Find me a pony please HHOers...

ihatework said:
Flash Gorden it could easily be young/crooked/unbalanced but there is something about the way he holds himself and moves behind that would make me wary.
ETA - under saddle rather than loose (where he looks fine)

The one Rowreach linked, whilst not quite so quality, would be quite marketable in 12 months time and possibly less risky of being landed with 2 mouths to feed long term
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I like the brown gelding too though I think Flash Gordon is v sweet looking. :)
 
ester said:
I agree with MP, Id want to continue to fitness post rehab.
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In which case if I do that, I just can't even see the point of getting another. Whatever I get is not going to be going straight out and "doing stuff", and I wasn't banking on having such a long Boggle plan I thought he'd be on proper turnout turned away by 3 months. The last thing I want to do is be rehabbing Boggle AND have a project together for any significant length of time, aka more than a few months.
 
splashgirl45 said:
just looked at this post, flash.....didnt see much walk but looked like he wasnt tracking up under saddle, also didnt like the way he moved, cant put my finger on it but was expecting him to move much better when loose and he didnt, he is a handsome horse and i would want to know why he wasnt fwd going in either the ridden or loose work.....
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I agree. He’s too long in the back. His movement wasn’t good.
 
ester said:
fabulous, we've saved you money ;):).

Can you get some riding in with someone else?
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Oh yeh, there's plenty I can ride. Just lack enthusiasm to ride anything that's not mine ;) Vet actually said when the walking is up to 50 minutes after a few months they want it to be done in whatever way keep the horse the sanest, whether that's ridden or unridden, so depending on Boggles state of mind who knows, I might actually be riding him fairly soon.
 
Michen said:
In which case if I do that, I just can't even see the point of getting another. Whatever I get is not going to be going straight out and "doing stuff", and I wasn't banking on having such a long Boggle plan I thought he'd be on proper turnout turned away by 3 months. The last thing I want to do is be rehabbing Boggle AND have a project for any significant length of time, aka more than a few months.
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Thst is what I ended up doing in 2018, it wasnt fun! Knackering! I had one green novice and one on 3 x walking in hand daily and in a pen, bloody hard work...then progressed to ridden walking, I was still educating the other....
Think hard over weekend.
I'd be inclined to pimp yourself out to others or take a riding break for 3 months, then assess where Boggle is at medically and how much time he needs from you x
 
Rowreach said:
Im quite tempted to look at the one I linked to if Michen doesn’t fancy him ?
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I think this brown gelding is the best so far tbh (with what info has been provided about him). There is something about him that suggests his true roots and he looks sensible and is made well to work. He isn't as glamorous as Boggle yet but with work etc I think he could be really smart.
 
Rowreach FWIW I did text and call the seller of the brown one you posted but no reply. They may just ignore the english number and not want the hassle of not selling local.
 
Kira did her SDFT right at the bottom of the pastern. Off fore. Similarly it was a tricky one to find because even the lameness guru at my horspital agreed she was not lame and didnt even react when he squeezed the lesion directly once it was found on the scan.
Vet said it was highly unusual to just do the bit she had done without involving other structures. And even more unusual to have no lameness at all. I knew she'd done something because I know her legs and it was slightly puffy, hence going back to horspital again and again until we found it.

She did 2 weeks box rest and then 2.5 months pen rest in the field. She will only settle in the stable with one of her friends next door 100% of the time so I could only bring myself to put another horse in prison for a fortnight ?
After that I took her home and she had a stable sized electric pen in the middle of the field where my 3 other mares live and she was very settled.

At the 3 month scan it wasnt totally healed but doing very well and that's when we started walk exercise. Kira doesn't hack reliably so we did in hand walking, 5 mins the first week building up to 30 mins over about a month and then I was allowed to do 10 mins in the school.

We added more mins walk in the school each week until she was also doing 30 mins in there. At that stage I was alternating short school walks with longer walk hacks.

Then added a few long sides in trot, gradually went large in trot. Over a few weeks built up to 10 mins trot then added long sides in canter and so on. I counted the laps in each pace each week.

We are 6.5 months post injury now and she's doing 40 min sessions of work starting to put all the advanced work back in.
Vet didnt want to rescan this particularly which made me nervous but he said he was fairly confident it wouldn't reinjure and it has never puffed up again since the original injury, tbh that's the best diagnostic I have.

Vet wasnt terribly prescriptive other than to scale right back again to commence school work. But I've done 5 soft tissue rehabs myself over the years so happy to fill the gaps myself. I set countdown clocks on my phone so I time each session religiously ?

Millie's sdft was harder to rehab. That had adhesions and she had surgery to clean it up, there was scar tissue that caused a mechanical lameness we had to work through to resolve. She did come sound but eventually reinjured which is when I retired her. Shes sound as a bloody pound now though ?
 
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milliepops said:
Kira did her SDFT right at the bottom of the pastern. Off fore. Similarly it was a tricky one to find because even the lameness guru at my horspital agreed she was not lame and didnt even react when he squeezed the lesion directly once it was found on the scan.
Vet said it was highly unusual to just do the bit she had done without involving other structures. And even more unusual to have no lameness at all. I knew she'd done something because I know her legs and it was slightly puffy, hence going back to horspital again and again until we found it.

She did 2 weeks box rest and then 2.5 months pen rest in the field. She will only settle in the stable with one of her friends next door 100% of the time so I could only bring myself to put another horse in prison for a fortnight ?
After that I took her home and she had a stable sized electric pen in the middle of the field where my 3 other mares live and she was very settled.

At the 3 month scan it wasnt totally healed but doing very well and that's when we started walk exercise. Kira doesn't hack reliably so we did in hand walking, 5 mins the first week building up to 30 mins over about a month and then I was allowed to do 10 mins in the school.

We added more mins walk in the school each week until she was also doing 30 mins in there. At that stage I was alternating short school walks with longer walk hacks.

Then added a few long sides in trot, gradually went large in trot. Over a few weeks built up to 10 mins trot then added long sides in canter and so on. I counted the laps in each pace each week.

We are 6.5 months post injury now and she's doing 40 min sessions of work starting to put all the advanced work back in.
Vet didnt want to rescan this particularly which made me nervous but he said he was fairly confident it wouldn't reinjure and it has never puffed up again since the original injury, tbh that's the best diagnostic I have.

Vet wasnt terribly prescriptive other than to scale right back again to commence school work. But I've done 5 soft tissue rehabs myself over the years so happy to fill the gaps myself. I set countdown clocks on my phone so I time each session religiously ?

Millie's sdft was harder to rehab. That had adhesions and she had surgery to clean it up, there was scar tissue that caused a mechanical lameness we had to work through to resolve. She did come sound but eventually reinjured which is when I retired her. Shes sound as a bloody pound now though ?
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Thanks MP. Surprised my vets are saying hand walking after a couple of weeks then.

Boggle's lameness sounds much more obvious, although we had to work to find it first time round the vet said he could see it on straight line trot up at second visit (I had ridden him for ten/fifteen mins before vet got there)..

When you've re habbed these injuries have you ever then turned away to give it extra time if you felt it of benefit for any reason? Or always followed vet programme with normal return to work after?

Boggle's has adhesions already and scar tissue. Apparently the specialist wasn't too concerned, mainly because the injury has not involved the digital sheath which is apparently a much poorer prognosis.
 
The Fuzzy Furry said:
Michen, to add to what I put above, you are likely to 'lose' March April and May, then all being good, walking for June July and August?
I know it seems ages but it can go very quickly x
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Sounds like it, I just need to get around in my head what to do after 6 months. If it will improve his prognosis to turn away that's what I want to do, if not as others have suggested then I won't. If only there was an obvious answer to that :D
 
Michen said:
Rowreach FWIW I did text and call the seller of the brown one you posted but no reply. They may just ignore the english number and not want the hassle of not selling local.
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Some of them like calls just and don’t respond to texts. They’d probably think a UK number was NI. If you’re interested I’d just ring them ?
 
I have always carried on from the rehab and progressed into full work.
By the time they are working for an hour in all paces I havent really seen that there would be any reason to turn away. It's a lot of effort to get to that point and they are usually starting to feel pretty good by then. The work helps to get them strong anyway. Most people agree that progressive controlled exercise is what these injuries need. Mine are all nobs in the field so I have always wanted to keep the work up to keep them as strong as possible.

If kira had done more time in the box we would have done hand walking on the road sooner. As the ground in the field was ok then I gradually increased the size of the pen so she got more controlled movement that way instead.
 
milliepops said:
I have always carried on from the rehab and progressed into full work.
By the time they are working for an hour in all paces I havent really seen that there would be any reason to turn away. It's a lot of effort to get to that point and they are usually starting to feel pretty good by then. The work helps to get them strong anyway. Most people agree that progressive controlled exercise is what these injuries need. Mine are all nobs in the field so I have always wanted to keep the work up to keep them as strong as possible.

If kira had done more time in the box we would have done hand walking on the road sooner. As the ground in the field was ok then I gradually increased the size of the pen so she got more controlled movement that way instead.
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Really hadn't thought of it like that, so this is useful to hear. Thank you!x
 
What's the HWSD stand for that they are testing Flash for?

Obviously it may be physical like people have suggested but watching his videos I half wanted to tell them to put a bit of leg on and send him forward. It may be if you put leg on he explodes but it may just be he's been trained that way I saw draw reins on in one of the video and while I've never used them myself and they didn't look massively tight he may feel restricted by them I'd like to see a video with a bit of leg on and no draw reins and see how he goes then if he still shuffles I'd be concerned but if he goes more freely it may be because of them that's why I suggested if you/ you ask someone on here if hes too far to go have a sit on him. He looked fairly onward bound into the jump in the video EKW said he looked like he may buck in.
Obviously people on here know far more than me but in I think it was the pole video I just wanted them to out a little bit of leg on and get him going forward, it may of course be he cant go forward but I'd like to see what happens if he is asked to

I also liked the bay that looked a bit like Flash that someone posted as well. Spottys mare is pretty as well
 
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Flash is a gut feel no from me too Michen. I don't think he's moving right in front and may be toe first landing, but I wouldn't rule out it originating in the back end because of straight back legs. I certainly wouldn't buy him unless I'd seen him in the flesh and ridden him myself, and I have bought unseen before and would again.

.
 
The Fuzzy Furry said:
Thst is what I ended up doing in 2018, it wasnt fun! Knackering! I had one green novice and one on 3 x walking in hand daily and in a pen, bloody hard work...then progressed to ridden walking, I was still educating the other....
Think hard over weekend.
I'd be inclined to pimp yourself out to others or take a riding break for 3 months, then assess where Boggle is at medically and how much time he needs from you x
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Agree - someone confiscate Michen’s credit cards! ?
To my uninformed mind Boggle’s injury sounds very mild and time will pass in a flash and you will soon be back on board with your hands full.
 
I have done rehab at home, and TBH, with all the faffing, you are busy and it does pass quicker than you think. The worst bit is the first bit, when you can't quite believe you are missing X or Y but, once it has been a month, that is when it flies.

I do like Flash still, but as I said before, I would go and ride him not get him from the video. I think he is very much in the rough. I did see a buck thought in the outdoor videos, but TBH, a horse only a few weeks under saddle, jumping a reasonable fence, I would expect him to feel a buck coming on!

I appreciate he has not the best current movement or conformation, but for your price range I think he is sweet. He is meant to be a fill-in after all, and with what you have made of Boggle I would be interested as to how he developed. That being said, with the new vet information, I would stick with Boggle only so he has your full attention. The time will soon pass.

Personally I would keep Boggle in work after the initial rehab, but keep the work at 60% of his previous for a further year. So I would not event for a full year or hunt - but then would be back to normal. I would still do dressage, sj on a good surface, XC school in a controlled way on good ground though, so it is all to the good in the long term.
 
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The one I looked at (same yard), they did around 6 weeks backing initially (including hunt), then threw it out for some months, it was just a couple of days back in work when I saw it. That one was jumping too when viewed, no fitness programme like I would have done.

The reason I didn't have the one I tried was because I felt the horse was rushed and worried, but then he was much cheaper than the others I looked at (other were up to 12K). The more expensive ones had been produced more slowly. I chose to spend the extra money for a horse who had been started more in line with what I wanted.
 
There’s no way that Boggle is going hunting properly ever again I should think. I suppose by October he *may* get a day or two autumn hunting on firm ground or hound exercise on the roads but that would be about it.

I’m seeing him very much as a 2021 horse, I’m hoping that by late spring next year he will be good to pop around an 80 or whatnot but other than that pretty much what you’ve said, Red, makes sense to me. By the time he was back at *proper* fitness it would be October time anyway, so eventing etc this year is not even on my radar.

I think so much of this horse and I just want him sound for years to come that’s all, and to be able to be properly sound not happy hack sound because he is not a happy hacker pony because if he was just the latter he’d be better retired to a field. I also think I can use this time to get to grips with the Equicore and sort of approach this as a whole body rehab.

I can’t deny I’m sad, I’d have loved to be doing a few events this year and I love boxing Boggle up for our adventures. I will he gutted to watch the lorry leave the yard when it sells. But Bog has given me two solid years of absolute fun, so I think the least I can do is give him a year of my sanity and focus on him entirely- not another horse. Actually it’ll make us even because he did give me a year of crap originally as well so it’ll be 2 each!!!!!
 
Michen said:
I think so much of this horse and I just want him sound for years to come that’s all, and to be able to be properly sound not happy hack sound because he is not a happy hacker pony because if he was just the latter he’d be better retired to a field. I also think I can use this time to get to grips with the Equicore and sort of approach this as a whole body rehab.
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I think this is a great way of looking at it and a very valid approach. While it's always really really shite to have a soft tissue injury, the boring rest and rehab that has to be done day after day when you had so many much more fun plans... I have actually found mine come back better than they were before because somehow the boring rehab work makes me much more exacting about correctness and so when they are back to full fitness you actually end up with a better horse than you had before ;)

This winter I have done so so much on straightness and quickness to my aids, even in walk you can get a lot achieved if you get in the right frame of mind.
 
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