A real result for Roly

Roly is my husband, David’s ,horse – a Trakehener, who is now 18. A year ago, we had started to wind his work down and were thinking we might have to consider retiring him as he was getting increasingly difficult to ride as he seemed to be stiffening up ; he wasn’t keeping condition on and didn’t seem to be as happy as he had been. We thought that we would try a further strategy and brought him over to Debbie with a change of rider (me) to see whether there was something else we could do for him.

After a few weeks he still wasn’t happy and we re-assessed the situation. Debbie had identified that he was weak in his back and had lost his confidence about going forward into a contact. She suggested a combined intensive programme of lunging and massage with Lee Harris. Initially with the lunging we used bungies to get the roundness and then moved onto using Vienna Reins. These are  essentially a double-rein that attach to the D ring on the saddle and the girth buckle or appropriate ring on the surcingle. They encourage the horse to go forward and round through the back. The reins provide far more flexibility than side reins – allowing more freedom of movement for the horse and also don’t encourage the horse onto the forehand.

After a few months of this – with initially 90% of his work being from the ground, we progressed back to ridden work – the jockey changed back to David and we began to think about competing him again.  This year he has only done two, but ended up coming second in the Gainfield Championship in walk and trot.

It has been a lot of work – but Roly now looks a totally different horse – and many years younger than 18. He has kept his condition on really well this year, is far more flexible and is so much happier in himself. If he continues the way he has been going we are hoping he will be competing at novice next year.

We are so grateful to Debbie for helping us to identify a way forward for Roly.

The  Vienna reins have also proved very useful as an aid for training our other two horses – a Lipizzaner and the newest family member ,a Highland pony. All have had slightly different issues, but the reins have assisted to strengthen their musculature. The interesting thing is that people who have not seen the horses for a while have all commented on the changes they have seen in them recently.

Sue Staunton