Monday, 27 October 2014

Eager landing heel first in just 2 weeks!

It's now been 2 weeks since I took Eager B to Rockley and she has had her first Rockley blog entry
And I have just had an email from Nic this morning telling me she is being a good girl and has settled really well..... Also that she is consistently and clearly already landing heel first with every stride. Wow!  In two weeks! I am over the moon :-) 

So she will now be worked on more challenging surfaces.  As she is now landing heel first and using her foot correctly I can only assume the inflammation in the foot will start to go down and the pain should diminish. 

Over the last week or so I have acknowledged in my head that there is no doubt in my mind she will come sound. So I am already looking forward to next year and the work involved to build a solid base of work for Eager to continue with her soundness.  This will be mainly based on hacking and building muscle and fitness. As I recently put in an email to Becky 'like in the olden days'.  

Sitting here on the train I have a big smile on my face.  All is becoming clearer to me what I should do.

Also, it has now made me doubly annoyed with the insurance company for not paying out.  Not just for me, but all of those people who do not have the money to pay for this treatment.  Because, it is a lot of money. I am now formulating in my mind a letter to the head of SEIB and the insurance ombudsman.  It absolutely needs to be done! 


Tuesday, 14 October 2014

Eager the 'Rockley' dude.

So I started typing this in the car park at Rockley.

The journey took us 6 hours, including about 30 minutes of stoppage time.  Eager travelled like a dream.  Barely leaving a moment without munching on her hay. Which made it very stress free for me and David. This is also aided by the fact I could see her munching on her hay on the camera in Jacqui and Andy's fabulous little lorry.  I really couldn't have done it in the Landy!  The last bit of the journey being the most stressful around the windy roads.  But this literally was the last 30 mins.
 
So I've just been told she settled in amazingly well last night. Bless her cotton socks. She has always been such an easy horse to have and be around, it would appear other horses think so too.  I hope this doesn't change.

I have just walked around the tracks with her and she seems fine, maybe a bit perplexed but not unhappy.

 
Nic's taken all of her photos and has said there is a lot to like about her feet.  Just the media lateral twist that would be the problem. She thinks she'll progress really quickly.  Which is great.

So that's it!  She's here.  I am very excited to see the blogs about her progress.

Huge massive thanks to Jacqui and Andy for lending me their horse box. It made the journey a pleasure for all concerned and obviously saved me some much needed pennies. 

Thank you Marian for being one of the only people in the last few weeks to make me feel better about myself and having the balls to tell me I was doing the right thing (even if it was just to make me feel better)

Also, a big thank you to David for supporting me on the long drive up there and staying at Faulty Towers.  Taking over driving on the way home, when I finally crashed and burned (not literally) and lastly but certainly not least, covering the cost of Rockley because the insurance company wont.

Miss you already Miss Eager B. X

Sunday, 5 October 2014

Rockley T+5

Approximately, 11 weeks ago after Eager was showing very intermittent lameness.  She was to my shock at 5 years old and barefoot, diagnosed with Navicular Syndrome.  Told almost there and then the prognosis wasn't brilliant, but maybe able to do light work and possibly a bit of dressage after remedial shoeing.  Not in line with buying an eventer! 

Approx. £3.5k, 2 visits from my vet, 1 visit to Rossdales, 1 X-ray, 1 MRI scan, steroid and huyaloric acid injections, a tildren drip and a few differences of opinion later I am finally 5 days away from my trip to Rockley with Eager (which is where I decided she was going the day I was told the diagnosis) She is still shoeless!

In those few weeks I have remained mainly positive, because my dreams for her are still very much alive (if a little extended). I no longer feel ridiculously unlucky.  Infact, I feel fortunate.  Yes, I had already had two horses diagnosed in their prime to retire.  But, they are still with me and I was fortunate enough to have the money (just) and the space to get Eager.  I am aware and reconciled to the fact she, for the foreseeable future will be my final horse.  But they are all still with me and will spend the rest of their lives with me, in as much comfort as I can offer.  I have not had to make any decisions because I can only afford to keep one on a livery yard or equally have had to give up when Conor retired in 2007. I have had 3 good attempts and learnt so much in that time.  I still carry on learning everyday.  I simply cannot imagine a life without Conor, Zulu, Eager and even Bess. I don't regret a moment.

I have taken advantage of the recent time off and tried to do a combination of house stuff, yard and relaxing :-)  A small glimpse of what normal people do.  I even went to IKEA yesterday and this morning  made and waxed a table! 

Becky sent her dates out for next year, last week and I literally do not know what to do.  I am a little fed up with planning.  I have spent the last few years planning my riding a year in advance... And I'll be honest it hasn't really worked for me.  What I will actually need to do is just get on and ride! Whenever and wherever I can! If I am lucky.......

So, I have had a few blips in the last couple of days because last chance saloon is a week away.  Its easy to function when a dream is still very much attainable.  I very fleetingly allow myself to question what I will do if it doesn't work? But it's so fleeting I don't have an answer.  I'll cross that bridge if and when the route means I have too.  But preferably, I'll jump that river on a cross country course :-)

I remain to live by my motto "you only regret the things you don't do".

Friday, 3 October 2014

Sometimes, I feel its just me

Struggling to fight my corner for Eager to go to Rockley has actually been quite hard and I can totally understand why people do as they are told.  Especially if you are not as confident as I am that I'm doing the right thing.  Even 10 years ago, I may have done what I was told.....  Mmmm well you never know :-)

Equally, I have questioned whether I have just been pig headed.  Am I one of those women that just argues, when in reality I don't have a clue.  I know I like to play devils advocate in a lot of situations.... Sometimes I just can't he help myself.  I just like to see both sides of the coin before I make a decision. Although, I guess if one side of the coin looks particularly attractive you are going to do what you can to make it land up every time. That may even involve sticking blue tack over the less favourable side (I have no idea if this would work, but you get what I mean)

I suppose it may be reasonably easy to trawl the internet to find people that agree with you.  I have tried to be as objective as I can and have even tried to google navicular and prognosis trying to be 'pro shoeing' and I'll be honest while there are good stories.  There are not too many and they appear to be short lived success.  But you try and google navicular on a forum and it not end up with Rockley being the success route.  You'll be very, very hard pushed.

So why, do barefoot people get such a bad name?  and in my opinion, its a few things.. 

Firstly, I think a lot of people do it badly and unsuccessfully.  They don't research, they just take their horses shoes off. Proclaim to be barefoot and carry on as normal....  They don't condition the foot.  When I took Zulus shoes off I hand walked up the road, everyday for a month. By week two he was crippled and I was wondering what the hell I had done.  By week four he was completely sound on the road and walking across stoney fields! Another thing is diet, which I won't go into now but can be crucial.  But thankfully is pretty much what I was feeding anyway. The next is a brilliant trimmer or now I realise lots of hacking (over 10 miles a week) to keep the foot functioning correctly and by all accounts they self trim.

Secondly, people who go barefoot successfully have generally really looked into the whys and wherefore of what they are doing and apply the above diet, trim, lifestyle (of the horse, not the owner!).  We totally understand (or try too) it's how the foot should function and how it hopefully should lead our horses to live a longer sounder life. If you have applied a lot of research into something and it resonates within you, it becomes part of your belief system. This makes people passionate!

Thirdly, from the day we start riding, researching, loving, training to be a vet, farrier, etc,etc we invariabley see a horse with a shoe on.  No one even thinks of a horse without a shoe on.  Its ingrained in us.  Hearing a horse clip clop up the road still inspires the urge in me to run to the window and have a look. Having read a post of Nics recently there is even a photo in a veterinary book of a hoof cut in half so you can see inside.  It still has the shoe attached!  They aren't born with them on! She mentions barefoot is not even covered in the prospectus of a vet?  It's just what happens.  You're on a yard people you do what everyone else does.  You put shoes on every 5/6 weeks.  How many people, question why you would put a rigid metal on a living flexible thing?

Anyway, I can't even remember why I started writing this post now.....  I'm sure I've digressed.

But, what I must mention is that clearly there are many horses that last for years with shoes on, with no ill effects.  If it isn't broke, why fix it?  Maybe these are the horses with perfect conformation?

I also know one person who in her heart is totally barefoot, but for medical reasons (laminitis) her horse has shoes on and this is how she has incredibly successfully managed a near impossible situation for years.  I also know she gets very upset about our passion and feels she is being ostracized .  This is so not the case, your amazing and you've done an amazing job. 

I for the record do not consider myself pro-barefoot.  I am pro your horse moving as soundly and as ethically as possible.  For some this may mean shoes, for others it doesn't.  I'm pro people doing the best they possibly can with the information they have available.

I think for this reason, vets are not going to easily (aha I've remembered my point of this post) recommend barefoot therapy for caudal heel/foot/navicular/DDFT (the list could become long) problems.  Because, quite simply a majority of horse owners will not be prepared/have the education or have inclination to change THEIR lifestyle in exchange for their horses for the rest of its life. 

But, what they haven't taken into account is that some people do and will.  They don't know the circle of amazing people I have the pleasure of knowing and sharing my horse journey with. :-)  I am truly blessed.