Meet Blue Nile Bodie

As far as plain little horses go, Bodie is a plain little horse. We called him our "Easter Surprise," a rescue horse plucked from a bad situation by a good-hearted person and brought to us with a long list of issues, problems and bad behaviors.

But under the rain rot, chopped off tail, flying hooves, chomping teeth, and a patented rear-and-strike defense, Bodie the plain little chestnut is a pretty sweet guy. We started leading him all around the farm in an effort to get him to simply learn to "follow." Slowly, slowly, we scraped all the rain rot off his belly, and he started to gain weight. After a "come to Jesus" about rearing, we have an understanding - hooves on the ground. He bathes, ties, and picks up his hooves to be picked. No more biting, and he doesn't kick to kill now. He's a pretty good guy, at least until he isn't.

And somewhere in all of this, Bodie and I became best buds. The aloof gelding who took a chunk out of my bicep now nickers and neighs for my attention. This formerly ignored pasture horse enjoys fly spray on his belly and Show Sheen in his mane. He has his own stash of apples and carrots at the barn. Life is good.

One of Bodie's "special snowflake" issues are these 1-2 inch flat, hairless spots on his neck. I'd never seen anything like them on a horse. I assumed they were ringworm or a fungus and started putting aloe on them. They didn't go away.

Another issue was a hard lump or group of lumps on his right cheek. Because we know very little about Bodie's life before Blue Nile, we assumed it was scar tissue from an old injury, or where a halter may have grown into his face.

I was trying a new ringworm medication on his flat bald spots when I came across a Google images pic of equine sarcoids. Something clicked. These odd spots - some totally flat and smooth, others bumpy or scaly, weren't just going to go away. Dr. Emily Miller at Cleveland Equine Clinic confirmed - this was a much bigger problem than we anticipated.

Dr. Miller is full of answers and solutions, no matter the problem. She's also not afraid to walk treatment paths uncertain in the quest to help an animal. She suggested the vaccine pythium for the fungal organism equine pythiosis, or "swamp cancer."

So here starts the story of Blue Nile Bodie, who is getting a second chance at his second chance.