After the death of her beloved riding partner, Atari, Crystal Manning was content to not own another horse for a while. But as time passed, and she fell for a horse staying at the Jonesville farm where she works, Manning started warming up to the idea of horse ownership again.
In mid-2024, she found a seller in Texas who was seeking a new home for a 17-hand, strapping white Thoroughbred stallion then called “Tex.” The seller seemed to be forthcoming with the details, offering video calls, medical records, and reassurances that a previous splint was fully recovered. They agreed to the transaction, and the horse – who she planned to rename Sega, continuing the gaming theme – was shipped to Florida.
“He gets to my doorstep, and he’s neurologic, he’s leaning on walls, he’s tilting his head, and obviously I’m wildly concerned,” Manning said. “I ended up sending him almost immediately to the [UF Large Animal Hospital] to do full lameness, full neuro workup.”
The UF internal medicine services team looked at Sega for neurologic disease and took some X-rays of his neck, but found nothing to explain his signs, according to Dr. Alison Morton, medical director of the Large Animal Hospital and large animal surgeon. She followed with a lameness examination, ultrasonography scan and X-rays of his hind region.
“He was lame on the limb that he had this splint bone removed, and there was actually a lot more going on that just that splint bone,” Dr. Morton said. “He had suspensory branch desmitis on that limb, and he also had a chip fracture in his fetlock joint.”
The first step was arthroscopic surgery to remove the fetlock joint fragment, followed by treatment of the ligament with shockwave therapy. Sega was among the first UF patients to try a new shockwave therapy unit, as the department had received a demonstration unit while he happened to be undergoing treatment.
With his injuries on the mend, Sega started to come out of his shell through rehabilitation. By January 2025, Manning was able to ride Sega five days a week.
However, the pair would suffer a setback four months later, when Manning was in a car accident. While her own injuries healed, Manning worked with Sega in other ways to strengthen their bond.
“I would do anything for the horse at this point,” Manning said. “The rehab bonded us and he’s very special. To look at him, you’d think he’s a top-level horse. He’s such a gem and so handsome.”
Dr. Morton eventually attributed the final pieces of the puzzle – Sega’s neurological and abnormal behaviors – to a combination of medications and discomfort from lack of dental care.
“He was receiving high doses of a long-acting anti-anxiety/sedative medication to keep him calm for handling,” Dr. Morton said. “During this time, he would trip and exhibit odd knuckling and crossing of his limbs, and everyone was concerned he had neurological disease, but he was on a lot of medication. I think he was probably more sensitive to it than anybody realized.
“So once he had some time to recover, we gradually took him off this medication,” she continued. “He also had a lot of discomfort in his jaw from poor dental care before Crystal received him. He would often tilt his head and stretch his neck. She had his teeth evaluated and floated by a veterinary dentist and shortly following, this behavior stopped. Between the dental care, discontinuing sedatives, and all Crystal’s dedication and work on his recovery, now he’s a different horse.”
These days, Sega spends his days on the farm where Manning works, sharing a stall with their newest addition: a mini horse named, fittingly, Nintendo.
“We’re super excited about Sega’s progress,” Manning said. “There’s no big ambitions for this horse. The horse is sound today, is regularly ridden, and he hasn’t put a foot wrong. Whatever this horse is going to be capable of is where we’re going to stay.
“We just want a nice partnership that we can enjoy and for him to be comfortable and healthy,” she said. “That’s the priority.”
