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Eager The Wonder Horse On Trail To Recovery

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By GEOFF FOX, The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 6, 2008

SAN ANTONIO - Eager was clearly on his way back to health.

When his owner asked the palomino horse how many days he had recently spent at the Equine Medical Center of Ocala, Eager tapped a hoof on the ground seven times.

"Was that a horrible ordeal?" asked his owner, "Cowboy" Tom Glasgow.

Eager nodded up and down.

The 7-year-old quarter horse is lucky to be alive.

Just before the start of the Pasco County Fair, where Eager was to perform with Glasgow in Cowboy Tom's Wild West Show, the horse was stricken with a potentially fatal form of colic.

The trick horse that had entertained audiences at fundraisers for Joshua House, Toys For Tots, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and other charities across the Tampa Bay area, was clearly uncomfortable. When the pain was too great, he thrashed violently in his stall.

When treatment in Dade City didn't work, Glasgow and his girlfriend, Patti Bichsel, were referred to the medical center in Ocala. The news was bad. Saving Eager's life would require major surgery and no guarantee of a happy ending.

Glasgow, who runs a farrier business in San Antonio, didn't have the money, and it seemed as if Eager had earned his final ovation.

Gene and Jeanne Re of Brooksville, horse lovers and faithful clients of Glasgow's, wouldn't hear of it.

"They told us to spare no expense," Glasgow said. "We called up our friends and everybody prayed. Our prayers were answered."

Eager's colon had become inverted and caused a blockage. The operation, which involved lifting the horse with a crane, took less than three hours.

"They made the incision down his belly and took everything out," Bichsel said. "They made a 2-inch incision in the colon and put an irrigation tube in and started flushing everything out, all the toxins.

"Luckily, we caught it in time and he didn't have to lose any of his intestines. His blood values showed that we had just gotten him in under that wire. He was starting to shut down. He was going into shock and started to lose consciousness."

The Res run Casey's Place, a nonprofit horse-rescue facility in Brooksville. Gene Re said he and his wife knew how important Eager was to Glasgow and Bichsel, as well as the countless children he has entertained.

"We just said, 'Get the horse in a trailer. We're going right now,'

" Gene Re said. "If we had the room and could save all the horses, we would, but this horse is very special. We could not accept the option of him being put down or dying.

"It's really a fulfilling thing," he said of the decision to pay for the operation. "It really feels good."

Re said the average colic surgery for a horse is $5,000 to $7,000. If there are complications, the price goes up.

So far, Eager, who came home Feb. 23, seems to be doing well. He will be kept mostly in his stall for about 30 days.

"He's been a really good patient," Bichsel said. "He's starting to bounce off the walls a little in the stall, so that's a good thing. He's gaining his strength back."

As Glasgow put it: "He's just eager to get back to work."

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 948-4217 or gfox@tampatrib.com.

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