Rock & Roll: Diary of a Rescue

Rock and Roll were delivered to the Lucky Three Ranch on December 5th, 2010. One look at the way Rock was moving and we knew this was going to be difficult at best. They had both foundered and did not travel correctly. There was muscle atrophy throughout their bodies, and their bellies hung from the spine, with no apparent musculature in the abdomen or over the top line. We knew there would be limitations as to what could be done for them. Although Rock was rendered sound at the walk for only one year, Roll continues to thrive today. Read their whole story below.

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What’s New with Roll? Grooming & Halters

So what do you do together when it’s snowing outside? Roll looked like he was wearing SNOW boots when he first came into the tack barn. So, first we had to remove all of the icicles, but I had to be very careful because they don’t exactly come off easily. Roll let me know when I tugged too hard on the shedding blade and suggested that I warm them with my hand before I pulled! Good plan! By ...
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What’s New with Roll? Leading the Hourglass Pattern

Roll had a really good leading workout today. He did do very well negotiating the gate. Roll stayed in sync almost without a misstep during the whole lesson! He did bend his body nicely through the rib cage around the cones. He did seem to have a little trouble aligning his back feet. He kept getting them a little closer to each other than he has in the past, but it will improve with practice. When I ...
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What’s New with Roll? Musing about Roll

Roll and I finally got some time to begin warm up exercises after a whole year off. I was pleasantly surprised to find him much stronger in his new posture than I thought he would be after so much time away from his exercises. All he did for the past year was regular maintenance, turnout, massages and farrier work. It seems that after three years of posture training prior to last year, it has become his normal way of moving ...
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What’s New with Roll? Obstacles

After a couple of weeks working on flatwork leading training through the hourglass followed by a couple of lessons in the round pen, I decided to do some coordination work over the obstacles. In Stage One of obstacle training, the only task is to get through the obstacles, changing fear into curiosity. In Stage Two, we break things down into smaller steps and square up at every interval to facilitate good equine balance and add coordination to his movements ...
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What’s New with Roll? Riding the Hourglass Pattern

Roll was a little hesitant and stiff during his workout in the dressage arena through the hourglass pattern with me riding today. I couldn’t tell at first if he is just being overly careful because I was on board or if he was truly having issues with his feet. The more he did, the better he got as far as traveling, but there was significant problems keeping him between the reins. I attribute that to previous drivers with very ...
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What’s New with Roll? The Farrier

During Roll’s recent workouts, since his x-rays and last trim, he has felt very stilted and his movement was causing twisting in both hind feet. He was visibly tense through the croup and hip sections in his body. When I rode him, he had no impulsion and did not seem to be capable of initiating any impulsion. When we did the x-rays, there was a slight rotation in the left hind foot and not rotation in the right hind. We ...
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What’s New with Roll? Ground Driving

For the first time, Roll was ground driven straight out of the Tack Barn with no warm up. On the way to the hayfield, we stopped to see the old broodmares and give them a treat! Although we lacked impulsion getting there, Roll picked up the pace in the hayfield. Roll walked immediately into a square halt, keeping his hind quarters well underneath. Roll stayed well-connected to my hands through all moves for the very first time in four ...
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What’s New with Roll? The Round Pen

Well, here we are again... me and Roll back out of shape and trying to get going again. I think age is a factor for both of us! I had visions of him being able to do five rotations at walk each direction and ten rotations at trot in each direction, but it didn’t exactly work out quite that way. Roll did a pretty good reverse although he had to hesitate and think about it first. Tracking right, ...
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What’s New with Roll? Measuring Progress

Before and after his recent trim… After four years of conscientious therapy and specific attention to nutrition, hoof care, appropriate core muscle exercise, chiropractic and massage, Roll has been transformed and has not spent one lame day since he arrived despite the presence of side bones and ringbone. When Roll first arrived on December 5, 2010, he was foundered in all four feet with severe muscle asymmetry and atrophy. The founder is now grown out and his hooves balanced ...
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What’s New with Roll? In the Park

This morning Roll had lots of fun reading Training Mules & Donkeys: A Logical Approach to Longears. He’s always up for posing and this day was no exception. We just strolled down through our longears sculpture park where we found a bench that would allow both of us to read comfortably. Roll is in good health and has almost finished shedding his winter coat. It was really too hot (in the 90’s), so any strenuous exercise was definitely out of the ...
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