Scout

Scout is 18 years old, 15 hands tall, and a well-trained gelding that lived on a ranch in eastern Oregon. His owner was a cowboy who worked on the ranch for several years using Scout as his horse. When he moved to the valley to look for more work, he brought Scout with him. Scouts eye had developed an eye infection, and his owner spent thousands of dollars to try and make it better. He was told it wasn’t cancer. It still wasn’t healing so he blamed himself because he couldn’t get to the barn to doctor it as often as he should. It was so painful for Scout, that even when his owner tried to doctor it, Scout wouldn’t let him. He was afraid his only option was euthanasia when he called me and asked me for help. He was such a great horse to just have euthanized. After hearing his story I felt compelled and took this case on. 

We had Dr. Ross Clelland come out to look at his eye. Ross confirmed it was an aggressive form of cancer. If we removed all of the cancerous tissue, Scout would not be able to blink because the cancer involved his entire lower lid and part of his upper. If we didn’t remove his eye, Scout would be dead within 6 months. Taking in consideration that Scout was an amazing and healthy horse, we decided to go with complete Enucleation. 

We decided to have Dr. Jack Root of Oakhurst perfrom the enucleation. Jack was instructed not to wake Scout up if he wasn’t confident he could remove all the cancer. He performed the surgery and he felt confident that he did remove all the cancer. Scout was brought back home to HART to start his recovery. In 2 weeks his stiches were removed and in 6 weeks his eye was completely healed. Scout adapted very well, to having only one eye. We enjoyed many happy hours on the trail. We were told that if any cancerous cells remained, Scouts health would start declining so we decided to keep scout at HART for the 6 months. We didn’t want to adopt him out until after the 6 month period, which has now passed. He is now a happy, healthy horse. 

Scout is now ready to be adopted by a family who will give him all the love and attention he deserves. He is good for any level of rider, man, women or child. His adoption fee of $600 will cover the expense of his surgery.