LL Smarts Proud Dash

Just Breathe and Run's 2020 Horse With The Most Heart, "Biggie"

Everything in life happens for a reason and all that has happened to LL Smarts Proud Dash or

“Biggie” as we call him, has just shown us how lucky we are to have a horse like him.

Biggie’s story begins back in 2013, with his mother, “Little”. When we originally bought Little, she was never supposed to run again, so when we worked on rehabilitating her we decided to breed her. She had almost two inches too much of a toe on her front hooves putting constant strain on her suspensories and she had been living and still performing in constant pain. In the time we have owned her, it has been most rewarding to watch her soundness journey and to give her a long racing career she wasn’t supposed to have. His mother packed me to my first state finals qualification while she was pregnant with him. Afterwards she took me to the CHSRA State Finals and Challenge of Champions multiple times. Biggie carries on his mother's legacy of being a success story and defying all the odds. Not only is she an amazing horse, but she gifted us with an incredible athlete that I have no doubt will carry me anywhere I want to go in the barrel racing industry. Although, tragedy struck quickly in Biggie’s story. At only four days old, Biggie was rushed to the vet due to a colic scare. Luckily he bounced back quickly from that. Unfortunately at two years old, we realized that the worst was yet to come. When he was two, he was sent off to a trainer. We received a text explaining that something was seriously wrong and nothing that the trainer had ever seen before — a text nobody wants to see, especially when there are great expectations for this horse’s future. The area from his withers to his hips had swelled, similar to a balloon. Simply touching the area with your fingers immediately brought pain upon him. Once the swelling resolved, the result confused the veterinarians and everyone that saw him. The muscles had atrophied. Within only a 24 hour time period, the muscle had completely vanished. His back was skin stretched across bone. Looking at him was heartbreaking. When I looked at him I visualized a skeleton, under the skin you could very clearly see his spine and his ribs, something you would never usually see on a well-fed horse like him. When he came home, I couldn’t begin to wrap my head around how much effort it must have taken to simply move with that little muscle.

Biggie has one of the biggest personalities. That is one of those characteristics about him that makes him special. He is a big puppy — always following you, licking you, and just wanting to be your best friend. He is always making you smile with his goofy personality or his constant need to get into things. We knew something was very wrong when his behavior had completely changed. When you walked into his pen he didn’t perk up or even come up to you. He laid down most of the time, and just looked defeated. The simple task of walking him to the vet took a great deal of effort. He was extremely sore and stiff constantly. Once we got him to the vet, all kinds of tests immediately began.

We tried acuscope and myopulse therapy. The heat that was coming from his body melted the gel immediately, so we knew we were on the right track to helping him. Our vets, Dawn Shore and Jeff Jones, did x-rays, blood tests, and numerous additional tests trying to discover this mystery. Everything came back normal, so we decided to make a call to UC Davis. Instantly, UC Davis knew what the issue was. They explained that Biggie was one of less than 30 confirmed cases at the time of a genetic disorder called, Immune Mediated Myositis. Scientifically, “Equine immune Mediated Myositis (IMM) is a disease occurring in Quarter horses and QH-related breeds that typically causes rapid and severe symmetrical wasting of the topline muscles, often following exposure to or vaccination against respiratory infection”. It is only in about 7% of horses, and our guy happens to be one of them.

Similar to Cystic Fibrosis, getting a cold or a respiratory bug, means a lot more to a horse with IMM than it does to any other. Biggie’s was brought on by something as simple as a snotty nose. Once his body discovered the infection, it went into overdrive, basically overloading the system. Instead of attacking the infection his body attacked his muscles cells, hence the atrophy. To bring the muscles back and bring order back to his immune system he had to go through a round of steroid injections and antibiotics. So, today we have to keep in mind that if something were to happen and he got an infection we might be right back to square one.

The relief we felt knowing that this could be treated and he had the chance to be normal again was soon replaced with the realization that this would be something that would hinder him for the rest of his life. On a daily basis, we must take extreme precautions, including vaccinations. We have found ourselves living in fear of what could happen if he gets sick. We kept on though, because we all knew that all this had to be leading up to something great. He wanted to be something great. And we had to help him reach that point.

Six months later, he went back to work rebuilding and gaining his strength back. He was behind mentally and in his training, but demonstrated so much athleticism and willingness. At one point, we had his eyes checked because of how much of a reaction he had to the change from light to dark. He is still deathly afraid of flashlights but hey, we all have our things. That’s what makes us all unique!

Everyday seems to be a new challenge to overcome. There is no denying that he has had setbacks, but he continued to try. He has never stopped trying. He started his training with Kelsie Miller on the barrel pattern and she gave him all the tools he needed to be successful. In July of 2019 we took Biggie home and we began our journey to the 2020 futurities. I took him to every barrel race with me, we did exhibitions, and we both learned a lot on what it takes to become a futurity horse. About a month and a half before our first race, he was tied to the trailer next to another one of my horses, per usual. Although, this time, he found himself in a kicking match resulting in him getting kicked in the hock. I was walking out to my trailer from inside the arena when someone walked over to me with Biggie in tow explaining what had happened. Panicking, we immediately saw the blood that was running down his back leg. We gave him some time to let the swelling go down and then took him to the vet. After being examined we were told that if he was kicked just a few centimeters higher, he wouldn’t have a career as any kind of performance horse. Just another one of those situations that makes you stop and think that there must be a bigger purpose for this horse.

Biggie is your best friend—he is my best friend. He tries his heart out for you and has an unrelenting willingness to please. As we made our first runs together I was just hoping to get through them, and maybe place here and there. To say that Biggie has surpassed my expectations would be an understatement. Right now he is running about a half second off of the open horses in our area and improving with every run he makes. Biggie is one of those “once in a lifetime” horses. One of those horses you look at and just think, “wow”. One of those horses who has a story so incredible, you just look at them in awe. I know that all these roadblocks were in our path to make us stop and appreciate the incredible horse that we have in our barn. He may not have a lot of runs under his belt but he has overcome more challenges than most horses will in their lifetime and that to me shows more heart than anything else. The future is bright, and with the heart instilled in Biggie, the future too is limitless.

The team at Just Breathe and Run has the theme, “We believe, because we are brave” and Biggie’s story was all bravery. We had to trust that the medicines would work to fix him and that our vets knew just what to do. Biggie though, he showed the most bravery through all this. When you keep an animal in a confined space, no matter how big it is, you take away some of their ability to provide for themselves. They have to lay all their trust in you—that you will feed them and fill their waters and that you will care for them when they can't care for themselves. Biggie had to believe in our ability more than ever, patiently waiting as we poked and prodded at him trying to find answers. He was brave and trusted that we would do everything we could to take the pain he was going through away. Since the day he was born, Biggie has given us his whole heart, he tried through the pain and just like his mother had, never gave up his fight. Biggie will always have a special place in my heart because he showed me what it really takes to have the “heart of a champion”.