The blistering heat wave that's blanketing the country claimed its first victim today when a 1300-pound tour horse collapsed and died in Belize City from a heat stroke. The horse's name is "You can't touch this" and it went on its last tour this morning before collapsing in an abandoned lot on Baymen Avenue.
The horse belonged to Gabourel and Sons Tour and for the past year it's been taking tourists on about 5 to 6 tours a day. Its owner Dennis Gabourel says that ever since he bought the quarter bred horse it has battled with breathing problems and that today led to his death. Gabourel told us it wasn't malnutrition or neglect that caused the death, today just wasn't his horse's day.
Dennis "Desho" Gabourel, Tour Operator
"According to the vet he had a stroke and we had this said problem before with this horse when we went out the Show Grounds and there we washed the horse down, we bathed him down, and he came back to reality. I went this morning to the vet and I explained the situation and he came right away and gave him two injections and I don't know if it is the injection that caused the horse to die or what. I know the horse didn't die from malnutrition or anything like that."
Keith Swift,
Some people say you tour operators over work the horses.
Dennis Gabourel,
"These horses do like four tours for the day and that is the second tour it went on. But from I purchased this horse it had like a sickness. Every time he went on tours he would breathe, he had a problem, and we tried to doctor him, we gave him medicine, and it was just his day though."
An independent veterinarian has confirmed that the horse died from a heat stroke. Gabourel has two other horses, one of which is named Marion Jones. "You can't touch this" was worth about $3,000.
