Peta Smith
CONDITION: Arthritis
LOCATION: AUS
A couple of months ago I decided to put my daughters retired, and very arthritic, show jumper on Rose-Hip Vital Equine after reading some of the testimonials I had read from users.
He is a 17 year old OTTB gelding who has been the most amazing horse for us. We bought him 4 years ago after we lost her other horse to colic. He was sold to us as a very ‘limited’ horse with a lot of issues, but he was all we could afford at the time. He was VERY stiff and had a few pre-existing injury related issues.
They clicked immediately and had a great deal of success. They were selected in the interschool state team show jumping squad and won a class at the state showjumping championships in their first season together!
2 years ago, he had a severe shoulder injury that could have ended his jumping career. He did return to jumping, but was never the same. He developed some bony changes on his forelegs, and my daughter and I thought it was time to retire him from competition.
We put him on RHVE to see if it kept him comfortable for light work – he loves to be used! Almost immediately my daughter noticed a difference in him:
- he warmed up more quickly and he no longer seemed to have a ‘stiff side’
- his appetite has increased and his coat is blooming
- his attitude is so much nicer
He came to us with the name “Mr Grumpy”. He bit, kicked, and was known to chase you out his yard. He rarely threatened and usually acted badly first and with little or no warning! He was NOT a delight to handle with it taking 2 of us to saddle him – one to saddle and one to hold him to prevent injury!
He was a very nervous floater, and had gone down when travelling, making it hard to go anywhere too far away. A month ago we competed on him again and he won both his jumping classes against some quality horses and he has pulled and recovered up brilliantly!
We are SO happy with the results on this horse, that we have just put my daughters current show jumper, also an OTTB gelding, on RHVE too. He is quite a ‘hot’ horse, and I have noticed he is a little happier in himself already. After a week of feeding him RHVE, we took him to a 2 day show and he was the calmest he has been out! I’m excited to see what improvement we see in him as time goes by.
I have also just started staking RHV with GoPo myself, as I suffer from arthritic symptoms.
