The Heart of the Matter
By Pat Payne Confronting Atrial Fibrillation
Last year, Hanoverian and Oldenburg breeder Wendy Costello faced hard decisions about “her baby,” the very first horse she had ever bred. The thirteen-year-old Duesenjaeger (a.k.a. “Pilot”) developed a potentially career-ending heart condition known as atrial fibrillation. The cure for this uncommon condition also carried significant risk. Wendy faced an important—and possibly heartbreaking—choice.
First in Her Heart “In 1999, my husband and I bought the wonderful Elite Hanoverian stallion Donavan. The same year, he sired my first foal bred to
my much-loved Thoroughbred mare Remember Romance, named because she was an anniversary gift,” Wendy recalls. Since the American Hanoverian Society had approved “Remy” for breeding, the colt was to be inspected and registered a
Hanoverian. “I decided to name him Duesenjaeger, German for ‘jet fighter,’ in honor of my husband’s years as a jet pilot. Pilot became his barn name.” Wendy’s trainer, JJ Tate, suggested Wendy consider selling Pilot, something she had said she would never do. Pilot, eight at the time, had a successful career in the dressage ring. Wendy had chosen not to compete and had many other horses, thanks to her thriving breeding business.
A Move North Pilot was sold to an adult amateur rider named Susan Karsch, who trained in
Massachusetts and was a great match for Pilot. “I was thrilled,” Wendy recounts. “Pilot went to a rider working with a professional coach and would not be that many states away, still on the east coast.” “As I try to do with all of the Donavan and Rosall (her second stallion)
offspring, I stayed in touch with Pilot’s owner,” she continues. “Everything was going well and he progressed up the levels. At one point I was told he would school Prix St. Georges. This was more than I ever had expected and I was thrilled.” Then, last year, Pilot’s situation changed. “I heard from the owner that she
would be offering Pilot for sale. I’d always known that day would come and just hoped that I would be able to know where he ended up,” Wendy says. Susan felt that the collection required to move Pilot into the highest levels
of dressage might be difficult. Her veterinarian suggested he might be well suited for the hunter ring, so Susan, who lives in Massachusetts, sent him to a well-respected hunt seat barn near her home for training and possible sale. “He loved it,” she recounts, “But one day, after a month or so, the trainer
noticed Pilot was ‘off.’ There were no symptoms before that but one day he just wasn’t right.” (Susan adds that a heart check was part of Pilot’s regular exams but did not turn up any problems.) Pilot’s trainer called his vet in, coincidentally, the same vet Susan used for
TOP: Pilot as a young foal, Wendy’s first-bred. BOTTOM: Pilot placed well at his early competitions.
20 May/June 2013
Pilot in the past. After examining him, Dr. Brett Gaby of nearby Essex Equine discovered an irregular heart beat. Pilot’s condition, Susan would learn, was called atrial fibrillation. She was briefly informed about a treatment called a conversion process but elected not to take the risk.
All photos are courtesy Wendy and Marty Costello.
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