Sadie is Sea Accounts’ first foal, and by all rights she shouldn’t be here.

In late October 2003, Francesca suddenly broke out in what appeared to be hives or fire ant bites. We treated them as such, but she started to lose weight and the bumps grew and spread. Days later, they turned into open weeping sores and her legs stocked up like telephone poles. Walking was a struggle for her. Here’s what she looked like.

The vets were stumped, but continued to treat it as an allergic reaction to fire ant bites and we were bathing Francesca for hours a day trying to clean the sores. It was awful because she was so clearly in pain. Noble Endeavor was weaned earlier than planned to help ease the stress on her body. He was a real trooper about it, keeping her company in the next pen, but not complaining.

After a few weeks, Francesca had lost so much weight and looked so bad that I knew if we didn’t do something, she would die. I insisted that we take her to Texas A&M. So, the first of December, Chris and I drove her down; we weren't sure she’d survive the trip!

Once we arrived, Dr. Joanne Hardy, one of the emergency/critical care vets at A&M, took one look and her and told us we had a very sick mare. I told her Francesca was four months pregnant with our stallion’s first foal. She doubted that Francesca was still pregnant, but after an ultrasound, incredibly, she was still in foal.

We left Francesca in the intensive care ward and headed home, with our fingers crossed. Later that night, Dr. Hardy called and said Francesca had pemphigus foliaceus – an extremely rare auto–immune disease in horses where the immune system attacks the body through the skin. The prognosis was poor. There is no cure, no known cause, and horses typically don't respond to treatment.

Dr. Hardy said if we wanted to try, we could start treatment and hope that the mare responded well enough to carry the foal to term, although Dr. Hardy didn’t give us much hope. We felt since Francesca had managed to keep the pregnancy while being so sick that we should give her the chance to foal. To make a long story short, miracles do happen. She responded beautifully to the treatment and delivered a healthy foal. Francesca has far exceeded all the expectations. In fact, today Francesca looks like a completely normal healthy mare, although she’ll be on medication for the rest of her life.

She’s dong so well, we’ve bred her back to Sea Accounts. If she carries this foal to term, then wonderful. If not, we already have our special miracle… Special Account!

Update:  Francesca  has been in total remission for over two years.  We watch her closely in the summer for signs of any skin lesions, but she hasn’t been on any meds for two years.  She is also carrying her fifth Sea Accounts foal!!  It is a lovely cross.  Sadie will be four in 2008 and is in foal to Van Gogh.  She will begin an eventing career after the foal is weaned.