An amazing story about how two men with ingenuity, an old fire hose, and a horse with a fighting spirit recently made headlines is reported by Lisa Allmendinger, regional writer for AnnArbor.com.
In early February, Amy McCarter noticed that her 26-year-old retired Morgan show horse was walking strangely, but thought little of it until the next morning when her husband Howard discovered that the horse was down and struggling to get up.
As good horse owners do, they immediately called their veterinarian. Believing that the horse had contracted equine protozoal myeloencephalitis, a progressive, degenerative neurological disease of the central nervous system, the horse was given medication to fight the disease.
Just one problem: Heart needed to be able to stand to successfully fight the disease, but didn't have the strength in her hind legs to remain standing so she could heal. She needed a sling to support her 1,000 pound body, but the owners couldn't find anything online that would work.
Reuel Long, Amy's father-in-law called his friend, Loren Yates, chief of the Dexter Area Fire Department.
To read the amazing full story and see photographs of Heart, please click on the following link: