BLACKSBURG, Va., July 22 -- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University issued the following news release:
Leslie Ralston-Rakow couldn't do anything but watch. It was nearly 4 a.m. in late January, with temperatures in the single digits, and her horse, Mona, was down in her stall, anxious and in pain.
Ralston-Rakow had imported the 10-year-old Irish draft mare from Ireland in 2021 and has since been training her for English pleasure and fox hunting. Regular veterinary care was provided on the farm earlier in the evening when Mona first started showing colic signs. But despite appropriate veterinary care, her pain returned in the wee hours of the morning. Now Mona was in trouble, and Ralston-Rakow knew she needed to get her to peop...