Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 6, 1995 TAG: 9509060067
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Medium
Some of the foals at Boot Strap Manor in Suffolk were born prematurely, and others were weeks overdue. Some were spontaneously aborted. In one case, a foal had grown so big that it could not be pulled out of its mother, even with chains.
Bessie Gower, the farm's owner, and manager Dick Kelly watched in horror as a veterinarian decapitated the young horse inside its mother so it could be removed, they said.
``That blows your mind if you've got any feelings at all,'' Kelly said.
According to Gower and Kelly, only two healthy foals were born during the period starting in late 1993. As the number of problems grew, they began looking for a cause.
``We began testing everything that could be a common problem,'' Gower said. ``We tested the bedding. We tested the hay. We tested the grass. We tested the mares. We even tested the stallions.''
Then, in late May, a letter arrived from the University of Kentucky saying that the tall fescue grass covering 30 acres of Boot Strap Manor contained endophytic fungus, a disease carried in the seeds.
The fungus, identified about 20 years ago, typically makes cattle unusually thirsty, depresses milk production and lowers pregnancy rates.
The severity of the Boot Strap Manor problem was isolated, probably because miniature horses are more susceptible to fungus infections, said Clifton Slade, an agricultural extension agent.
M.W. Myers, the veterinarian who cares for the horses at Boot Strap Manor, said much of the region's fescue is infected, although he has seen only a handful of horses sickened by the fungus and most less severely than Gower's horses.
The only way to destroy the infected grass is to kill the entire pasture.
``That's not only difficult financially,'' Myers said. ``It's just plain difficult. This stuff likes to live.''
The lawsuit, filed last month in Virginia Beach Circuit Court, seeks $250,000 in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages against Wetsel Inc., which sold the grass seed, and the Midwestern States Fescue Association, which developed and packaged the seed.
Samuel R. Brown II, the attorney for Boot Strap Manor, said the fescue association is not registered in Virginia. He said he has been unable to determine where the organization is based.
Kelly said miniature-horse foals can sell for up to $15,000 each. The farm also had to pay medical costs for the sick mares and will have to pay $10,000 to kill the old fescue and put in new grass, he said.
``We lost a fortune,'' Gower said. ``We had people waiting in line to buy these foals.''
But the worst part, Kelly said, was watching helplessly as the animals suffered.
``When you go out in the barn in the morning and find one of these mares tossing and turning with one of those foals hanging half out, it's just devastating,'' he said.
Memo: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.