Just came in to give the poor tractor a break - grinding away in the sun on our steep fields is not a recipe for a happy tractor - and found this from Charlotte!
Last week - in rather different weather from what we have now(!) was the Royal International Horse Show at Hickstead and guess who jumped a clear round? Our very own ex-rehab horse, Big Barefoot Bryan...
Amazingly, it is less than 6 months since he came here for rehab following a diagnosis of collateral ligament injury, navicular bone damage and pedal osteitis. Its totally thanks to Charlotte's determination that he came to us, and both Bryan and Charlotte have done us proud!
There was a priceless comment overheard as they came out of the ring: "The ground must be REALLY bad - that poor horse has lost all his shoes!"...
As all rehab owners know, it takes serious hard work and masses of commitment to have a barefoot performance horse but I think both Charlotte and Bryan feel all the hours of effort are paying off :-)
Kudos to the pair of them, and a happy twist to a rather stressful day at Rockley(!) - we are nearly there on the haylage but there is many a slip...so keep fingers crossed for us, please!
13 comments:
What a fantastic ambassador for Rockley and for barefoot in general!
I love the "ground" comment, we have a long way to go before barefoot is accepted as normal - I'm constantly asked when am I going to put shoes on my cob.
He's wonderful Martine - like all my ex-rehabs ;-)
The ground was extremely wet and patchy and would have given me grounds for concern with a shod and well studded horse but Big Barefoot Bryan was pretty footsure. Obviously he has spent the last 11 years jumping with shoes and studs and will take a little bit of getting used to his 'new feet' but so far so good.
GO BRYAN! Congrads to him and Charlotte!
And I LOL'ed at the comment about the poor horse who had lost all his shoes. Too funny!
This is just brilliant - well done Charlotte and Bryan!!! Show 'em how it's done!
Massive congratulations.
Oh that comment is very strange... "poor horse" LOL
Brilliant! Well done all concerned!
Fantastic result and I'm gutted to say that yet again I missed him!! Charlotte I really think Bryan needs his own facebook page so I can follow him around the south east!
Also truly delighted Bryan's doing so well because Dom has the exact same diagnosis so it's good to know he'll be able to jump at Hickstead next year too :) ok I'm kidding but Dom is just as sound lol! ;)
Way to go, Bryan!!!!!
C.
Maybe we need a team chase at the RRR - collateral ligament team, DDFT team and so on - though admittedly any team with Bryan on would have a bit of an advantage ;-)
Even my mother asks me when my ponies are going to be shod. NEVER !! I do have one currently shod, but he's on loan to me for a short while and owners wishes for him to stay shod and I respect her wishes..
My two barefoot ponies do pony club, hunting, LDR's, showing, showjumping, and all without shoes as nature intended. Love the fact you have barefoot horses doing all sorts now, had to laugh at the comment about the horse losing all 4 shoes when it came out of the ring...I know what it's like to be different from the others, it's hard when instructors hold the children back over XC simply because their ponies are barefoot. They think shoes prevents slipping
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