11/08/2022
It's been a while since our last post - as you can see from the photos Flynn's had a busy few weeks, and we wanted to know where we were at before we wrote anything. Now that we have some plans in place we thought an update was in order!
Flynn's mounting block work continued progressing well, and he began to take a rider again, with R+ training, at the start of last month. As it should be there was no big drama - he behaved impeccably at the block and when sat on, but there was something about the way he adjusted himself as Ella sat down, and the way he walked on when asked to move from the block that made us feel something more might be going on.
Flynn had a vet check on arrival in January and another in April when he seemed to get slightly frustrated with his pole work exercises. His first physio session had addressed marked asymmetry in the way he used the muscles in his hindquarters, which had clearly been his movement pattern for a long time, but this improved significantly with specific work. There was nothing of note to see on either occasion with a vet check, and all of those involved in his training agreed that we make some small changes to the exercises so that he found them less challenging, continue working step by step with him and reassess as we go along if things continued feeling "off".
That's just how it seemed with the mounting. It was nothing big or dramatic. A lot of people would probably have thought I was mad for questioning it. But you can never completely rule out pain, and it's totally pointless to try and train over the top of it.
So we booked another vet check, to include the new areas of work that were now being covered. Flynn was seen on hard and soft surfaces, lunged in walk trot canter and seen sat on (walk only). Our lovely vet's eagle eye quickly decided the areas she wanted to investigate first, and so she returned a couple of weeks ago to get some diagnostic images and see what could be found.
Unsurprisingly issues showed up in Flynn's thoracic spine area (close or touching spinous processes / "kissing spines") The sacroiliac area is more difficult to get images of without really fancy equipment, but it was clear there were issues there too. After a phone conversation with his owner, we agreed that Flynn's SI joint and Kissing spine area should be medicated to get him more comfortable, alongside continuing with a physio treatment plan to give him the best chance of improvement. The options would be for low level ridden work, in hand work or a companion.
Either way, as a big horse with issues at a young age he will need good postural management to give him a shot at not developing a host of secondary issues.
I was pleased to have found something and been able to start addressing the issues that were there, but there was a part of this session that made me feel incredibly sad.
I suppose I've been out of the competitive circle a little while now, and although I'm very aware of everything that goes on it slightly fades away when it's not something you see routinely.
But when Flynn's SI area was being medicated the scanner showed up something else. It made it very clear that this area has been medicated "multiple times" previously.
Flynn was 8 when his current owner purchased him last year. We have a fairly clear timeline of his homes and activities since he was imported as a 4yo from Ireland.
We knew he had done "too much too soon" just like almost every other young horse.
We knew there would be a reason he'd been shifted from a professional yards in to a "happy hacker".
I could have put money that he'd not been "good enough" and had been moved on because no one had a use for him.
I've seen this story a thousand times, yet it still made me question how people become so uncaring. Flynn is so incredibly fortunate to have landed with an owner who is sorting all of this and doing her best for him. None of this mess is of her doing, yet she's sorting it anyway.
We can't profess to love horses, and to tell the general public that "the horse's welfare is the highest priority" when this is the dirty backdrop to our industry.
The methods used for training are damaging horses. At every level - from elite competition to local show allrounders. And if that wasn't bad enough, we blithely medicate them up and move them on from pillar to post, encouraging people to ignore the signs that horses are in pain, fixing sticking plasters on to muscular skeletal issues in order to get our money's worth.
Some people don't know better, and are genuinely distraught to discover their horses "bad" behaviour is a communication that something is wrong. But many, many others, including professionals on every rung of the ladder, some with numerous competitive accolades and some with highly regarded qualifications are implicit in versions of the story that Flynn has experienced in the last 4 years.
I stood with him when his most recent treatment was over, and as I scratched his head and shifted his mane away from the sweat that breaks out on the majority of sedated horses, I wondered how many times he'd been held for this procedure in his short life so far. I wondered who'd held him, and I wondered if it bothered them like it bothered me.
I wondered if anyone cared what would become of him.
Whether the last time they did it it was to get him "good enough" to pass on.
I wondered if the vet cared. The groom. The owner. The rider.
Whether they told his purchaser or if it was kept to themselves - a winning piece of work that allowed them to palm off a "no use" horse to someone who might or might not look after him.
And most of all I wondered if they would have always done this. Or whether, once upon a time, the horse was the most important thing to them, and they'd have twirled Flynn's forelock like I did, looking at his beautiful black eyes and wondering how people can claim to love horses whilst treating them like this.
