It's 6 years ago since Chester was pts and hardly a day goes by without he's mentioned by me or someone else. We were together for 20 years and nine months and did all sorts things, lots of dressage, showjumping, sponsored rides, adult gymkhanas, showing, and some work for the RDA. He was 16.2, TB x Welsh Cob and he really was a fun horse. In lessons he used to squeal a lot and hop about when waiting for his turn to do an exercise, a friend of mine used to ride him and after the first time she took him on a hack she said he was just like a pig - he kept squealing all the time.
When Chester was about 12 we found he had navicular which with carefully chosing his work he was able to continue for about 5 years when the navicular had progressed to the point where a decision had to be made, the choices were have him denerved or pts. My vet spent a lot of time explaining all the pros and cons of denerving so we went ahead with that. Afterwards we were not to do any trotting, cantering or jumping work on hard ground, but could do dressage and jumping on indoor or menage surfaces. We did our last dressage in December 2000, it was freestyle to music and we got 2 10s, 3 9, and 4 8s, which was a great surprise and having achieved that I decided it was time to retire so we became happy little hackers. I moved to a yard with direct access to a forest so we could go out for little hacks to our hearts content.
Chester was about 26 when he had an abscess in one foot which just wouldn't heal, then it came through the coronet and I knew this was bad. My vet took xrays which showed the pedal bone had collapsed so it was at this point I had to make the final decision.
I always said Chester would be with me for ever and he is now in a very nice box with me at home.
Here is a photo of us taken on 1st September 2005 which was our 20th anniversary.
When Chester was about 12 we found he had navicular which with carefully chosing his work he was able to continue for about 5 years when the navicular had progressed to the point where a decision had to be made, the choices were have him denerved or pts. My vet spent a lot of time explaining all the pros and cons of denerving so we went ahead with that. Afterwards we were not to do any trotting, cantering or jumping work on hard ground, but could do dressage and jumping on indoor or menage surfaces. We did our last dressage in December 2000, it was freestyle to music and we got 2 10s, 3 9, and 4 8s, which was a great surprise and having achieved that I decided it was time to retire so we became happy little hackers. I moved to a yard with direct access to a forest so we could go out for little hacks to our hearts content.
Chester was about 26 when he had an abscess in one foot which just wouldn't heal, then it came through the coronet and I knew this was bad. My vet took xrays which showed the pedal bone had collapsed so it was at this point I had to make the final decision.
I always said Chester would be with me for ever and he is now in a very nice box with me at home.
Here is a photo of us taken on 1st September 2005 which was our 20th anniversary.
