A journey I will never forget!!
Well it has been quite some time since I have written a blog for RRR and to be perfectly honest a long time since I have done anything for RRR, however, Pippa Boyle has taken on ROR for the South East and is doing a fantastic job!
Unfortunately, the reason for this is my mare tilly (tantrum) had an accident on March 1st 2014 where she was kicked on the hock. It was a long journey but sadly I lost her to colic on Halloween which was devastating. Tilly's journey with us from the day we bought her in 2012 just out of training was intense, testing and tiring but she was one in a million and I would not have changed a thing. I am now ready to put a pen to paper on this - whether no-one reads it or lots of you do, it is my way of closing this chapter down and paying respect to a mare that did so much for me and my family!
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| Within the first week of her being with me. |
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| Shower Time |
In May 2012 I started looking for a new horse; I did not necessarily want an ex racehorse again and therefore had searched far and wide for a 'sports horse' of some form. I wanted him/her to be young and green but preferably backed and to have attended a couple of shows. I tried many horses including irish horses, warmbloods and thoroughbreds ( which I was not made aware of until I turned up ). But nothing caught my eye or gave me a buzz when I sat on them!! Gatcombe horse trials was cancelled this year due to the rain so me and mum took the opportunity to look for horses in that direction and keep our reservation at the hotel - again ... no luck!! On returning home mum showed me a 3 year old 16.1 mare that was advertised just down the road near Maidstone - an ex-racehorse just out of training. We decided to go and have a look at her as it was so local! She was beautiful!! and that was that ......
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| Tilly and Ryan Moore |
Tilly had been in training with Richard Hannon as a 2 year old and then with Olivia Maylem in Epsom as a 3 year old. She only ran twice but was unsuccessful in both. When I spoke to Richard he explained what a nice mare she was at home, sustained no injuries but just needed time to grow! Her last race was 28th May 2012 and I bought her about a month later!
I had always planned to do a little bit with her that summer so I could get used to her whilst she was still in ridden work - I needed a bond so that when I bought her back into work after a winter off I knew what I was expecting. She was tall and weak and very reserved!! She did not trust anyone and tended to hide away in her stable so that she didn't have to socialise! It took at least a month before she jogged off in the field and probably 2 months before we saw her buck or roll!! She was incredibly confused about everything and was just very mellow. I took her on hacks with other horses, schooled her under floodlights and in high winds with no reaction at all! She just wasn't very happy at being taken out of her usual environment and into this 'new' setting. If she was a human she would have been classified as 'troubled' My mum is an equine iridologist and having trained with Ellen Collinson in France she was placed on a specified diet, more can be read at: http://rrr-southeast.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/ellen-collinson-equine-iridologist-and.html
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| Bee and Tilly |
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| Bitting her up |
Rebecca and myself took her and Fred to a clinic which is where we met Nina and John Guy as part of RRR! It was time to lay Tilly off and Nina and John kindly agreed to have Tilly at their farm in Burwash - I worked in London at this time so it was easier to send her to people I trusted and visited at weekends. Well it was the start of a very good friendship and the start of a fantastic journey with Tilly. She lived in the field during the warmer months with her 'friends' and then came into a barn in the winter on a huge straw bed. Tilly and her 'best friend' Bee ( who was owned by one of my greatest friends ) were so happy and loved each other dearly! Both Hollie and Myself were so relieved to see them so happy and well under the amazing care of Nina and John. During the time with Nina and John Tilly grew to almost 17hands and looked like a different horse.
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| Lunging with a saddle on |
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| Just off the Lunge |
Tilly decided when she was ready to come back into work - she became a little difficult and bored!! So the fun began ... I have to say I was never expecting the change that happened! She was so much more confident, stronger and most importantly HAPPIER!! I did the first stages on my own with the help of mum ... introducing the saddle was probably the most exciting part, bronking around like a totally unbroken horse with her head on the floor! Luckily at this point it was all in hand work. I soon realised that getting back on her for the first time was not a job for me. It had been some time since breaking in a horse and a little different with the size of her. Therefore I called Myles West http://www.myleswest.co.uk/ to come and re-break her for me. I had known Myles for years and couldn't think of anyone better to do the job! Within a couple of weeks I was back on her myself and Myles continued to ride her through the week whilst I was in London.
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| Chelwood with John |
When it was time for Tilly to come into full work I moved her to a yard nearer to home. She was unable to go in a field due to mud fever so was worked every day. I had lessons and started to take her to her first clinics including trips to Chelwood Equestrian. The photo to the right is one of the lessons I had with John Thelwall who helped us greatly in understanding each other, maintaining the right shape and really working together rather than against each other. The Improvement in each lesson was great, it was just a shame it would not be more consistent. It is also a great equestrian centre for young horses as well as the more experienced. http://chelwoodequestrian.co.uk I also attended Golden Cross for clinics with Sam Penn and Nick Turner, x country schooling at Lodge Farm and her first dressage show at Oldencraig
Equestrian Centre. All of which she took in her stride and really enjoyed herself. She was incredibly difficult to load at this time and it took us a while to realise that she didn't like a 3.5 tonne lorry and preferred a bigger one which we changed to eventually. After all it was 'what tilly wanted' which continued through her life with us.
Tilly lost a lot of weight in this time and eventually I had to get the vets out. She was sent straight into the vets for a gastro scope where it came back she had ulcers. I have written a separate blog for this in the past which can be found at: rrr-southeast.blogspot.com/2013_06_01_archive.html This was a long journey but one we came out of with great success! And it was covered on the insurance!! Yippee!!
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| Felbridge Dr |
I decided that winter to move her to a friends yard so that she could be kept in work during the week whilst I was at work and compete regularly as she was now ready. She was not an easy mare to say the least and had a lot of attitude but 'I loved her' so in my eyes she was the BEST. We took her schooling to Felbridge regularly and down to Royal Leisure for the clear rounds. I think at this point it was obvious the mare needed a lot more time and could not be rushed! After a fall I had at Royal Leisure she lost her confidence, I decided to withdraw from the Arena UK new year show and give her a little break. I bought her back into work in January and took her to a few shows. She was talented enough but she was just sooo intelligent .... having remembered the fall
from the previous season she started to nap at the gate which took a while to get over. There were always hurdles with Tilly but with time she would get over them. It taught me patience .... and how often do you need that in life??? A LOT! But by this point she had a few clears over 80cm and 90cm and a few placings at unaffiliated dressage. She was only 4 after all so I was happy and was looking forward to a bright future with her!
However, having moved her back closer to home and turning her out she got kicked on the hock. To this day no-one knows how this happened, who did it ( she was only out with one other horse but could have been kicked through fence ) or when it
happened ( she was only out for an hour and there were at least 5 of us watching ) It appeared to be a small cut horizontally across so we washed it out and bandaged it up. There was no heat or swelling and the bleeding appeared to have stopped. I returned a couple of hours later and it did not appear right, it seemed to be oozing a liquid so I called the vet immediately ( sunday 1st March ) It was confirmed she had burst the joint bursa and indented the SDFT (Super digital flexi tendon ) She was heavily bandaged that night and admitted to the vets the following day. She remained here for months on box rest and with a cast on! It was scanned and x rayed regularly and the cast was changed regularly - any movement was stopping the wound from healing and therefore synovial fluid was continually leaking. As I am sure most of you know, this causes a huge infection risk which is why it is so important t o monitor and keep covered up. Tilly took this all in her stride but was obviously depressed. She did not know what was going on or why she was where she was with an IV drip in. It was heartbreaking and incredibly stressful. Within 28 days the 5k insurance limit had been reached - she just wasn't healing! I could go on for ever with the in's and out's but it happened and I owed it to her to do everything I possibly could which resulted in getting into a lot of
debt! She eventually came home but got admitted again within 24 hours. The vets made the decision to bandage so tightly in order for it to heal that we would give her pressure sores - although I did not expect what came next. The leg healed over night and never leaked again but the sores was horrific and caused further problems. I am sorry if you are squeamish!!
Anyhow, finally in July we bought her back into work - she could not cope with going in a field and as it was so dangerous for the wounds to get infected and she was becoming dangerous to handle we had to do something. We started in the barn and then ventured out but as we could not lunge or turn out she was like an unexploded bomb!
My mum was at the front end 100% and a friend introduced us to the 'Sillicon Hood' which I think probably saved our lives and hers!! I really do recommend them if you have a sharp horse! We even went to our first show back in it!!!
Although this blog makes it sound as though it was a short ordeal it really was not and took its toll on us all! I could have not done any of it without my AMAZING mum who has just been a tower of strength and took tilly on as her own and did her 3 times a day without fail - even setting up her computer at the yard so she sat with her regularly!! Tilly knew this as well - she was so good with mum and knew that although she wanted to explode 100% of the time she couldn't do this and hurt mum!
We thought we were there (having got her back to her first show as photo's show) and were looking forward to an exciting future again with her when she colicked at the end of august just before I was going to the World Equestrian Games ... it was mild, although no ideas what caused it, and she bounced back after medical treatment!! The seemed fine apart from her stomach gurgling a lot and looking a bit tucked up but there was nothing we could do and as she had never shown a colic sign before I did not expect her to get it again. I competed her the following weekend at the South East Regional ROR show at Pachesham Equestrian Centre organised by Pippa Boyle. She looked well and although didn't go half as well as I would have hoped won the Walk and Trot by 6% and came a respectable 4th in the prelim after getting a little excited in canter. After a little stroppy moment from me (as I knew how well she could go ) I was happy with her and this reflected in the results!! I am now even happier knowing that we did win a red rosette, as I now do not have another chance to do this )
A week later whilst on holiday with my friend Biba McCaul she colicked again and quite severely!! I had pulled her out of the stable hopping lame the day before and she had a very swollen back leg! We left her in the box that day and pulled her out the following day to find she was absolutely fine. Having turned her out in the morning she colicked when returning to her box. Again she responded to medical treatment but I was not happy and asked for full bloods to be taken on the advise of Rory, Biba's boyfriend who is a vet!! She really could not have been around better people at this time! The bloods came back abnormal with high fibrogen levels! She was booked into the vets the following week for investigation but unfortunately this was to far in advance. She colicked again on the Monday afternoon and then again in the evening where she got referred to Bell Equine. I received a call at 2.30 am that morning explaining she was in an incredible amount of pain and I needed to make a decision. I have always sworn blind that I would never put my horses through colic surgery for many different reasons but I did. Funnily enough Biba and I were talking about the 'decision' on the way to Bell and both agreed that when under pressure your emotion takes over and not necessarily the right thing. However, the surgery was a success and tilly did not have to have 
any intestine removed. She came round from the anesthetic well and we recived a call at about 6.30 am the following morning! Probably the worst night of both me and my mums life! That 4 hours was agonizing!! Tillys dad has broken his foot coming round from anaesthtic just 4 weeks prior! Bell equine were absolutely amazing - David Sinclair performed the surgery and kept me informed all the way along with the positives and negatives. The main concern was that there appeared to be no reason for the torsion and he was concerned it may be a motility problem which was not cureable but time would tell. Tilly continued to make good progress and showed all the right signs coming home 4 days later! We set up a camera in her stable so I could watch her from home! She did develop an infection in the wound but this is quite common. Again mum was a saint and did all the management of this - I just held the front end and kissed her ( lucky me )
Again my only concern was the stomach gurgling which was incredibly loud - but again there was nothing I could do other than give her aloe vera, pro-biotics and continue the advice of the vets! Everything was going really well until 31st October - I did her as usual before work and walked her out in hand! She was feisty and bucked like a trooper - it was a great morning!! I turned up at work and told everyone how happy I was as I had 'My Tilly' back!! I turned the CCTV on about 20 minutes later to see her on the floor with very heavy breathing. I rang mum immediately and asked her to get there asap. Lillian was at the yard and went to see her and keep her calm. I called the vet and asked them to get out ASAP as something was definitely wrong. I turned up to find mum trying to hand walk her but she was not happy and I knew what I needed to do! Mum put her back in her stable and she immediately laid down - I got gave her as much bute as I could and a sedative to calm her down and rang the vets to let them know I would be having her put down. Tilly was a fighter throughout and NEVER wanted to give up but this day was different, she had had enough and looked at me and shut her eyes. The bute kicked in which allowed us to put her down peacefully on a beautiful sunny day and really it could not have been more perfect! Mum was with Imogen right till the end so Tilly knew she was ok! Hindsight is a funny thing but I think Tilly had been filling up with gas for a few days; I just thought she had put on a bit of weight!! She also stocked up behind and went lame the day before which is exactly what happened the time before last ... I am 99.9% sure that exactly the same had happened!
I am really sorry that there was not a happier ending but I need to take comfort in being the luckiest girl around to own a mare like Tilly! There was something so different about her, a bond I am sure I will never see again! I will thank her for ever for what she did to mum ... they were so attached and had so much love for each other. Albeit Tilly standing at 17.1hh and not being the easiest bunny in the world they did everything together!! And I really hope that she looks down on us with fond memories and knowing we did everything we could for her! She really was one spoilt horse.
The future for me now includes paying off the extortionate debt I have but do you know what ... I wouldn't change it for the world!
