‘I cannot thank you guys enough for having such a wonderful product available for us.’
–Suze
Watch Spike’s Journey on Rose-Hip Vital Equine
I got Spike in October 2007 when he was 7 years old. He retired from racing as a 5 year old with a bone chip in one of his knees. He needed more surgery which the owner couldn’t afford, in fact Spike was going to be put down when I came along and started to ride him. He wasn’t a very good race horse.. very difficult to ride and along with the bone chip he didn’t have much of a future.
I learnt how to ride him, we connected really well and I fell in love with him. Our very first outing together at showjumping weekend we came 4th out of 120 riders.
In 2010 he got a wire wrapped around his hind leg. There was no noticeable injury at the time but he wouldn’t use the leg when he was running around. He would rest it a lot. Scans showed that he had in fact crushed the extensor tendon across the front of the bone. He was put in a small paddock by himself and I rested him for 12 months as recommended by my vet who said there was a 60% chance that he would never jump again.
In 2012/13 we competed showjumping again back in the smaller classes. He was jumping really well and had no noticeable issues with his leg. I turned my attention to my own children which took me away from the competition ring for a few years. I started bringing him back into work in November 2017 and he just wasn’t right.
Spike’s leg injury caught up with him as he aged. After trying to ride him I noticed that he wouldn’t run around in the paddock, he would just walk everywhere. He wouldn’t rest his offside back leg, only the nearside. Very rarely would I find him laying down, he almost always stood as he must have found getting up or down difficult. I thought his days were numbered, I was devasted. He wasn’t comfortable and it broke my heart. Then I saw an ad for 1.5kg RHVE for half price.. I bought 2 tubs of it. Spike loved the addition of the rosehip in his feed and after about 4 weeks I noticed he was trotting and cantering up to his feed when up until then it took him forever to walk.
After 6 weeks he seemed much happier, happy enough for me to feel comfortable to put a saddle on him. He felt a lot freer. He was actually able to keep a canter stride for 4 or 5 strides instead of just 2 which was huge. He continued to improve and several months later he was back to the Spike I had competed on back in the early 2000’s. We were both so friggin happy.
After 7 months on the product Spike competed at Warrnanbool Agricultural show jumping a metre ten and bringing home ribbons. He jumped super. He absolutely was jumping out of his skin and he pulled up well. Fast forward to mid 2020 and I started thinking his retirement was imminent. With no show season thanks to covid I didn’t want to wait another year to bring him back into work again. I wanted his career to end on my terms. He was sound and happy and that’s how I wanted him to stay. He is still perfectly ridable, but his jumping days are behind him now.
He still loves his daily dose of Rose-Hip Vital and he will be on it till the day he dies. Without it he wouldn’t have made it this far, he would never have been happy again. It has been so instrumental to his life and my relationship with him, I cannot ever express just how grateful I am. Every day he still bolts up when it’s feeding time. He is so happy and I am too!
– Suze Wood
