Levito was born in 2016. At five months old, he was weened from his mother and put with his half brother to play. One day, Levito suddenly couldn’t walk. He was dragging his back leg and wouldn’t put any weight on it. The local vet came and diagnosed that he broke something and needed a laying x-ray.
Foxhedge Farms owner, Barb Ehrhardt, called Dr. Furlong, a well-respected vet in Califon, NJ. Barb transported poor Levito down to the vet where it was confirmed that he had a broken hip. Playing with the other horse, he must have slid into the fence and slid his growth plate.
Normally, when a horse breaks his leg, they are put down as they typically don’t do well, but Dr. Furlong felt they could fix this by putting pins in the growth plate.
They called Dr. Richardson, leading surgeon at UPENN, to see if he would take the case. Luckily, he felt there was a chance for Levito.
The surgery went SUPER.
Levito was brought home five days later, however he was laying down a lot and had difficulty getting up. As a result, six months later it was found that he had bent all the titanium screws. It was at this time that Barb met Fred Dombrow, President, Chief Operating Officer & Primary Inventor at FIR Industries.
Barb was very worried about arthritis and Levito’s healing progress. While he obviously would not be a show horse, he was far from a lost cause. Levito is very sweet and calm, and it’s Barb’s hope to train him for a handicapped children program.
Fred infused Levito’s blanket with tourmaline in the hopes of aiding his recovery process. Barb felt that this would help keep inflammation down, improve movement and simply keep him comfortable.
After six weeks, Levito was already playing soccer! Even though he was kept in a stall for about six months, Levito is now a pretty sound horse now for having a broken hip!