This is my beautiful boy Pipo a 7 year old Arab gelding, he came to me on the first Wednesday in November 2009 he stayed in my holding box and was due to go into a field on the Saturday.
We were expecting some bad weather so on the Friday morning I went to rug him up, not being sure if he had been introduced to rugs, I took it slowly and quietly watching his reaction every step of the way, all was going well untill I went to do up the leg straps, my jacket brushed against the side of his rug and he exploded.
He broke away from me, tried to jump out of the stable then just went through the door, galloped across the holding paddoc, broke through the fence and went galloping up the road with only the chest straps of his rug done up.
To cut a long story short we eventually found him if a field completely battered and broken and in shock, our fantastic vet Dr. Noel came as quickly as he could, while Valerie and I tried to keep Pipo on his feet, all he wanted to do was lie down and we knew if he did we would never get him up again.
In his panic he had fallen over the edge of an old quarry, his injuries started at his nose and ended at the back of his hocks, the two nightmare ones were his knee which was open to the bone, and his elbow on the same side which was also open to the bone. Both wounds were the size of my fist and neither were stitchable because they were such big wounds and there was such trauma to the surrounding flesh.
We were able to get Pipo home and Dr. Noel was very woried about the elbow injury as he could feel bits of bone in it, he came back on the Monday morning to x-ray the elbow and to check on the knee injury again - Fortunatly it turned out that the point of elbow bone was scraped and nothing was broken. Pipo was then put on Box Rest for 3 months and his wounds have healed, his elbow is perfect but we are still very worried about his knee which is still swollen, an x-ray done last month shows that he is growing bone on the injury and there is not much we can do until this process stops.
Our Equine Osteopath or Etiopath as they are called here in France Philippe Ertzer was on his regular visit last week to check over the working girls and to have a look at Pipo. Philippe spent an hour and a half working on Pipo's knee, elbow and back and the difference he has made to my little horse is amazing.
Yesterday for the first time in 4 months Pipo has been able to lie down and roll, and boy has he been making up for lost time - He is covered with sand from head to toe and I couldn't be happier to see my little horse being able to lie down and snooze in the sun.
Pipo is due to have another batch of x-rays tomorrow, and I have no idea what the future might bring regarding his endurance career, I'm not sure he will ever compete, but he is now a happy healthy horse, and at the end of the day what more can a horse owner ask for.
To be continued
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