Sinatra

Where do we start with Sinatra?

Sinatra is an Arabian gelding who was rescued from a friend of ours who had fallen on some hard times. He had some serious medical issues with his sinuses and teeth and needed about $4,500 worth of surgeries to correct them. He has always been a loving, caring horse. He is a fantastic horse, has tons of energy and drive for a rider that knows what they’re doing, and is happy to carry smaller kids around just the same.

Fall 2017 is when we rescued Sinatra. He was 2 years old. He and 2 other horses that we saved from there had been starved for many months. He had been confined to a stall for a long time, the conditions of his stall were disgusting. He had become so desperate for food that he had eaten a large portion of the wooden walls confining him. The pictures don’t really show how skinny he was because of his dark color and the poor lighting.

Once home, we started a proper refeeding process, we dewormed him, and we took all the horses to UW-Madison vet school to have their teeth examined and filed down. They have some of the best vets in the state. We anticipated some of the 5 rescue horses to have problems, since they lacked regular care for years.
The vets were astonished to see that Sinatra’s teeth were the worst. He had points so sharp that the inside felt like crocodile teeth. It was shocking to learn he had been in extreme pain, since his demeanor is so sweet. He had to be referred to Dr. Henry. He’s the best equine dental surgeon in WI/IL.

Dr. Henry was booked out for months but because of the rarity and severity of Sinatra’s case he rushed him in. Dr. Henry was intrigued; Sinatra’s two upper, two-year molars were severely deformed. He diagnosed it as likely due to the lack of nutrition while in utero. One of the molars had been infected for about a year, causing him great pain and skull remodeling. The case was so extreme he had his intern write one of his college papers about it. He informed me that Sinatra would have died from the infection, even if his owner had started feeding him again. Sinatra came home with a lavage catheter in his head and I had to give him saline flushes every other day for 6 weeks, like a neti-pot.

When he went in for his final checkup to remove the lavage catheter, they discovered there was entrapped infection that hadn’t been flushed out. Unfortunately Sinatra had to undergo another surgery where they drilled a 1” hole in his head so they could effectively remove all of the infection. Sinatra should live a full and happy life of 30 years, he just needs to have dental exams and teeth floats (teeth filings) twice each year.

Sinatra has healed very nicely from his surgery, and our oldest daughter loves him; he’s “Her horse”. He has a very gentle spirit, and we even led him in the Walworth County Fair speed shows with our girls on his back.

Leasing Information: Sinatra requires a confident beginner/intermediate rider and has a weight limit of 175lbs.