Rehab horses on a roll!

Lexus LF: Still a work in progress, but better heels and functioning frog, 23rd June 2010

Lexus LF: Contracted heel and wizened frog, 19th March 2010

Lexus 23rd June 2010

Lexus 19th March 2010

Two pieces of good news for a Thursday - its turning into a wonderful week ;-)

Firstly, Lexus went home yesterday, and I've uploaded his footage which is here: http://www.vimeo.com/12796301

There aren't many horses who would be given a second chance barefoot by their owners having gone lame at 19, but Lexus is one of the lucky ones, and I have to say he deserves it - he is an absolute gent.

We don't have a magic wand at Rockley, so we can't turn the clock back and get rid of 19 years of wear and tear, but we can help horses improve their feet, and boy was Lex keen to improve his! Its lovely to see his footage now, and watch a short-striding, toe first landing horse transformed into a heel first landing, big-striding horse :-) Lex still finds hard uneven ground a struggle, but he picks his way and copes admirably. Across the fields and on good ground he looks half his age.

Now for the second bit of good news :-)

Some of you may remember Paul, who was with us for rehab over last winter. There is more info about him and links to his film footage in the "Rehab horses" tab at the top of the page (scroll down to the bottom to see him) and on here:

http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.com/2010/02/comparisons-paul-before-and-after.html

http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.com/2010/01/paul-again-just-for-completeness.html

http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.com/2009/12/good-job-paul.html

He went home in February and yesterday was the day his vet came to see him for the first time since he was lame at the end of last year.

Paul is one of the horses in "Project Dexter", and as part of that, we ask that the horse's own vet assesses its lameness before coming down here and again following rehab so that we have an objective record (often from a sceptical vet) of whether the horse has improved. Sometimes horses are re-vetted down here, or immediately after they go home; on other occasions the vet visits the horse once its been home a few months.

When I went to see Paul last month he was looking magnificent, and he is working 6 days per week, but its always a slightly nerve-wracking wait to see if the vet (in this case Ollie Crowe at Willesley Equine Clinic) agrees. The fantastic news though is that Paul trotted up completely sound and passed with flying colours.

Before he came here, he was 3/10 lame LF on a straight line and 4/10 on a circle, so thats quite an improvement :-)