MIAMI, (Reuters) – Twenty-one horses from a Venezuelan team competing at the U.S. Open Polo Championship died after collapsing before a match in Florida, officials said yesterday. The International Polo Club of Palm Beach said the Lechuza Caracas team was preparing its horses for an afternoon match when two collapsed and others began “exhibiting dizziness and disorientation.”
“From the reports I’ve received, they came out of their trailers and they were dizzy … and began toppling over,” said Terence McElroy, spokesman for the Florida Department of Agriculture. “It’s my understanding that all of these horses have died, 21 in total.”
McElroy said 15 of the horses had been transported to a state facility in Kissimmee, where necropsies and other tests would be conducted. There was no obvious indication of what had caused the horses to collapse, he said. The polo club, located in Wellington, about 70 miles (113 km) north of Miami, confirmed in a statement that horses had died but did not cite a number. It said the cause of death had not been determined.
“It could be the water, hay, bedding, we just don’t know,” John Wash, president of club operations, told local media.
Lechuza Caracas team veterinarian James Belden said the horses died one by one, “almost certainly of an intoxication of some sort that they consumed,” the Palm Beach Post reported.
Belden said it was unlikely that the horses had died from tainted medication or had been given anabolic steroids because they are banned in England, where the team competes.
“I’ve been in practice 50 years. I’ve never seen anything like this,” he told the newspaper.