One in 4 horses will survive if they develop signs of Atypical Myopathy.  These survival rates are very poor. The rate at which the disease takes hold is rapid with some horses dying within just a matter of hours after showing symptoms. Those who survive longer than 24hrs have the best chances of making a full recover and those which can get to a veterinary hospital where they can be put on a drip and have fluids flushed through their systems also have a much improved chance of survival. Those which are very young or quite old are at greatest risk of succumbing to the disease.

Some owners have been very kind to share their personal experience of their horses suffering from the disease.  These accounts are very interesting, certainly to me as an owner whose horse died from the disease in February 2023.

These personal accounts help us understand the importance of recognising the symptoms and how these symptoms can vary from horse to horse. For those horses that survive it gives us hope that there are success stories. There is also so much to be learned from these survivors and why their bodies could tolerate the toxin better than others. My horse for example was caught very early with his symptoms rushed to hospital but sadly did not survive despite all efforts.

Prevention is key but with many pastures in the UK in close proximity to Sycamore Trees and the vast distance Sycamore seeds can blow in the wind the risk is not going away. Absolute prevention is not easy.

We need to know more about the disease and how it manifests itself in some horses and not others.  We need a cure, we need an antidote or a test to decipher if our horse is likely to be susceptible to the toxin.

More research and data collection is crucial in order that Sycamore and Atypical Myopathy is less fatal in horses.

Yesterday  (16th February 2023) I went to go and check on Connor, my pure bred Connemara, who lives out 24/7 to give him a feed, he usually leaves all his buddies and comes bounding to see me. He was stood 10 yards from me, by himself without his field mates, but would not come over.. he was stood at the water trough but wasn’t drinking.. looking out of sorts.. I went over to him, offered him an apple core from my pocket, normally he would already be interested when I put my hand in my pocket, but no he didn’t want the apple.

So I was out hacking Jess, my Irish Sport Horse  – she was hunting fit at this point, just finished team chasing season – we had a canter and once we had gotten back onto the roads and were walking she felt lame. We had a trot and she was definitely off, I jumped off her and walked and trotted her in hand and she looked slightly off. We walked home in hand and Jess was producing white foamy sweat all over her body even though she only had a tiny canter which was very strange.

Faith was a beautiful TB RoR mare and was supposed to be my daughter, Lily’s, forever horse. We bought her 2 years ago from a dealer, she was very wary of people but with my daughter’s hard work she became a very sweet loving mare that would only give my daughter kisses, they bonded so well. They went Pony Club and camp, fun rides, clinics, XC she basically had to retrain her. They had an incredible journey together and Lily adored her.

I was out riding one morning and as far as I was aware my girl was just fine, I got half way round my ride and she began to feel really sluggish, I instantly knew there was something wrong as she was always on her toes being Spanish and was always forward going. I carried on riding her slowly back home and she began to sweat profusely…. By this time I was nearly home, I got off her and walked the rest of the the way. I just got her to the field and started to take her tack off and she tied up and collapsed.

I bought Dakota in April 2022 as a 10 month old. She was feral when she arrived: untouchable and a complete blank canvas but my dream horse in everyway.  An Appaloosa cross Trakehner with the most stunning colouring and we quickly became inseparable. She was my forever horse. We used to lie down in the field in the sun together.

I have to go back at least 7 years when Fred, my horse, got Atypical Myopathy. So some things could be a bit vague.

We had had the first named storm of the Autumn in October.  Fred was down the bottom of the field on a strict diet in a bare paddock. I was working outside and looked and thought he looked a bit weird!  I went down and he was walking with tiny steps in sort of a daze.

9 years ago today (12th April 2023) I got to the yard about 6.30 after work. Usually both horses would come running over for their tea but that day only HP did. I gave HP his and walked over to Jason. He took a mouthful and just dropped it – not normal for my greedy cob. There was nothing else obviously wrong so I called the vet. By the time she arrived he had tied up and was passing dark brown wee.

On the 10th November 2022 I took  Luna, my 9yr old Cob X out for a ride.  She was feeling sluggish and lazy, which really wasn’t like her.

Later that day we went down to see her in the evening and she started showing symptoms of what we thought was colic.  We called the vet out and they treated her as if it was colic and gave her Buscapan.

Reilly was a beautiful homebred tobiano ISH, foaled on 26/04/09, we had him his whole life but lost him to Atypical Myopathy when he was just 13yrs old. He was a family horse, an all-rounder, fit and strong. We moved to a village on Salisbury Plain in 2018 and moved him with us, a perfect dream to have him here at home and to have endless miles of wonderful hacking on our doorstep.

My husband bought me Rio, my gorgeous Connemara, for my 30th birthday.   I had him all of three months before my daughter, who was 8 at the time, stole him and took him to pony club camp.  He was a fantastic all rounder and he looked after her brilliantly. There was no evidence of any seeds in our paddocks, the trees were quite far away so we carried on as usual. You always think it won’t happen to my ponies and those trees have always been there so why is it now a problem.

Albert our three year old shire gelding was turned out in a nine acre field with his three pals. Our house overlooks the fields so out of habit you just take a mental note of who’s where and what they’re all up to.

The morning of 28th October 2022 I noticed Albert wasn’t grazing with the others, I thought he’s probably in the dip, I just couldn’t see him.