I have hesitated posting this but I felt I should acknowledge a pony who was a big part of our lives for a while.
As some of you know Zak was bought as a safe pony for my novice children. And he was safe - mostly. But he also threw in the towel entirely unpredictably with alarming regularity and threw the kids off any way he could. When they were beginners all he had to do was drop a shoulder or put his head down. As they got better, he bucked or reared and as they got better still he bolted/spun/bucked. Anything to get rid of them. It could be after 5 minutes or after an hour. It was not linked to any particular movement, gait or rein.
Multiple tack/back/teeth/physio checks yielded no issues and several instructors told me to stop 'looking for excuses' and accept it was behavioural - which I did. In the end I sold him to the RS when my daughter broke her arm coming off him when he bolted then stopped dead, bucking. He was better in the arena and as part of a ride and the RS knew his issues and thought they could work with/around them.
He was a firm favourite for a few months but was chucking RS pupils off too so eventually even his most ardent fans had become fearful of him. He'd even roll to get people off. So they more or less retired him - just using him for RDA on a lead rein. Then he went lame. He was intermittently lame for a few months, then chronically slightly lame and then recently, hopping lame with no real explanation from the vets as to the problem. So vet advised PTS and he has gone. I only found out a week later when some RS pupils posted a photo of him on instagram saying 'goodbye old friend'.
I do wonder now whether he was in pain the whole time I had him. Whether he had some intermittent issue that flared up unpredictably. I don't know.
I feel very sad. And that I let him down by not pursuing a pain-related explanation more vigorously. But it was very hard, when my children's safety was at stake, to see a way forward with him.
Run free Zak. No more pain.
As some of you know Zak was bought as a safe pony for my novice children. And he was safe - mostly. But he also threw in the towel entirely unpredictably with alarming regularity and threw the kids off any way he could. When they were beginners all he had to do was drop a shoulder or put his head down. As they got better, he bucked or reared and as they got better still he bolted/spun/bucked. Anything to get rid of them. It could be after 5 minutes or after an hour. It was not linked to any particular movement, gait or rein.
Multiple tack/back/teeth/physio checks yielded no issues and several instructors told me to stop 'looking for excuses' and accept it was behavioural - which I did. In the end I sold him to the RS when my daughter broke her arm coming off him when he bolted then stopped dead, bucking. He was better in the arena and as part of a ride and the RS knew his issues and thought they could work with/around them.
He was a firm favourite for a few months but was chucking RS pupils off too so eventually even his most ardent fans had become fearful of him. He'd even roll to get people off. So they more or less retired him - just using him for RDA on a lead rein. Then he went lame. He was intermittently lame for a few months, then chronically slightly lame and then recently, hopping lame with no real explanation from the vets as to the problem. So vet advised PTS and he has gone. I only found out a week later when some RS pupils posted a photo of him on instagram saying 'goodbye old friend'.
I do wonder now whether he was in pain the whole time I had him. Whether he had some intermittent issue that flared up unpredictably. I don't know.
I feel very sad. And that I let him down by not pursuing a pain-related explanation more vigorously. But it was very hard, when my children's safety was at stake, to see a way forward with him.
Run free Zak. No more pain.
Run free Zak. x
