Resurrection Closes The Final Chapter of His Career at 2011 AQHA World Show
By: Brittany Bevis
For Marshia Musick, Lisa Ligon, Ryan Painter, and everyone at Interstate Equine Services, today marks a bittersweet but satisfying ending to the career of one incredible young stallion, Resurrection. If it weren’t for the help and support from countless caretakers and a few answered prayers, this beautiful 2006 bay stallion by Allocate Your Assets might not be alive today.
At just three months old, “Rezur,” endured the loss of his mother, a prolonged illness, two colic surgeries, one hernia surgery, and beat the odds of a 10% survival rate. Not only did he survive, he thrived, winning multiple NSBA World Championships and Congress Championship titles.
As far as his owner, Marshia Musick is concerned, this ending to a very emotional journey is more than she could have ever dreamed of.
“When he was three months old, his mother got sick from some bacteria at the breeding farm,” Musick says. “She got really bad diarrhea, so they took her and in she died within four to five days. Within just a few days, they called us in the middle of the night and said that he was colicky too. David McCarroll at Interstate Equine said they needed to go in and see what was causing the problem. They did surgery and took 13 feet of his intestines out. Whatever bacteria had been on the farm had caused that part of his intestines to die.”
“He was fine for ten days, and then they called one morning and said he was colicky again. They needed for us to let them know what we wanted to do. They gave him a 10% chance to survive a second colic surgery.”
But Musick had faith in her plucky baby and decided they would do whatever was necessary to give him the best shot at survival. Although they weren’t sure if he would ever have the strength to be ridden, the Musicks went ahead with the second colic surgery, and another hernia surgery not long after.
“He stayed at the clinic from the first part of August until the middle of November,” she says. “In the middle of November, they were ready to release him, but we didn’t want to bring him all the way out to Arizona. David’s wife, Trina, offered to keep him at her home and babysit him until he got stronger.”
“Every two hours, she would go out and check on him. He had lost all of that intestine, so he had to eat a lot, but he couldn’t absorb a lot of his food. That’s why he has those long lesions on his back, because he didn’t absorb enough zinc as a baby.”
Jim and Deanna Searles kept the young stallion in Arizona and showed him during his two-year-old year. When they were sure he would be able to withstand being ridden and shown, Rezur made the journey to join Vicky Holt and Lisa Ligon. Rezur has been with Ligon ever since, and has found great success this year at the 2011 NSBA World Championship Show and All American Quarter Horse Congress with Ryan Painter in the irons.
Together they won the NSBA World in Green Hunter Hack and were the Reserve World Champions in the Green Working Hunter and Junior Hunter Hack. At the Congress, Painter and Rezur won the Progressive Working Hunter and Junior Hunter Hack in the same day.
“That was only his second trip to the Congress, and he won two Congress titles in one day,” Lisa Ligon says. “He showed in the Junior Working Hunter and was eighth here with Linda Crothers at the World Show. Today, he will show in the Junior Hunter Hack preliminaries. It doesn’t matter if we win, lose, or draw today, he will be retired at the end of this horse show. He has done so much more than we ever thought he would be able to do.”
“We had him checked last year, and he still only absorbs 11% of nutrients from his feed,” Musick says. “With that and his energy level, it’s time that he gets to retire. We are looking to breed him to a few mares next year, and are looking forward to having some of his babies.”
