EPM horse & healthy horse, help moving forward? :(

[kkmrad94]

I’ve posted here before about a few different things but now they’re all coming together into one big… question.

I just recently joined the trashed ankle brigade when I came off Remmy (friesian / paint cross, green broke, 10 years old). We only have room for two horses and we have Remmy and Chico.

Remmy has had 30 days of ground work and 30 days of work in the saddle. Since I broke my ankle and probably he has not been ridden and I don’t have anyone to teach and ride him. I wanted to send him to training for two main reasons.

1.) He’s a horse that needs a job. The longer he sits the more energy he accumulates (and weight).

2.) I want him to be in half decent shape & also remember his basics when I am cast free at the end of the year.

Chico (6 year old quarter horse) we got in late summer and he had problems keeping his footing on solid ground. He got tested for EPM and the test said there was a 76% chance that he had EPM. We went through a month of treatment (costing $1,000, owch) that seems to have helped him out. We don’t have endless money to keep treating him so if he relapses we cannot afford to keep treating. He is doing better post treatment and is putting on weight.

Being in my situation WWYD? I want to get Remmy trained but cannot leave Chico alone at home. I’m not sure if he is trailer safe, or if that stress will cause him to relapse. Can he get training?

Just looking for thoughts and opinions on what should be done and an outside opinion to bounce ideas back and forth. A third horse isn’t an option right now financially due to treatment and grocery cost. ):

Pictures of both of them are here:
neopets.com/~Dezirn
^Don’t judge too much by the link, it works! (:

[Pookah]

So sorry, that’s a tough situation. Any possibility of having someone come to your place and work with Remmy? You may be limited in getting a top trainer out there, but maybe for now a talented teenager looking for one to ride could at least keep him fit and moving along, and he could go away later for training.

EPM relapses can definitely be triggered by stress, and trailering will definitely qualify for some horses. Do you have any friends with a spare horse that they’d like to not be paying for feed for over the winter? Maybe someone would free lease you a buddy for Chico? Seems like it would be hard to find a good training situation for Remmy that would not be expensive to also send Chico along, even if the stress weren’t an issue.

Two horses is always a tough situation - my parents keep two at home, and twice we’ve had to find alternative solutions for them. A few years ago, one of the horses died unexpectedly of an aneurysm; fortunately, the trainer where I board is a fabulous person and had a pony sitting around not doing anything, and she and I delivered the pony within a few hours of the horse dying. More recently, one of their horses needed some training, and so we traded out horses - their horse came to the barn where I board, and my horse is living with them. It’s definitely not always easy to find those situations, but someone may be excited about the idea of getting a break in paying groceries for a month or two. And while for many horses that is not an optimal situation, I have to say that both of ours seem to be really enjoying the new environment and change in lifestyle.

[kkmrad94]

I don’t have the space for someone to train him here sadly. The only riding you can do is road riding and that isn’t something that I think would benefit him as much as someone with a ring or trails to ride in.

Off the top of my head I don’t know of anyone that has a spare horse to lend. Well, I do know someone but I don’t need that kind of a horse to take care of. (One that doesn’t listen, beats up my EPM horse, and isn’t really high maintenance). I have never thought of a free lease, I guess I’ve seen a few too many horror stories about crazy horses / people.

We started out with two grey horses, then one passed and we got Remmy. When the second one passed he was all alone for a while and it caused some major behavior issues (he wasn’t broke at this point). I would rather not have Chico alone again, it wouldn’t be good for him.

I guess it would be more plausable if I could find a horse that was low on the pecking order so that Chico isn’t forced off his food. Or beat up just for the sake of being picked on.

Thanks for the input! I don’t know if we could afford training and expenses for another horse but it is definitely an idea to put on the drawing board!