Monday 27 October 2014

Louis and the Arc Equine



The Arc Equine is a drug free, non-invasive, affordable and easy to use system that can be used in the stable and on the lorry. It uses minute, sub-sensory sequences of electrical currents which mimic those naturally occurring within the body. The following are some of the benefits of using microcurrent technology:

 May this year eventer Louis was placed 5th place in an Open Intermediate, but finished the cross country with a deep gash 6” long diagonally across his knee. Excellent veterinary care on site to clean, stitch and bandage the wound gave us a good platform for healing, but we were very aware of the difficulties ahead.  To prevent stitches bursting, the leg was splinted and the horse had to be on box rest, increasing the likelihood of granulation and scar tissue, plus stiffening of the joint, not to mention loss of fitness and difficult behaviour resulting from boredom.


The wound 2 weeks after the injury....

 2.5 weeks after...

Along with conventional and complementary herbal therapies, we used Arc Equine daily. Initially we were worried that improvement was slow; it was more than two weeks before the stitches could be taken out. But clearly underneath the visible damage, high quality healing had been taking place.  The wound site rapidly resolved to the thinnest scar. The granulation visible at one stage has resolved almost entirely.  The knee joint returned immediately to full flexion, with no further physio treatment. Six weeks after the injury the horse was back in work. We took a further six weeks to rebuild fitness and do some dressage and show jumping before a cross country schooling session.  

 One month after injury....

All lights were green, and three months after the accident, Louis returned to competition scoring  27 dressage and double clear in a Novice, with the biggest grins on both our faces. Louis finished the season with another double clear and 29 dressage at Pulborough horse trials in the open novice to finish 7th.

Louis now wears the Arc Equine on a regular basis and it seems to reduce his stressy behaviour in the stable as well as easing musclesoreness after exercise.  His recovery was extraordinary, thank you Arc Equine. 
 Five month later you can hardly see the scar....


Monday 13 October 2014

End of the season adventure.....

Louis and I embarked on an exciting adventure to Francis Whittington's for a short stay.... Francis is a very successful event rider, his most prestigious win was this year at Blenheim International on his fabulous horse Easy Target. 
Our stay was extremely beneficial, Francis is a brilliant instructor and made a quick assessment of our jump style and gave us a target to work on over the following days. 
We went cross country schooling (first time since our fall) and Francis made sure we successfully jumped down hill! 
Louis felt brilliant and I felt confident about going to compete at Pulborough, our last event of the season. 
Unfortunately I had a very early time so we were up at 3.30 a.m....I considered going to bed in my competition clothes as it was very cold in the morning...but it seemed a bit extreme!

We arrived at the event at 6 am, Francis and I walked the course almost in the dark... We had difficulty finding the fences at times so split up to look in different directions...it usually turned out neither of us were right and the fence was actually straight ahead of us! 
Louis did a tidy dressage test for a score of 29. Not bad considering the only dressage I had participated in all week was a lesson I gave to Francis's wife Sam, who also got a great score of 29 in the BE 100 later that day.
The show jumping went well, Louis jumped a great clear.
I felt a bit nervous before the cross country but kept reminding myself that it was the phase I love the most! Nothing beats the thrill of cross country! 
It felt great to be wizzing round the course and we finished clear with five time penalties and were placed.
Later that day the weather was horrendous, there was thunder, lightning and really ridiculously heavy downpours. I felt very happy to have gone early and missed the bad weather as we took shelter in the First Class Images caravan (photo courtesy 1st Class Images).

A great end to the season!

D x 


 

September....

September is coming to a close...I got two black eyes and a broken nose.... Ok not quite broken but it hurts enough!
I have had two main events this month, the British Dressage Nationals and Morton Morrell British Eventing, quite a mixed month.
Bing had a good Nationals scoring 68.34% to finish 11th in a very hot medium open class and Mabel had her first Big show experience, and her reaction was one of shock.

Louis competed at Morton Morell the following week, and it was all going very well tilll the cross country. We went out the start box on a score of 29 (one pole to add to a 25 dressage).
Unfortunately we had a good ride till fence four then I couldn't tell you what went wrong but Louis and I had a rotational fall. I have never eaten so much dirt in one mouth full, but it didn't stop me voicing my immediate concern as to where Louis had disapeared to (I can only remember taking off). 
We both seem to be fine, Louis has a few scratches and will need physio, and I have a bruised face and legs. Air jackets really are amazing, it protected all of my torso.  

This lifestyle never fails to keep you grounded and put it all into perspective.....