Rebuilding a horse - it's possible

AKA the Impossible Horse, for all the Whovians.

I know I have blathered on about Gene before.  Blathered about how he was when we got him, what we've done, but doggone I will blather again!  And why?

Because Hoppy saw him this morning.  Hoppy, his body worker, is by far the most knowledgeable horse person that I've ever known.  I would trust her opinion long before trusting a vet, to be honest.  She really is amazing.  Gene's been seeing her since he was about 20 and he's a favorite of hers.  Previously, she's dropped plans in order to see him, because it's Gene.  Believe me, she is a busy lady so this is something!  And who is he?  A horse bred by her mother-in-law.  A horse ridden and shown by her daughter when she as a child in the late 80s/early 90s.  A horse that the family thought was dead until Hoppy showed up for his first appointment and recognized him as soon as she saw him.  She was astounded and thrilled, to say the least.

Today, Hoppy was enthusiastic when she saw him and confessed that, based on his first appointment, she had never expected him to live this long.  Instead, he has continued to improve and has improved again since her last visit.  In her opinion, he's more rideable now than at any time since we bought him (and, by the time she first saw him, we had already started putting him back together).  At coming 27 years-old, he is in better shape than a lot of her clientele.  She was so excited, in fact, that she took a picture of him.  She never takes pictures of the horses.

Gene is kicking the myths about senior horses squarely in the junk.

It's been a long road with that poor horse we paid too much for at 18, but I am really feeling like we have done something special here.

So, here's the good, along with what we have done/are doing:

Hoppy thinks his weight is absolutely perfect.

• He is currently receiving:
• 50/50 mix grass and alfalfa hay (the heavy alfalfa mix will soon end after this current snow storm)
• maintenance dose for a 1200 lb horse of Equidae Alfalfa Plus
• Probios probiotic to help digest the extra protein from the alfalfa
• 3.5 lbs of whole oats per day
• maintenance dose of SmartCombo Senior
• This also helps his coat, hooves, digestion, and joints
• maintenance dose of SmartGain
• weight gain
• He is getting blanketed/sheeted on nights with dreadful cold or precipitation (esp rain to freezing rain or rain to snow, as we have seen lately)

Hoppy said that his feet look terrific and kept saying how great they look.

• Natural trimming, natural trimming, natural trimming!
• He has worn shoes, and corrective shoes, extensively before we got him
• His feet have gone from beer cans with shriveled little things instead of frogs to a normal height with fat frogs that touch the ground
• His heels have opened, but will never be as wide as Peanut's
• He has been naturally trimmed continuously for 7 years.
• The SmartCombo Senior has hoof supplements such as Biotin
• In the past he was on Farrier's Formula, but the real problem then was a lousy farrier that was actually a setback.

Hoppy noted that his flexibility has improved

• He is currently receiving:
• IM Adequan injections every 5 weeks
• SmartCombo Senior contains Glucosamine, Chondroitin, MSM, etc
• Body work when he needs it
• She was able to bend his front legs until he touched his hooves to his elbows in this visit.  He is so arthritic in his knees that he could never do that before!
• He lives in a large for this area (15 acres) field that's basically a hill with water on one end, he is fed on the other end, two run-ins close to the water end, and he canters and trots around the middle.
• We did what we could with his neglected, pathological mouth through Natural Dentistry
• His lousy teeth had frozen his Atlas joint, as well as C2.  His first chiropractic adjustment released them, followed up by proper dentistry to allow them to stay flexible.
• They're not as flexible as they should be, but there is motion there and the muscles around them aren't hard as rocks.
• A better mouth helped his body in general because horses are funny like that
• Unfortunately due to age we have run out of time to correct anything more.  His mouth is his mouth now.
• In the past he received Cosequin, but hasn't in years.

I even noticed last night, watching him and Richard walk towards the barn, that Gene looked fantastic.  His butt shimmies when he walks, he's bright eyed and alert, and he just looks fabulous.  Hoppy agrees.  Her only suggestion is to offer him cabbage when we see him and that will also help his joints.  Ideally, he would receive it daily, but that's impractical right now.

It helps that Gene is stubborn and refuses to give in to age as long as we are willing to help.

But really, who could say no to this little guy?