No answers yet in death of 21 horses

When the horses began to falter, collapse and suffer, dozens of people came to their aid. And as the horses died around the polo field, strangers from the stands shared in the animals’ last moments.

In all, 21 prized polo horses, worth more than $2 million, mysteriously died in a short period of time.

“I’ve been in the sport for 50 years and never been around something as tragic as this,” said Peter Rizzo, executive director of the United States Polo Assn. “It’s a bond that is close to marriage -- it’s different than a dog. It’s an amazing thing, and these horses were some of the best in the world.”

On Monday, investigators with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services opened investigations into the case.

The bodies of the horses arrived at the University of Florida’s College of Veterinary Medicine and at a state laboratory so scientists could examine them.

Investigators said they had ruled out infectious diseases as a cause of death. And no one was suspecting foul play.

Authorities were looking to see whether the horses, members of the Venezuelan Lechuza Caracas polo team, came in contact with poison or were injected with anything that could have killed them.

“Because of the very rapid onset of sickness and death, state officials suspect these deaths were a result of an adverse drug reaction or toxicity,” Terence McElroy, a spokesman for the state agriculture department, said in a statement.

Answers could take weeks as scientists test every substance ingested by the horses, screen blood for toxins, and question caretakers and the team’s owner, Venezuelan multimillionaire Victor Vargas.

“The suspicion here is toxins because of how sudden these animals died,” said John Harvey, assistant dean of the University of Florida’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “But since we don’t know what we’re looking for, there are literally thousands of things we can test for.”

On Sunday afternoon, the horses took to the International Polo Club Palm Beach field. Some started having trouble immediately after coming off the truck. Some became dizzy and collapsed.

More than a dozen veterinarians and technicians came to the horses’ aid. They administered intensive therapy, including IV lines and fluids, and treated the horses for shock. The animals showed signs of pulmonary edema, which means fluid accumulated in their lungs, and cardiogenic shock, said Scott Swerdlin, a veterinarian with the Palm Beach Equine Clinic.

“There was no pain; they were just disoriented,” Swerdlin said.

As the horses collapsed around the field, people rushed to comfort them, said Don Dufresne, a past president of the Palm Beach County Sports Commission and a member of the United States Polo Assn.

“The community rallied around the situation with probably 100 volunteers,” Dufresne said. “Over every horse were three to five people triaging. The reality is that the polo community is much more like a family.”

Twelve or 13 horses died on the field and another was put down at Swerdlin’s clinic. The others died at Lechuza Caracas’ barn, which has about 85 horses. A team of such horses could take 10 years to rebuild, Swerdlin said. Each horse is worth more than $100,000.

“These were some of the best horses in the world,” he said.

But to the horse-loving community, money doesn’t tell the story. “To some riders, their horses are like their children,” said Richard Wood, who owns Woody’s of Wellington, Fla., a boot shop frequented by horse owners.

A small memorial sprouted up Monday, with flowers left outside the Lechuza Caracas property. Rivals offered to loan the team horses to continue playing in the tournament Wednesday. The team declined and pulled out of the competition.

Lechuza Caracas said in a statement: “We wish to thank those from the polo community who tried to save our precious ponies by selflessly lending their assistance. Although the ponies could not be saved, our gratitude to them cannot be overemphasized.”

John Wash, president of club operations for the International Polo Club Palm Beach, said the deaths had affected people beyond the region, especially in the polo community.

“In polo’s history there’s never been an incident like this that anybody can remember,” Wash said. “This was a tragic issue on the magnitude of losing a basketball team in an airplane crash.”

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bhass@sunsentinel.com

mdiaz@sunsentinel.com

Sharon Robb of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and Liz Doup of the Orlando Sentinel contributed to this report.