30/05/2026
So many people have heard and read about Sox by now. And I have gotten so many messages from people who have had horses with similar problems.
31 May marks the anniversary of Soxy's passing. She would have been 16 by now...
And I keep sharing her story for those people out there who are still looking for answers.
This time of year for me is a time of grief - and hope. I’m grieving for a very special horse who had to suffer because of the ignorance and greed of humans. But at the same time I’m hopeful that by sharing my journey with this mare I can make more and more people aware and maybe things will slowly start to change. Many of you will already know about Sox. But for those of you who don’t – and who are interested – here is her story:
Soxy came to me in October 2014 as a very sweet, very talented, yet very immature rising 4 year old Oldenburger mare. I don’t believe in rushing the training of young horses and really took my time with her education.
However, in the 3 years I have had her in work, she only advanced very slowly and I kept wondering why she didn’t seem to develop more musculature over her back and neck. I put it down to her being young and – being a WB - taking longer to mature than others.
The more work I did with her, however, the more her once very nice athletic movements appeared to get worse. And in the same ratio her behaviour worsened. She was always cranky, threatened to bite or kick, was very reluctant to go forward, dragging her hind legs over the ground wherever she went and she was always very sore.
I could not get rid of the feeling deep down that something was not right with my mare, but I couldn’t pin it down.
Sox was diagnosed with a congenital malformation in her cervical spine in October 2017and after having been injected with Kenacort into the C6/C7 joint, things looked quite promising to start with.
Sox seemed pain free, more content in her own skin and overall much happier than she had been for a long time. Unfortunately, this didn’t last for very long and after only a few months, Soxy seemed in discomfort again, reverting back to her old behavioral patterns.
I had hoped that I would be able to build up her musculature correctly to support the damaged joint, however, that was not a possibility. I made the very difficult decision to let Sox go and put her to sleep. I knew that Sharon May-Davies was going to be in WA for one of her dissection courses and so I made Sox available to use for the dissection.
The extent and significance of Sharon’s findings in the dissection are incomprehensible. incomprehensible. It turned out that Sox’s C6/C7 malformation was only the tip of the iceberg.
Amongst others, here are only a few of the findings that this poor horse suffered from – some of which might have resulted from the ECVM, others unrelated: granulated fascia over neck; scar tissue over wither, fibrotic tissue over sciatic nerve; T1 nerve impingement; kissing spines in T14-15 & T17.
While some of the issues that Sox suffered from would have been subsequent conditions or possibly caused by trauma, most of it would have been hereditary. That means that this beautiful, well-bred(!) mare would have been in chronic pain from the moment of her birth and never had a chance. Sharon has dissected hundreds of horses and she has never come across anything of this scope yet. She told me that Sox would have most likely have suffered a very painful death from organ failure within the near future and that she was glad that I was still alive as this horse could have collapsed underneath me at any moment - or bucked me off which she amazingly never attempted, although she would have had every reason to!
Sox was a talented and stunning young mare and she did not deserve to be in such misery. Something has to change in the way we breed horses. Sharon’s latest research shows alarming numbers in Europe that suffer from congenital malformations.
The reason why I share Sox’s story is to raise awareness for these issues and for the fact that more horses out there suffer from it than we think! And not only is it hurtful for the horse, it can also become very dangerous for the rider!
We have to give our horses the benefit of the doubt and do what we can to listen to them when they try to tell us that they are unhappy, in discomfort or pain. A horse can only express its distress by displaying bevaviour which we deem as “naughty”. They have no other way to communicate it to us – they don’t speak human!
Even if it takes some time, the answers are out there; don’t stop asking questions. We owe it to these extraordinary creatures!
I miss Soxy a lot. Still. The only thought of comfort felt for me is that she is now in a better place and finally free of pain. Sox has also be included in Sharon's lectures and I am glad that her legacy is able to educate people around the world.
