• Aiken, SC

    info@equus-soma.com

     

  • Equus-Soma

    Equine Osteology & Anatomy Learning Center

     

  • Waldoboro, ME

    207-542-6132

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    • From Cradle to Grave ...


            "Petey" (Jockey Club name = Hail to Peter) was bred by my father, A. Lee Blades, in Western N.Y. State with hopes that he would become a successful race horse. Foaled in 1982, Petey was backed and began training at 2 yrs. of age, bowed a tendon at 3 yrs. and returned to Dad's farm to heal.

    •        Showing a talent for jumping, Petey never returned to the track.  He tried his hoof at low-level eventing and show jumping but around age 6 started to have back issues. He was treated and put out to pasture ca. 1989.
            I didn't know Petey in his early years because I was living in Florida and pursuing my career as a marine research scientist.  When I moved back north to Maine, my desire to return to the world of horses was fulfilled when my family shipped Petey to me in 1992.
            Petey had been living in the pasture and had not been ridden for 3 years. Better yet .... I had not ridden for nearly 20 years!

    •        The riding style and sport of eventing had changed considerably since my last competition in 1975!  Petey was the perfect horse to bring me back up to speed.  He and I enjoyed several years together, eventing at the novice level. He was no a big fan of dressage, but loved to jump and was the perfect confidence builder.

    •       In his later years, while I was busy running my photography business and bringing along another horse, Petey continued to teach and instill confidence in some local young ladies who wanted to experience eventing.

          Can you see the smile on Petey's face?!?!    

            At age 23, Petey had developed tumors in his lungs and the day finally came for us to say good-bye. He was lovingly put to sleep and respectfully laid to rest at the edge of a small field on our farm in Maine.

    • From Cradle to Grave ... and Back Again!


             Approximately 11 years after putting Petey in the ground, I dug him up again!  We used an excavator until the bucket pulled up Petey’s right tibial bone. From that point on, I continued the dig by hand. We thought we had buried him about 6 feet down, but when all was said and done... the pit was 10 - 12 feet deep!

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           Petey was lying neatly on his right side. Once I uncovered the tibia it was a matter of removing dirt (& rocks) to expose the next contiguous bones.
           Working from Petey’s hind end forward i.e., hind limbs, pelvis,  sacrum, lumbar, thoracics, etc. I made it to his neck and skull on the 7th day of digging!

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              As the bones were uncovered, I studied how they went together, attached labels and moved them to a staging tarp at the top of the pit.

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                When all the bones were finally removed from the pit, they were relocated to tables set up behind my barn to be cleaned and dried. This took another 3 weeks along with 45 gallons of hydrogen peroxide!

              The final step before presenting Petey to the public was a light coat of semi-gloss polyeurothane.