Ginger update with Pics!

[DGIN]

Well…. ginger returned home from Rockley Farm on the 9th March, after 5 hours in the wagon he was pooped when I got him off so took him for a walk down the road to stretch his legs and he wasn’t looking too comfortable on the roads which I expected as Nic had said this.
I have since been hacking him out about 4-5 times a week on the roads and grass and he is doing very well, the longest hack up to now is about 5 miles but that’s only because I have chosen to do that but I think ginger could go on all day!

I can see the improvement every day, he is now happily hacking out on the road and is really walking out where when he first came back he took things very slow and was very carful.

I will add some pictures of his feet at the end but the difference in him is unbelievable! Many thanks to Nic and Rockley Farm!

I'm hoping to get him out and about this year if everything keeps going well, maybe an inhand class at a show or some fun rides?? Who knows I will just have to see how ginger keeps improving.

Ginger is still unlevel in the school but he is 18 and has a bit or arthritis so he will take longer to become comfortable and may always be a bit short?

Ginger had his first trim on Wednesday; Jo was very happy with his feet and said they were looking good, which made me verryyy happy!! He was a little less comfortable after the trim but nothing to worry about I hope, im still hacking him out and he seems happy and striding out still 

Any way the pics .. (p.s i could tell you a lots more but i hate reading long posts!)

The pics are all before his trim, i will get some new ones to put on asap (sorry they are so big)

 

[Oberon]

So pleased he is doing well.

Told you so!

Perhaps you could remind everyone what his previous complaints were and what you'd already tried to get him sound before sending him to Rockley.......

 

[DGIN]

Well…… last February I noticed that on the lunge ginger wasn’t quite right, I couldn’t put my finger on it and someone mentioned it looks like his back so I got the Physio out but he was fine!! He was ever so short on his front right but not every stride was the same? So I put him on box rest myself for a week or so just to see if It was something silly but he wasn’t right still, the vet was called out then, she did flexion tests and wasn’t really sure what it was either. Ginger then went for x-rays, as he wasn’t insured I couldn’t afford to have MRI scans, the x-rays showed navicular changes but I was advised that they could have happened at 5 years old! So the vet decided that he needed heart bars and gel pads which I did and I was advised to keep him on box rest and walk him out for 10 mins a day and gradually build it up and then I could ride him for this period. Box rest with a tb was a nightmare and the walking out drove me mad!

Anyway I decided in June to chuck him out in a field, he got to the point before I chucked him out that he was sound in walk and trot in a straight line but still short on a circle so in my eyes the heart bars weren’t working?? I persevered with the heart bars until October when I had done so much research on the internet that I just couldn’t put him through it anymore! I decided that I was just going to leave him in the field to chill out and enjoy himself for a bit, I was advised that if I wasn’t riding him I could just put normal shoes back on, I did this (bearing in mind I didn’t know much about navicular!) and he could hardly walk so I got the farrier back out and told him to take his shoes off. So from October to December I did a lot more research and came across Rockley Farm, I jumped at the chance of getting my horse back and being able to do the things we loved.

So in December Ginger went down to Rockley Farm for 3 months, before ginger went down he was barefoot already but wasn’t coping very well, he was very foot sore and walking on hard ground was a bi NO! He settled great at Rockley and made some great friends and now he is back and we are enjoying hacking out and his feet are looking brilliant. The vets been out to give him his jabs recently, the same on that saw him barefoot before he went to Rockley and her words were ’he’s a different horse from that crippled one I saw in December!’

 

[brucea]

Well done Ginger!