Howdy Friends! Rosie Update: By Golly have a look at this 10 second video from yesterday’s ride. This is a horse who a little better than a year ago my vet said she’ll never carry the weight of a rider. Because she supposedly has DSLD.
We’d already been rehabbing Rosie over a year by that time, addressed many issues, horribly overweight, totally neglected teeth and feet, muscle atrophy, dropped posture and overall broken posture, founder, and general health.
We had improved her posture and body carriage remarkably, she looked like a new horse. Her feet were totally sound, barefoot of course. All the previous signs and evidence of founder we’d fixed. She’d gone from flat-soled, to beautiful full frog, heel cushions and concavity. Navigating stones with ease that before only boots could handle, just to move about her yard. Early on she was in padded boots for months.
I’d had my eyes on those dropped fetlocks, but had worked with that before with diet, exercise, wraps, acupuncture, etc. All those things helped Rosie a little – But not enough.
Through Rosie’s entire rehab, Dr Thomas’ Contemporary Chinese Herbal formulations had played a big part. Everything from muscle rehab, skeletal, immune rebuilding, and hoof health. Now we began to address those weak tendons.
Since December 2021, Rosie has been on Dr Thomas’ “Tendon Repair” and “Torn Tendon” And it was only after implementing those treatments that Rosie’s DSLD really began to heal. She’ll probably be on them for some time to come, but now just at a maintenance level. (Find Dr Thomas’ herbal health here: www.forloveofthehorse.com ). She is now so sound that even under load, under saddle her hind pasterns drop only slightly more then I’d like. And no more than I’ve seen plenty of horses drop. No swelling, puffiness, pain or worries. Rosie is sickle-hocked so some flexion there is inevitable.
This video, yesterday’s ride is the result of 30 months rehabbing a broken Paso Fino mare. And the movement you’ll see in her head and neck, and sounds of her feet on the hard packed trail, are a thing of beauty. And a thing of a totally sound horse. I did take the video from the saddle, so you can’t see her leg and foot work – But you can tell from her head and neck, she’s sound.
Don’t let a diagnoses stop you from healing your horse. I share Rosie’s journey to encourage folks to keep at it. I say when we got Rosie she was a 30-year-old-18-year-old. Today Rosie is a 15-year-old-20-year-old. I’ll always be “rehabbing” Rosie, she’s been through a lot. But she and I will be on the trail having fun. ~ Gitty up, Dutch.
