Disheartened

Nell has been lame on and off for the past year. She gets a little lame, it gets better, she's sound, she goes lame again, she's footsore, she's not tracking up, she's full of energy and eager to go, she's sound, she's lame again... I knew when I bought an older horse we would experience a few issues but for the first year I had her she was 100% sound. Last summer she suffered a tendon injury. The vet didn't pick up on it when she was lame and we only found out by the time the scar tissue had formed a bump on the back of her foreleg. Now I think our jumping career is over before it's begun. At first I thought it was being stabled that was triggering the lameness but now it seems to be after any jumping. She was sound so I tried her over a couple of small jumps after hacking yesterday and today she was sore again. There's no way we could afford any treatment and probably can't justify it. I can't afford another horse and selling Nell is out of the question. It just seems so unfair when I was just getting my confidence back and Nell was improving. I can still hack her to my heart's content but with so little soft ground and Nell's intolerance to the hard, I wonder just how much fun I will be left with when I'm wondering if she's hurting. So I'm feeling down and a just a little bit lost at the moment...

Deadly Equine disease in Cornwall

Horse owners everywhere, including ourselves are starting to panic over an outbreak of Atypical Myopathy here in Cornwall. 12 horses have died so far including 1 from the Daniel's Morgan stud (the other survived but is said to have lasting problems) and Gemma's Jasper. Poor Gemma has lost two horses in just over a year of each other. First Lucy Loo and now Jasper which really came as a shock as I had been for a ride with them only two weeks prior to his death. He was an endurance horse and was increadibly fit and healthy so his death was very unexpected. Our thoughts are with Gemma during this heartbreaking time.

The disease is thought to be caused by toxic fungal spores and is at it's worst after heavy rainfall and has some links to horses fielded in areas densely populated with trees. The symptoms include varying degrees of stiffness and dark coloured urine and unfortunately, as of yet, the only treatment involves anti-inflammitories and drips which still has a very poor prognosis. Preventative measures are to stable after and during heavy rain and to rotate to a paddock where there are fewer trees if possible. Supplementary feeding of hay and grain feed will prevent foraging on the ground and the possible consumption of leaves or plants containing the fungus.

There is no telling where it might happen next and is not considered contagious so isolation is not effective. We are all hoping for a long dry spell or heavy frost in order to kill the spores.