When
Kim Wilson first saw Ustinov, she knew she just had to have him, but their
journey together didn’t have the smoothest of starts, as Kim explains....
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| Ustinov in October 2014 |
Usti will
be eight this year, but when I bought him in October 2014 as a six-year-old, he
had spent a few years as a working stallion, but just wasn’t coping with that
life and in a very poor condition. Even though he had severed a tendon and
arteries in his near fore pastern as a three-year-old, my initial hope was that
he would event. I saw him loose jump and after a trip to my trainer’s yard during
which he never put a foot wrong, the deal was done and two weeks later, newly
gelded, I picked him up.
Although
never graded as a stallion, he is ‘pink papered’ with the Anglo European
Studbook. By Udo van Padhuis, he has Dutch bloodlines which are predominantly
dressage, but he is also a talented jumper!
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| Ustinov in October 2014 |
Initially
he was hard work and I think being gelded had traumatised him, destroying his
confidence, so he didn’t trust any of these new people in his life and was even
wary of being brushed. As we tried to improve his weight I quickly found out
that any hard feed sent him ‘nuts’. The
only feeding suitable has been haylage and chaff. He did not enjoy turnout much
and after a couple of months of being extremely unsettled, he finally injured
himself running the fence line in his field. It was the same near fore, which
already had a mass of scar tissue that was affecting hoof growth, but as I
still don’t know the full details of his original injury, we weren’t sure what he might have done this time.
I
agreed with my vet that we’d box rest him and watch his progress before
undertaking lameness investigations, but after a couple of days of box rest he
became very stressed, rearing and canter pirouetting in his stable and was very
difficult to handle. At this stage my friend told me about the ArcEquine and
offered me the loan of her unit. I spoke with the company and got some
very helpful advice and a re-rehabilitation plan for us to follow.
After a
few days on the ArcEquine Usti became noticeably calmer and manageable in his
stable, but I have a full time job so due to the lack of an arena and short daylight
hours because it was winter, the rehabilitation stage was extremely difficult
and much slower than recommended and discussed.
When spring arrived, there was massive
improvement in his lameness, so he was introduced to turn out again, along with
in-hand work. We had a slight set back due to scatty behaviour and I
thought it best to start the ArcEquine programme all over again.
This
time, with the longer daylight hours and a newly installed arena,
rehabilitation was much easier. I noticed that during Phase 2 of the ArcEquine
treatment programme, there was considerable change in his hoof growth, which my
farrier found extremely surprising as he had thought there was no chance of the
hoof re-forming correctly. We agreed to keep him on this phase for longer
than the treatment programme states and as a result, the improvement in hoof
growth has been immense. My vet was also happy with the progress and
agreed we should just to continue to work him, as there was no point in scans.
As we progressed into the summer I slowly built up his rehabilitation
programme and he coped with the increase in work.
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| At last Ustinov enjoys turnout with other horses |
It took
me a year to establish the same trusting relationship on the ground that he had
with his previous owner and from needing constant supervision in the field, he
is now happy to be turned out with horses either side for company. His hoof grows
well, his gait appears normal and his ridden work is progressing, so we are aiming
for low level dressage competition to start the season.
Usti
benefitted from ArcEquine treatment for approximately 10 months and he still
receives maintenance level treatment. This is a longer recovery time than
expected with the unit, but he had a large number of issues to overcome, not
just one injury.
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| Ustinov's ridden work is progressing well |
He was
very poor, run down, newly gelded, he developed a cough when we started his
vaccinations and he had the scarring – physical and mental – from his previous
injury. I strongly
believe the ArcEquine helped heal not just the leg injury, but every aspect of
him and this is perhaps why he needed the treatment for so long. Mentally
he is much calmer and able to deal with changing situations around him far
better than when he arrived.
He can
still have a difficult and spooky stallion day, but more and more days are nice
gelding days and he is getting better under saddle. Life for Usti would have
been very different without the ArcEquine treatment and now he has recovered
well, he loves work and enjoys being busy, with plenty of mental stimulation,
so thanks from both of us to all the team at ArcEquine.
