(COLORADO SPRINGS) — In October, the call went out to the community to help save a horse that needed a surgery to fix a painful condition.
Comi, a 12-year-old polo mare who played in the Argentine and U.S. Open, was imported from South America. Eventually, she was played down due to her behavior since she started throwing riders. That’s when she made her way to Elite Equine Rescue in Colorado Springs, and given a new name — “Nuevo Comienzo,” or Comi.
She was surrendered due to being “dangerous”, but x-rays later revealed she had a severe case of “Kissing Spine.”
“The tops of all of their vertebrae have spines of bone that stick up,” said Dr. Melanie Robinson, the rescue’s farm veterinarian. “You’ll get bone that will form on the fronts and the backs of those and they’ll start to rub together. So it’s bone-on-bone pain.”
The pain was also thought to be responsible for Comi’s behavior.
“Anybody who has back pain knows that it’s all you can think about. And then you put 175-200-pound person on you and then ask you to go be an athlete on top of that, where you’re galloping and stopping and turning… all she could focus on was her pain,” Dr. Robinson said.