Twenty-one horses dropped dead before a polo match Sunday in Florida, but the cause of death is unknown, the Palm Beach Post reported.
(Picture from Horse riding lessons UK)
The horses were all from the same team and died within hours of each other after falling ill and collapsing, “almost certainly of an intoxication of some sort that they consumed,” Lechuza Caracas team vet James Belden told the post.
“I’ve been in the practice 50 years. I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said.
Venezuelan team owner Victor Vargas was present at the scene and devastated, according to the International Polo Club president John Wash.
“They had a reaction to something. We don’t know what,” Jimmy Newman, Polo club manager was quoted as saying by the Sun-Sentinel.
The horses were being prepared for a match when some of them started showing signs of dizziness and collapsed, according to the Sun-Sentinel. Four of them died in a transportation trailer as vets and assistants frantically tried to revive the dying animals.
“Some died right away. Others lasted 45 minutes,” a vet said.
The value of the dead horses is estimated at $100,000 each.
Performance enhancing drugs are common at top levels of polo competitions, experts told the Post. Steroid-type drugs are given to horses either mixed in with water or injected directly, they said.
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