ABOUT US

In 2002 we bought a black TB gelding called Warrington who was to be Jo’s competition horse.  We had high hopes for Warby and our early work and outings showed great promise, we were certain that Warby would teach us a lot. As it happened, this horse taught us more than we would have expected, just not in the area that we had envisaged.  Quite early on Warby began to have soundness issues the symptoms of which were overlooked as him ‘testing’ his new owner. We have since learned that there are very few horses who are deliberately naughty or difficult, more often than not it is a reaction to pain.

We used a variety of health professionals to bring him back to health. Following this however Warby was diagnosed with a serious illness which affected him adversely for months and brought him close to death. After many months we got through this and got him back in work again. Soundness issues continued to plague him so we decided to spell him. Unfortunately not long after this Warby got a very bad case of stringhalt, the worst our vets had ever seen. We were advised numerous times to put him down but a glimmer of hope proved to us and one vet and we saw in his eyes that he had a will to live. So if he was going to keep trying, so would we.

It took over two years, but we got there. And anyone seeing him now wouldn’t be able to tell what he had gone through. In 2007 after people told us he would live, he wouldn’t be ridden again, he wouldn’t compete again, we took him to a small local dressage competition and he won his first class. It was only preliminary level but I think that will go down in our history books as one of the most memorable achievements in our lives. That year he performed consistently at preliminary and novice levels and qualified for the championships, EI put a halt to any further competitions that year. At the end of 2007 we decided to give him a well earned retirement and he is now thoroughly enjoying his days at Warrington Park as keeper of the mares a role he takes very seriously.