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| Georgina Clarkson and a happy, healthy ProJo |
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 and a team win in
the Pony Club Eventing Championships.
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.
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| Barbie Clarkson and ProJo cross country schooling with confidence and power! |
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!
However that wasn’t to be, as a freak accident lunging a
client’s horse resulted in me fracturing my elbow and when her horse Henry
started to suffer from Hard Ground issues in July, my daughter Georgina took
over the ride and the lovely Joe has been an absolute star!
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| Loving the cross country phase! Georgina and ProJo in action |
Earlier in the year she had ridden him in the National Schools
Eventing Association (NSEA) eventing at Northallerton and won the 100 section.
That was their very first event together. She was then selected for our South
Northumberland Pony Club 100 team with him - fortunately they'd done their three
mandatory qualifying rallies over the winter! She ran him at Warwick Hall
for a quick practise run before the Pony Club Areas there in June - and was
placed again. At the Areas, the team only made it into 2nd place but the
National Championships held at Cholmondeley Castle in Cheshire is a different
ballgame and the experience of all our riders came through to make them
unbeatable, whichever combination of scores were used.
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| Dressage success riding a Medium level test for Georgina and ProJo |
In amongst all that, Georgina and Joe also qualified for the
Pony Club Open Dressage at the Championships as individuals and finished 5th in
their arena, following it up with a 5th in the Elite dressage competition too, riding
the British Dressage Medium 73 test.
Following the Pony Club Championships they went on to do
their first British Eventing novice together at Richmond and finished well for
a first run with a qualifying score towards the BENu18 Championships for next
year.
I never thought Joe would become a Pony Club boy, let alone
go to the National Championships and put Georgina on the podium but he loved
his week in Cheshire. It was great compensation for the loss of my
Badminton run but I think I may have to let Georgina continue to event him for
me as she's doing such a great job!
Looking back, we had exhausted all further veterinary options,
although our vets were supportive of my use of the 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, as he’s proved this season.
To find out more and to purchase an ArcEquine, visit www.arcequine.com and join in the conversations on social media.
