Performing under the bright lights of the Cody (Wyoming) Nite Rodeo and other rodeos around the state, Drifters Minnie Roan experienced great success.

But maneuvering tight turns at breakneck speeds started to take a toll on the horse’s body. After she gave birth to a colt about a year ago, the bay roan Quarter Horse started experiencing problems.

The strain of competition had caused the 14-year-old mare severe damage to flexor tendons in her front left leg, causing contractions in the lower part of the leg.

What transpired would be an operation that not only saved Minnie’s life, but also provided her a new limb to run and frolic on like she always had before.

Tough Choices

Minnie’s owner, Riverton resident Jerrie Slagle, was left with a tough decision: euthanize or save Minnie’s life. She chose the latter.

“It’s not easy but (horses are) like my kids so … I had to do something to fix her,” Slagle said.

After a January 9 surgery to straighten and fuse the original leg was unsuccessful, veterinarian Ted Vlahos amputated Minnie’s damaged leg at his Yellowstone Equine Hospital on the west strip, removing the bottom half and replacing it with a prosthetic.

“The damage was so extensive we weren’t able to (save the leg),” Vlahos said. “So we had to make a decision, amputate or euthanize.”

Another factor steering Slagle away from euthanizing was knowing she not only could save Minnie’s life, but also the life of an unborn colt, as Minnie was well into her pregnancy. Vlahos said if no amputation had occurred, Minnie would not likely have lived long enough to give birth.

“She has excellent bloodlines, so you want to preserve that,” said Cathy Slikker-Vlahos, Ted’s wife and medical assistant. “Usually it’s a choice of bloodlines and, of course, bonding.”

Under the Knife

Minnie was blessed with a vet with a steady hand to perform her operation. Vlahos is a world-renowned veterinarian who also runs an equine hospital in Billings, Montana.

“If it weren’t for Dr. Vlahos, I guess none of this would have happened,” Slagle said.

Although Vlahos said veterinarians have been providing horses with prosthetics for the past 40 years, he has mastered the procedure, performing it around 80 times and developing approaches that allow horses to heal their stumps quicker.

Minnie’s was the first time he had performed the procedure in his Cody clinic.

“It’s kind of special to get one here with a local Wyoming horse,” Vlahos said.

Staring out with calm dark eyes below her ashy black forelock, Minnie’s gentle demeanor was a big reason she was considered an acceptable candidate for the procedure, Vlahos said. A wild horse or bucking horse, for instance, would not have been as likely a candidate.

“The horse has to have the temperament to tolerate the procedure,” Vlahos said. “It has to be a horse that lets you help them. … She’s been a real easy horse to work with.”

After Vlahos administered the mare a significant amount of sedation, the 1,000-pound horse was hoisted up onto a medical table and given several rounds of anesthesia.

Slikker-Vlahos said even though Minnie’s pregnancy was probably the largest impetus for the operation, it also made it more complicated.

“You have to make sure their oxygen levels are really good,” she said. “Because we have to make sure that baby had enough oxygen to survive. You’re just monitoring the horse and making sure everything has gone well.”

After spending four hours trying to save the leg and then eventually amputating it, Vlahos inserted two steel stabilizing rods and a cast below Minnie’s leg that would serve as a temporary prosthetic. Vlahos said Minnie will experience no pain from the phantom limb, as he removed all residual nerves from her stump.

“We needed to get her walking right away,” Vlahos said.

Once her leg fully healed about two months after the original operation, he took the rods out and gave her a more permanent cast. Vlahos initiated test molds and casts for the permanent prosthetic’s shell and sockets, a process he said took about a month and a half in itself.

The final prosthetic designed by Hanger Clinic of Casper is made of a carbon graphite laminate surface with titanium posts. A cross between a walking boot and peg leg, the prosthetic feeds to the ground with a cylindrical shaped shell on top that finishes out with a post and circular steel stopper.

It may not exactly be a hoof or leg but the new limb simulates the strength and response of the old appendage, allowing Minnie to run free.

“There’s no restriction on her when she goes home,” Vlahos said.

A New Step Into Life

After the operation, Vlahos said Minnie made her desire to get outside quite clear.

“She’s fat and pregnant and wants to go home,” Vlahos said.

As soon as it was deemed acceptable, he let Minnie outside to trot around Yellowstone’s outside corral, a feat Minnie seemed to appreciate.

“Horses want to be horses,” Vlahos said.

After spending a little more than a month at Yellowstone Equine after the prosthetic was put on, Minnie was finally allowed to return home and frolic on her ranch with her 2017 colt, Slim, and Slagle’s two other horses April 5.

Unfortunately, Slagle reports that Minnie’s 2019 foal was born prematurely and did not survive. But Minnie is thriving and will be rebred for 2020.

“She should have a long life,” Vlahos said. “I expect her to run and raise hell.”