Susanne Hamilton's small tour horse Lutz has been euthanized after suffering from a severe case of laminitis. The Haflinger gelding captured the hearts of the crowds in the 2017 CDI Wellington in February.
The 14-year old Haflinger gelding Lutz was bred in Germany by Jan-H. Bleumer and was by the Haflinger sire Argument out of Mandy (by Navis van de Wellenhof).
He sold to American Bettina Hinckley in August 2015. She first rode Lutz at Hamilton's Crystal Spring Farm in South Montville, Maine, before taking him to her own summer base in Southwest Harbor, Maine. In December 2015 Lutz moved to Hamilton's winter base Loxahatchee, Florida, where he began his American show career.
Lutz had competed at Prix St Georges-Inter I level in Germany under owner Lucia van Husen and became the 4th most successful Haflinger in the country. Hamilton and the Haflinger made their show debut in 2016 and the pair became the Regional Champions in the Prix St Georges and Intermediaire I that year.
They competed at one CDI in their career, the 3* in Wellington on 7 - 11 February 2017. They finished 7th in the Prix St Georges (67.500%), the 6th in the Intermediaire I (68.158%) and 7th in the Inter I Kur (68.750%) that weekend as a clear crowd favourite.
At the end of February, Lutz was diagnosed with laminitis and transported to the big equine clinic Rood & Riddle. He relapses several times and it was decided in the best interest of the horse to euthanize him.
"Lutz had been fighting for his life for nearly two months," said Hamilton. "He developed laminitis on February 24th and got the best of care between Dr Omar (Atlantic Equine) and Dr's Jose Bras and Raul Bras (Rood& Riddle). After a brief stay home, Lutz relapsed and went back to R&R for continued care. He received stem cell therapy, specialized shoeing and everything that could be done was done. However between seemingly stable days he started to have one episode after the next making his rotations worse and worse, to the point where there was no blood flow to the feet and the damage in his hoofs was just too great. He developed painful seroma /abcesses and infection to the bone and yesterday when the coffin bone was about to bust through the heel, the joint desicion was made to no longer continue his suffering."
Photo © Astrid Appels
Related Links
Scores: 2017 CDI Wellington
Photo Report: Sun, Fun, and Dressage at the 2017 CDI 5* Wellington