Temererio the 7th
A remarkable horse.
An extraordinary bond.
An extraordinary bond.
One of the most powerful experiences and connections I had was with a big grey horse. This horse was a national champion dressage horse and then went on to the world of entertainment next door to Disneyland at Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament. A jousting and sword fighting show - he became a star of that venue…
As he got older and lame he had some issues with his back legs. A family from Parker, CO bought him. They called me to consider if I could take his shoes off and keep him barefoot. They had heard about the natural barefoot trim and was curious to see if they could do that because the horse was getting lame enough that it was a big issue to go through the shoeing process. I showed up and took the shoes off - things went very well. They realized that he didn’t need shoes and that he was better off barefoot and healthier.
In that process and throughout the years of working with him the lameness got worse and worse. It got to where he couldn’t hardly stand on one hind leg. When I picked his good leg up the lame leg would just buckle out from under him. What we worked out together was that I would get under him pick the good leg up and let him put his weight on me, using me as a prop. That got to be a very intimate relationship between the two of us and trust at the highest level. He trusted me to help him hold himself up.
Those connections don’t happen but a handful of times in a lifetime and I have had several. That was one of the most profound connections and trusting experiences I’ve had in my life.
The Jo Horse – the Joe was the all-star on track rehab. They called me and said they were going to euthanize Jo, Dan we understand that you do rehabs, if you want him you are welcome to have him. I said you bet. It took two years to get Jo sound again – He had Navicular and was too lame to compete. The veterinary told us that he was just a light duty trail horse when they brought him to us. Then it took me two more years to find someone that could ride him. He was a three-day event horse – they are the superstar athletes. They have to dressage, stadium jumping, cross country at speed over jumps and rough country.
After 4 years of rehabbing and looking for someone to ride this horse I found somebody that could ride him. I took Jo to this lady talked her into riding him for me so I could sell him. She started riding him and found that he was a very talented horse and really liked him a lot, so I gave him to her. She had him for a winter and rode him, after the next spring she was going to start showing him. She took him to a couple of beginner shows just to get started – he did really well. He then hurt his leg and was off all summer. He didn’t get back to competition until that September. There were only 5 big shows left in the big circuit here in the Colorado region 8 that takes place in 5 states – one of the more competitive regions in the country. So, Jo had to sit the summer out and go back to work that September. He went to 5 horse shows some of the big ones of the year. The last one was the end of the year big show. Jo went 5 first places but he had to participate in 6 shows in order to earn the points needed for the region 8 association so he didn’t get any points for the end of the year even though he did more than any other horse and his rider earned rider of the year…
Jo turned out to be a superstar that was thrown away by western medicine, yet he turned out to do really well through alternative rehab to get back to being sound.
The Jo Horse
Given another chance
when hope seemed lost.
when hope seemed lost.
The Arab Mare
A journey of patience,
perseverance, and recovery.
perseverance, and recovery.
We had an Arab mare that did endurance racing. This mare had a coffin bone that was rotated 15 degrees and at that point the veterinarians all said that it’s a lost cause and that she would never race again. So that happened to this mare and on top of that there was a bump on the bottom of her foot, she had laminitis, had an unbalanced hoof and was lame. She could just barely get around.
A Ferrier came to trim her feet and decided to cut off the bump on the bottom of her foot with his hoof knife and it was actually the bone coming through the bottom of the foot. He cut the sole so there is now a hole at the bottom of the foot. Over the next couple of weeks a raging infection developed in that foot. They brought the horse to my care to attend to. We kept the horse for 14 months. We did the most extreme treatments that I have ever done at that point. We had several people involved in the rehab. After 14 months she was sound and went home again. She was a happy horse and competed in short endurance races again.
She was one of our really great rehab stories.