Epona's Pastures

We Welcome Polly - 03.12.09

Polly arrived at Epona's Pastures last week after a two hour, trouble free, float journey. Polly is a 6yo Thoroughbred who has spent most of her young life as a racehorse. When Polly was no longer running fast enough, she was headed for the knackery. Fortunately for Polly there was a lovely family who stepped in and said they would offer her a loving home and Polly's future was secured. Just recently however, the family found themselves in a very difficult situation and contacted us to ask if we could take over Polly's rehabilitation and re-education process before finding her a new permanent home. 

As the photos below show, Polly is slightly down in condition and she appears to have some swelling in one of her front knees. Polly will get a full health check and dental check by our veterinarian on Friday morning. 

             Polly Gets A Full Health Check - 04.12.2009

When our Vet came out to see Polly today, we requested the "full health check" to give Polly the best possible start with us. Polly was first wormed and vaccinated. Because Polly's coat was dull and filled with white dandruff we suspected she had recently had lice and may not have been able to shake them all off. We gave her a full lice treatment to be on the safe side. It was then time to have a look at her swollen knee. After much flexing and trotting her up and down in the paddock, the Vet determined that she was definitely 'Paddock Sound' but without x-rays it was hard to say more, so it was off to the x-ray machine next.

Unfortunately the x-rays told another story, Polly has had some kind of major trauma to her knee which is already showing some arthritic changes. Our Veterinarian suggested that although Polly is currently sound she should not be placed in a home that intend to do too much hard riding as this will further aggrivate the knee and result in lameness down the track. She will be suitable for light pleasure riding only.

Polly's next stop was the dentist, and the news was not much better there. The Veterinarian expressed concern that given how sharp her teeth were, they may never have been attended to. This is unfortunately a situation we see much too often with the horses that come to us, and although it usually doesn't cause any permanent damage to the horse, they often have open sores and ulcers on the inside of their mouth where the sharp edges are. It is not too hard to imagine how painful this can be.
Polly received some sedation to get her through the dental work and she now has smooth edges on all her teeth and will be much more comfortable once the sores have healed.

                                             Polly Is Adopted - 21.02.2010

When working with placing horses, you sometimes wonder if you will find the right home for a horse. Then suddenly out of nowhere a person comes along that is just so beautiful and caring who offers the perfect home for the horse. Such is very much the story with Polly and we are just so delighted with the home she has gone to. 
Polly's  new owner fell in love with her the moment they met and Polly's new task is to keep the new owner's other rescue horse company in the paddock. The two of them will be loved and pampered while living out their days in beautiful surroundings. The only danger to Polly now is that she may just be spoiled to death by the neighbourhood kids who were very excited at her arrival. We could not have wished for a better home for this lovely mare and we thank both the new owner and all the kids for their support.
Although the new owner is a little camera shy, here is a few photos of Polly in her new surroundings.