvirus (EHV-1), a communicable disease that can cause death in horses. It was believed the horse had contracted the virus at the Western Nationals.

The next morning, Vaughn started taking her horse’s temperature. By noon on Friday, May 13, Shesa Silver Spoon was running a fever. After a hit of Banamine, Shesa Silver Spoon’s fever dropped, but by 6 p.m. that night, she was dragging her hind toes.

“They say if there’s any change in gait, to take them right away, so we took her up to CSU (Colorado State University) and they put her in isolation immediately,” Vaughn said.

Veterinarians immediately started treating Shesa Silver Spoon. They used a catheter to empty the mare’s bladder and help relieve one of the symptoms of the virus.

“She’s been there ever since,” said Vaughn, contacted on May 16. “The veterinarians say it can be an up and down rollercoaster. They are overwhelmed with horses and calls, so they said that no news is good news.

"On Saturday (May 14) she had started to improve, then when we got out of church, we had a message. She had laid down, more than likely from exhaustion, but she couldn’t get up," Vaughn said. "Her front end could get up but she was in a dog sit. She couldn’t get up with a hind end. They have a contraption that grabs hold of the tail head and when they pulled her up she could stand on her own with very little help, which is a good sign. This morning (May 16), she was still continuing to hold her own and they were going to pull the catheter out and see if she could urinate on her own.”

Vaughn has no idea how long the waiting game will continue. If her mare is released from hospital, it could be months before she knows the extent of the neurological and spinal damage.

“I would trade my win in a heartbeat to have the health of my horse back.”