'Incurable' hind suspensories and Badminton beckons

ProJo finally able to use his natural power and athleticism

Purchasing ProJo as a four-year-old in 2010, Barbie Clarkson rode him twice before prolonged snow forced a lay off, but back into work, he was always a little inconsistent and so began a six year journey that was to encompass both the despair of a very poor prognosis and finally, the elation of qualification for the BE100 Misubishi Motors Cup at Badminton.

By ProSet, the eyecatching and athletic 17hh gelding ProJo is known as Joe and Barbie shares the ups and downs of their story in her own words...

Joe seemed always to be a little bit ‘on and off’, never nasty or difficult, but a bit nappy or grumpy, although we couldn’t work it out and thought perhaps that as a rising five-year-old coming back into work he was testing our patience. However he progressed to ‘planting’, so we started to think about pain, but still weren’t sure; was he just being a bit difficult? We thought about gastric ulcers and he was affected, so treated, after which we expected his behaviour to improve, which it did a little. So we got going and even did a little bit of eventing.

He was always happy to jump, but on the flat found it difficult to produce power. When he was six in 2013, we had started novice level eventing, were doing novice level dressage and had even done a few elementary tests, but he never progressed as expected and things ‘sneaked up’ on us over time.

It was the following year, in 2014, that we didn’t get a good start to the eventing season. I had planned that we’d do three BE100s, then go novice, but events were cancelled because of bad weather. Our first run ended up being novice level, at which the show jumping was on long, lush, wet grass and he said ‘no’ for the first time, resulting in us being eliminated.

We came home and two days later had a session with my dressage trainer. She eventually said - “he’s not sound behind”, but I couldn’t feel it. She said she’d watched him many times in training and had thought there was ‘something’ for a while, but couldn’t pinpoint it.

Our vets nerve blocked him and confirmed lameness in both hind legs. So he had around eight weeks off, because there was no obvious sign of anything wrong. At that time I really didn’t want to know my very lovely horse was lame and maybe would be written off like others before him!

The rest didn’t work and back in work, he was quite difficult, so we did a ‘bute test and he was fine, which confirmed a pain issue and the investigations became more serious. An MRI scan revealed a problem with his suspensory ligaments, high up in both hind legs, where the ligaments attached onto the hock, but without external swelling or heat. Conformation was not the reason, treatment options were limited and he ended up having the whole of his seven-year-old year off.

Veterinary options were shock wave treatment or surgery, but success was unlikely. We talked about ArcEquine as we’d got to the point where there were no other options, and started using an ArcEquine unit during a 10-week period of box rest.

Walking him out started at week two – initially for 10 minutes a day – but Joe was terrifying and eventually I started to ride my daughter’s pony and lead him on a chifney, which worked because whenever Joe misbehaved, the pony would bite him, which gave me control! We broadly followed the ArcEquine rehabilitation plan and built the walking up to 30 minutes daily before I got back on. He has benefited from use of the ArcEquine unit ever since and fortunately we have never looked back and not had another major injury.

The following season as an eight-year-old we did only flatwork and dressage, progressing massively at that point. He was hacked out at home and we were really careful and paranoid about everything to do with his limbs; he became a proper diva! When you’re on that ‘last chance’ kind of thing, it was all about keeping him properly fit, getting him to carry himself properly, whilst ensuring he was never overusing any particular structure in his body.

As a nine-year-old we progressed to doing 1 x BE90 to test whether he would be sound! He was very silly, loved his jumping and it told me he was still keen for the job and really happy. He was sound the next day and stayed sound.

Confidently schooling over BE novice fences

It wasn’t until 2016 when Joe was 10 that I thought I would try out a little more, but not until I knew the ground was going to be OK.  I planned not to do many events, but following pre-season training with Blyth Tait, at which we ended up jumping 1.30m despite my slight lack of confidence, then a confident cross country session with Les Smith over novice fences, we decided to start at BE100. We finished fourth, so he was definitely back.

I was very careful all season, using iced boots to cool his ligaments along with the ArcEquine after every event and for maintenance each month. We had three novice runs and as I messed up, not him, we had no novice points and were still therefore eligible for the BE100 Misubishi Motors Cup Regional Final, which I entered.

That event was at Aske Hall and the ground was appalling. Jumping in ‘clart’ and slippery conditions is horrible and you just get to know over the years that there are too many things you can break in a horse for no reason and you don’t want to risk them. Fortunately, none of that happened and amazingly, we qualified for Badminton!

Our vets could do nothing for Joe, but have been supportive of my use of an ArcEquine unit and I do swear by it for his recovery. It would be interesting to re-do the MRI scan and see the ligaments now, as when I ride Joe he feels like a very, very different horse and he can use himself in a completely different way, producing power and hence able to work much better in every discipline.