A couple of encouraging conversations

It was good yesterday to have a conversation with a vet about a new horse, who should be coming down at the end of the month, and she was very positive about sending him down.  This is partly because she had also been to see one of the rehab "old boys", Ginger, who was here this time last year.

Her practice looks after both horses and she had been to see Ginger to give him his vaccinations.  In the Project Dexter table, Ginger doesn't have a formal veterinary assessment because the vet who diagnosed his lameness wasn't the same vet who saw him before he came here, and the current vet is different again.

[There is an interesting piece of research which shows that vets are very consistent at spotting lameness BUT its not so easy to get consistency between individual vets, which is why, for Project Dexter, the same vet has to see the horse at each stage].

What was lovely was that this vet told me that Ginger had "fabulous" feet, looked wonderful and was perfectly sound - brilliant news even if we can't include it in the project :-)

Only a few hours later, just to cheer me up even more, I had an email from Nicky's owner to say that her vet had come to see her because of an ongoing issue with her hock - she had spavins before she came here and though they have improved they haven't completely fused, according to the surgeon - a matter of time, and continuing work.

The good news is that her vet had re-assessed her front limb soundness and was impressed with her, especially as she is working 5-6 days per week when the vet, before she came, thought she would struggle to stay paddock-sound.