How Zulieka Haunted Me

Chestnut mare of undetermined breeding, born early 1960s

I can't remember now if Zulieka came from Wyoming or Montana or some other rangeland state. What I do remember is that she was wild & everyone wondered why a parent would get their young girl a wild horse. It was said she was given to them so that might explain how Lorraine ended up her. Zulie was compact with a wild eye & she was actually a nice looking mare. I seem to remember very little white. It was a long time & a lot of work before Lorraine was able to get on Zulieka. That she managed to ride her at all was quite an accomplishment. She was never a reliable horse to ride, often spooking violently & unseating her rider. She was definitely not a "kid's horse". What I remember most about Zulie was the time she became very ill. The vet wasn't sure she was going to live. A fever raged, she refused to eat, was lethargic & mostly non-responsive. It was a Tue morning when the vet decided that she needed a blood transfusion if she was to have any chance of living. The donor was a beautiful Clydesdale mare named Teeny Bopper, who was owned by the stable owner. My mother assisted the vet by holding the IV bag. It was a long slow process that eventually proved to be successful. The vet told us to tell no one that Zulie had EIA (Equine Infectious Anemia), an often fatal disease. He cautioned that if word got out, the stable would be quarantined & horses testing positive for EIA would be euthanized. Never having heard of EIA, believing & trusting the vet, no word was ever told of Zulie's infection. I don't remember when Zulie left, but it was after throwing Lorraine yet again & hurting her badly. I heard her father had the stable owner trailer Zulie to the local slaughterhouse as a dangerous horse.

In 1976, Zulieka came back to haunt me. I was moving to Texas & part of the process was to have my mare Coggins tested. The Coggins test is used to detect EIA. As my vet drew blood I thought back to that day when a vet said Zulie had EIA & cautioned that all horses testing positive would be euthanized if word got out. I was terrified that my mare would test positive because she had been exposed to Zulie. I knew that the only option other than euthanasia was total isolation & lifetime quarantine. The days waiting for the test results were agonizing. I had formulated a plan in my mind to run & hide my mare if the results were positive. My grandparents owned some remote property & I would go there to live with my horse. By the time the test results came back, I was a nervous wreck. I suffered bouts of nausea, loss of sleep, & fits of anger. I was older & had more knowledge & knew Zulie's vet had been wrong in his advice. The stable should have been quarantined & all horses tested. As it was, I spent an agonizing week haunted by the memory of Zulieka. Fortunately the test results came back negative. I didn't need to run & hide my mare. My memories of Zulieka were laid to rest.

Today EIA is just as devastating. Fortunately there aren't a lot of positive horses because vets & owners are more responsible than Zulieka's vet. The tragedy of EIA is that a horse can not only be a silent carrier, infecting others, but some horses who have never been ill can test positive from just being exposed. It's a frightening disease that I hope is someday eradicated through vigilant protocols by vets & horse owners alike.