Dr. Martha Briley and Wildfire. Credit Ranada Vizena
Every year a few ponies on the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge pass on, but efforts in early May to save a Misty descendent named Wildfire were nothing short of heroic. In the process, two unsuspecting visitors from Louisianna were drawn into the adventure of a lifetime.
Wildfire was one of four Misty descendant mares who arrived in March 2018, that were placed on the island to bring back the Misty of Chincoteague lineage, which no longer existed in the wild herds. These mares joined a stallion who had been donated back in 2015. All five Misty descendants thrived on the island.
On May 1, Chincoteague resident, Darcy Cole – who hikes regularly to check on the ponies and report injuries and foal births to the fire company - found Wildfire down in the marsh and immediately called saltwater cowboy, Hunter Leonard.
That morning, veterinarian, Dr. Martha Briley and her friend, vet technician, Ranada Vizena of Lake Charles, LA, were embarking on a two-day dream-of-a-lifetime trip, a boat tour with Cowboy Cruise Company, Hunter’s business. When Hunter arrived, he was on the phone.
“I heard him saying, ‘We need to get some calcium for this mare,” Dr. Briley recalled. “’We think she is hypocalcemic.”
Hunter apologized and explained that a mare he’d checked on was down in the marsh and he needed to get back to her. He said his dad, Arthur Leonard (the mayor of Chincoteague) could give them the tour instead.
That’s when Dr. Briley and Ranada shared that they were a vet and vet tech and offered to help.
“He sighed and explained that it was extremely muddy in the marsh, but he didn't actually refuse the offer,” Ranada recalled. “I told him I wouldn't mind ruining a pair of shoes if we could be of help.”
After transferring to Arthur Leonard’s boat, their first stop was Little Beach where Riptide and his herd of mares were grazing.
“As Captain Hunter pulled up in a Polaris, Wildfire's filly chased him to the water,” Ranada recalled. “It was heartbreaking to see her clinging to the only thing that had been near the mare as he’d driven into the marsh to check her.”
The ladies, from the swamps of Louisiana, took off their shoes, rolled up their pants and waded from the boat to the ATV. This was no big deal!
The local vets, Dr. Jim Beach (who had donated Wildfire to the island), and Hunter all believed the mare could be calcium deficient and/or hypoglycemic.
“Captain Hunter dropped us off with the mare and left to get his father-in-law [Billy Reed] and the meds the mare required,” Ranada said.
Assessing the mare, Dr. Briley saw she had no apparent movement in her rear or rear limbs. Ranada remembered the heartbreak she felt.
“The filly trotted about us calling for her mother,” she said. “I reached for her a few times, and she came to me cautiously at one point, barely brushing my outstretched fingers with her muzzle.”
Ranada had grown up loving the book Misty of Chincoteague. She said it was a surreal feeling for a horse crazy girl.
“If I could tell eight-year-old Ranada that she would one day be barefoot and muddy in the marsh of Assateague trying to help a wild mare and her three-week-old filly, she would have lived the rest of her life counting the days to the event. It was a dream come true, but with unfortunate circumstances,” she said.
As the foal raced around them, Dr. Briley said Wildfire kept trying to sit up. When the supplies arrived, Ranada put the IV catheter in the mare’s jugular vein while Billy Reed held the bag.
“We administered the calcium,” Dr. Briley said, “and afterward, she did look a little better, but she didn’t pop right back up like they sometimes do.”
Hunter said he figured she’d been down for a while and, being wet, he decided it would be best to get her out of the marsh. Together, the men got a tarp under Wildfire and pulled her up the hill to dry land.
“Once on high ground, we draped the tarp over and around her to block the chilly wind,” Ranada recalled.
“After drying her off, we knew we had to get more medicine because the effects seemed to be back again,” Hunter said, so he called his brother Ayden Leonard to pick up more meds and supplies.
Dr. Briley said, “I called a friend in Kentucky who is a vet and he and a colleague suggested dexamethasone (a steroid), lactated ringers solution (for dehydration) and maybe dextrose for low blood sugar.”
Dr. Briley called Hunter to share this information, and the ladies waited.
“At one point I was running through the marsh mud [barefoot] trying to keep the filly from leaving us and rejoining the herd,” Ranada recalled.
Soon, Hunter and Ayden returned with the dexamethasone and lactated ringers. After it was administered, Wildfire sat up. They all celebrated.
Dr. Briley said Ayden used his hands to dig a tunnel under Wildfire’s backend, sliding a board underneath for support. He said they could tell she could feel the foal nursing, even though her back legs did not seem to have feeling.
“She was looking all around and eating,” Dr. Briley said. “We were pulling marsh grass for her. Then she suddenly laid back down. At that point, I just knew she was paralyzed. By then it was 2 p.m. and her backend was not recovering. I checked an information network for vets online which confirmed if she had received two bags of calcium and she was not getting up, more was likely involved.”
Dr. Briley and Ranada had to leave to make it to a commitment off island.
They built an archway to hoist Wildfire into a standing position. Hunter thought getting her blood flowing could help her gain the strength to stand on her own. When one archway was not enough to support her, they built a second.
“Throughout all of this Wildfire was a complete trooper,” Hunter said. “She never had dull spirits, she had a heck of an appetite and acted completely fine with us helping her. She wasn’t in any noticeable pain. The best thing she did was to let her filly nurse on her, even while on the ground.”
At 9:30 p.m., after a full day of working to get the mare up, they attempted one more calcium IV.
“Although she improved physically, her back end never showed signs of life,” Hunter said. “We decided, in the interest of the foal and to give her a chance to destress, to let her rest overnight and return in the morning.”
But morning found no change. Their veterinarian recommended euthanasia.
“We were able to capture the foal and transport her safely to Chincoteague to the Leonard Farm,” Hunter said. This is where they finally found a reason to smile.
At the farm, the foal walked right up to Ayden’s mare, EJ [Esther Jane] and started nursing. “EJ was already nursing her own foal, and just like that, she took on a second foal. Anyone who knows horses knows what kind of miracle this is,” Ayden said.
“For a couple days after that, EJ did nudge at her, or bite at her ankles, but once the foal started pooping out her milk, she was fine,” Ayden said, noting how a mare will smell herself in the foal’s manure.
“This is nothing short of a miracle and the silver lining of this whole incredibly difficult situation,” Hunter said.
It is still unclear what caused the mare’s injury.
“She had some marks suggesting she was kicked or hurt by Riptide mounting her. She didn’t seem to be in pain at all, but she had no movement in her legs. We wish we could have saved her.”
While they grieve the loss of a special mare, Hunter said they’re thankful for every volunteer, and for a very strong filly who was nurtured by her mother through a dreadful health crisis.
“This process involved four veterinarians, 20 hours of hard labor, and much help from our volunteers and cowboys. We thank everyone who helped get us the medicine we needed, as it came from all over, and the people who picked it up and brought it to us. We thank our initial team of vets all the way from Louisiana who took a boat tour and ended up having a once in lifetime experience. And we thank Darcy and Steve Cole DSC Photography who alerted us to a potential problem.”
In the end, the labor of love meant to bring Wildfire back, did indeed save a life - that of her beautiful chestnut foal.
“We had absolutely no idea of the importance of this pony to the pony community, and that people actually care about them on a day-to-day basis, that they have their favorites and know them individually,” Ranada said. “Hunter said Riptide has a fan following! Reading the comments on the [Chincoteague Fire Company’s Facebook Post] brought me to tears. People were devastated. I have been overwhelmed by what I have found on Facebook and the internet.”
Dr. Briley and Ranada both say they never could have dreamed when they left Miss Molly's Inn that morning, they would be part of a team trying to save a direct descendant of Misty.
“I regret that our efforts were futile, but her filly has survived, and we are thankful for that,” Ranada shared. “This experience will forever be with us.”