BBP
Well-Known Member
Weird title - keyword search buzzwords!
I don’t post often nowadays as haven’t had much positive to contribute. After 3 years with the baby Connemara trying and failing to make any progress with his training with no idea what was wrong with him, I pretty much lost hope in his future as a riding horse. He was dull, disconnected, heavy on the ground, no enthusiasm for movement, and would get wildly anxious if even the slightest pressure was put on him. He would get the hiccups and lie down. After BBP being so connected I struggled with the lack of any kind of engagement from him, but always felt something was wrong and we just hadn’t figured it out. So, accepting he would forever be a pet, I bought the unbacked Arab and found myself in a world of trouble there too, she struggled with the move and went from adorable golden retriever to aggressive, reactive, erratic, lame and miserable. So then I had two young horses with no prospect of riding either in the foreseeable future and both not happy. Tried a bunch of things. Pretty disheartening.
Fast forward to Jan and I finally had the little mare scoped. Moving homes had made an absolute mess of her stomach. Just raw and bleeding all over, absolutely awful. We had been treating her as if she had ulcers prior to that, with supplements and low dose omeprazole and sucralfate, but hadn’t wanted to scope and she was getting worse and worse. I’m so glad I did then scope. Grade 3 squamous and glandular across the whole stomach. So we have hit it hard with weekly injectable omeprazole, plus sucralfate and Hestevard Pectigus. I was pretty nervous if the injections as I have read awful things about how horses have reacted to them, become needle and vet phobic etc. I have been so proud of my little girl. She has been an absolute angel for every single one, barely a flinch, never an ear back, loving up to the vets afterwards.
I had her rescoped on Friday, after 5 full weeks of treatment and the improvement is incredible. Squamous is completely clear and healthy, and there is some grade 1 ulceration near the pylorus, so we will continue to treat until those are clear, but probably reduce to paste (cost of injections is eye watering!). Her gorgeous cuddly curious personality has returned for everything bar rugging. Once that improves I’ll know we are sorted.
So that was success number 1.
Success number 2 feels even more remarkable.
I decided to have Tom Beech out to see my Connemara, as he has probably experienced a lot of weird cases. There was no big manipulation but some fascial work and an assessment of his history. His gut feeling was that my pony does not inherently have any structural orthopedic issues but likely has some redworm damage affecting the mesenteric ganglion that feeds the visceral organs. And that he felt a strong fascial pull from inflamed liver (we know he has had very elevated liver enzymes which are only now falling, he has been on milk thistle and mycosorb for 6 months), kidneys, spleen, colon etc. Which is then creating a fascial pull on T17-L2 vertebrae and then creating tension through the iliopsoas and up to the poll. He left me with a recommendation that I try Ron Fields Pre-Ulc for the gut and Trinity Consultants L94 over an extended period for a detox of the liver, kidneys, pancreas and spleen.
I’ll admit to feeling a little disappointed. I have used pre-ulc recently with no discernible improvement, and I sort of hoped for more osteopathic hands on work.
BUT… I added the L94. I saw another post on here where someone commented that the problem with people recommending it was that those people didn’t know if doing nothing would have had the same effect. Well I have had this pony for nearly 3.5 years with no change in his demeanour. And yet within 3 weeks he has gone from heavy, dull, resistant to forward movement, disconnected (would just ‘leave the room’ if he had the option), to one who is cantering circles around me at liberty and following me around like a dog. He is playing, engaging with me, coming to call. His whole face has softened. I genuinely can’t put it down to anything other than the L94 helping him feel better internally. Honestly I have struggled since the day he arrived to know what to do with him, so it has put the biggest smile on my face to have him trot up to me.
Sorry for the super long post, but I thought maybe some of it might help someone at some point (apparently my role in life is to have weird horses that teach me stuff I can show others)
My biggest challenge soon may be having 2 young horses who are ready to begin the backing process.
I don’t post often nowadays as haven’t had much positive to contribute. After 3 years with the baby Connemara trying and failing to make any progress with his training with no idea what was wrong with him, I pretty much lost hope in his future as a riding horse. He was dull, disconnected, heavy on the ground, no enthusiasm for movement, and would get wildly anxious if even the slightest pressure was put on him. He would get the hiccups and lie down. After BBP being so connected I struggled with the lack of any kind of engagement from him, but always felt something was wrong and we just hadn’t figured it out. So, accepting he would forever be a pet, I bought the unbacked Arab and found myself in a world of trouble there too, she struggled with the move and went from adorable golden retriever to aggressive, reactive, erratic, lame and miserable. So then I had two young horses with no prospect of riding either in the foreseeable future and both not happy. Tried a bunch of things. Pretty disheartening.
Fast forward to Jan and I finally had the little mare scoped. Moving homes had made an absolute mess of her stomach. Just raw and bleeding all over, absolutely awful. We had been treating her as if she had ulcers prior to that, with supplements and low dose omeprazole and sucralfate, but hadn’t wanted to scope and she was getting worse and worse. I’m so glad I did then scope. Grade 3 squamous and glandular across the whole stomach. So we have hit it hard with weekly injectable omeprazole, plus sucralfate and Hestevard Pectigus. I was pretty nervous if the injections as I have read awful things about how horses have reacted to them, become needle and vet phobic etc. I have been so proud of my little girl. She has been an absolute angel for every single one, barely a flinch, never an ear back, loving up to the vets afterwards.
I had her rescoped on Friday, after 5 full weeks of treatment and the improvement is incredible. Squamous is completely clear and healthy, and there is some grade 1 ulceration near the pylorus, so we will continue to treat until those are clear, but probably reduce to paste (cost of injections is eye watering!). Her gorgeous cuddly curious personality has returned for everything bar rugging. Once that improves I’ll know we are sorted.
So that was success number 1.
Success number 2 feels even more remarkable.
I decided to have Tom Beech out to see my Connemara, as he has probably experienced a lot of weird cases. There was no big manipulation but some fascial work and an assessment of his history. His gut feeling was that my pony does not inherently have any structural orthopedic issues but likely has some redworm damage affecting the mesenteric ganglion that feeds the visceral organs. And that he felt a strong fascial pull from inflamed liver (we know he has had very elevated liver enzymes which are only now falling, he has been on milk thistle and mycosorb for 6 months), kidneys, spleen, colon etc. Which is then creating a fascial pull on T17-L2 vertebrae and then creating tension through the iliopsoas and up to the poll. He left me with a recommendation that I try Ron Fields Pre-Ulc for the gut and Trinity Consultants L94 over an extended period for a detox of the liver, kidneys, pancreas and spleen.
I’ll admit to feeling a little disappointed. I have used pre-ulc recently with no discernible improvement, and I sort of hoped for more osteopathic hands on work.
BUT… I added the L94. I saw another post on here where someone commented that the problem with people recommending it was that those people didn’t know if doing nothing would have had the same effect. Well I have had this pony for nearly 3.5 years with no change in his demeanour. And yet within 3 weeks he has gone from heavy, dull, resistant to forward movement, disconnected (would just ‘leave the room’ if he had the option), to one who is cantering circles around me at liberty and following me around like a dog. He is playing, engaging with me, coming to call. His whole face has softened. I genuinely can’t put it down to anything other than the L94 helping him feel better internally. Honestly I have struggled since the day he arrived to know what to do with him, so it has put the biggest smile on my face to have him trot up to me.
Sorry for the super long post, but I thought maybe some of it might help someone at some point (apparently my role in life is to have weird horses that teach me stuff I can show others)
My biggest challenge soon may be having 2 young horses who are ready to begin the backing process.
.
.