From left Kat Fuqua, Gretchen Ober and Lobo celebrate their ribbon in the Pennsylvania Bred Yearling Class at the Devon Horse Show.
Sometimes, good things come out of tragedy. For Gretchen Ober, a miracle foal has given her new energy and a brighter outlook on the future.
Ober, a promising jumper rider, suffered a serious traffic accident in 2004 that sidelined her from riding. After two spinal fusions and prolonged recovery time, she was cleared to ride in 2012, but she still faces daily pain and future surgery.
Ober and her mother operate Cavello Sport Horses in Mohrsville, PA, and was looking forward to the start of training a new horse, but that mare, Nikki, suffered a fatal injury when she broke her leg.
Despite the challenges she has been faced with, Ober is still caring and giving to others. When a friend, Jen Merris, was faced with very hard times and needed a place to keep her mare Cassy, Ober wanted to help, but she was not in a position to take on a horse without covering the costs.
“She didn’t have the funds to keep her somewhere. I said I would, but only if I could breed her and keep the foal, because I couldn’t keep a horse for free,” Ober explained.
Ober found Holsteiner stallion, Caligula II, “His bloodlines are really good, but his breeding fee was really low, it looked like a really good cross and it was worth trying,” Ober said.
Even from the beginning, things took an unusual course. Ovulation was missed at first, so there was only one chance for the insemination. “We didn’t get the typical insemination where you inseminate twice. We were shocked she got pregnant. We thought we had missed (our opportunity),” Ober said. “She was a little miracle foal that needed to be born.”
Cassy was a Belgian Warmblood mare with potential to produce a good jumper prospect.
“We knew Cassy had a couple of tumors, but the vets had told her owner they were benign, so she was good to breed,” Ober said. “We bred her, and she was really good until three quarters of the way through the pregnancy. It turned out we were feeding the cancer first, the baby second, and the mare third.”
Ober explained that the cancer spread with additional tumors popping up. “All the nutrition you have to give, that you’re really pumping into the mare, you’re feeding the cancer. Tumors started appearing. Her back end was erupting in tumors, and we didn’t know how she was going to give birth. They were bursting, and we were worried about sepsis.”
As the mare was coming closer to term, her left hind leg developed cellulitis. In addition, a tumor on her right side affected a large muscle in her hip which atrophied. Ober feared if she laid down, she would not be able to get up again.
“The mare must have been intelligent enough that she didn’t lay down for weeks,” Ober said. “I would stay up till 5 a.m. watching her in the camera. We knew as soon as she laid down she would have problems because that was such a big muscle.”
On May 19, 2017, at 4:15 p.m., Cassy laid down, and Ober and her mother went immediately to her. “Her birth canal was like a Z. It wasn’t a straight line because of all the tumors. We were exhausted trying to guide the baby and pull during contractions.”
As the women were running out of strength several workers arrived and lent a hand. “It took three very strong men helping her pull because she (Cassy) had no strength to get the baby out,” Ober said.
After allowing the mare and foal to rest together and bond for a while the team helped both to their feet. The foal did have sepsis and was treated, but her prospects were slim, and the prognosis was even worse for the mare.
For a week, Cassy looked after her foal, pestering her to nurse almost constantly. “It made us wonder if Cassy knew that she wasn’t going to be around that long, that she wanted that bonding,” Ober said.
A week after giving birth, Cassy laid down and could not get back up. Ober had prepared the mare’s owner for this moment with the options of what could be done. “We tried to help her get up, but she just couldn’t. The vet came out and said there was no way she was going to be able to get up.”
After the mare was put down, the outlook for the foal took a different path. Another mare at the barn named Tess, owned by Judy Reggio, had her baby the day before Cassie passed away, but she was aggressive and Ober did not want to risk her harming the filly.
“Tess did let us milk her so half of what (the filly) got was milk replacement and half was milk from Tess. That was enormous in her development,” Ober said.
Lobo the Survivor
In the Native American culture, the wolf has an identity as a survivor. The filly that was such a miraculous survivor was given the name Lobo.
Her show name, Kolaborate CS, is also meaningful. “She was really a collaboration of so many people. So many people helped with her care, people in our family, our farm family, to the neighbor farmer who helped us bury Cassy, to the Reggios for Tess who provided milk - which I really think helped made her develop properly.”
Because of the many problems, Ober did not at first believe Lobo would survive, so she missed the deadline to send in blood work to have her registered. She does plan to take her to an Oldenburg registry inspection.
How well the horse has developed in just 15 months is striking. She was exhibited at Devon this year, taking 4th in the PA Bred Yearling Fillies. “We took her to Devon, but she’s not a hunter, we took her in there for the experience,” Ober said. “She’ll be a jumper through and through. She has ridiculous heart she is going to give to whoever is on her back. She’s an incredible thing.”
From her unusual start in life, Lobo has picked up some unusual traits. “She smiles when you clap for her,” Ober said. “She has a tongue habit she developed shortly after she was born. Lobo would go to the wall and tongue it like crazy.”
To combat the tongue play, Ober gives Lobo GumBits chewing gum type treats, and that seems to tell her it is time to get serious and work.
Currently Ober is training with Irish Olympian Kevin Babington who has found her a new jumper, but it is the work with Lobo that has given her new motivation.
“I think I’m extremely bonded to her. She’s done a lot for me,” Ober said. “Lobo brought a new challenge that helped me a lot, whether I ride her or hand the reins off to somebody else.”