Some brief history – my horse is one of the top national Western Pleasure horses in the country, he has won all he can win! I purchased him in 2012 and went on to have 2.5 great seasons with him in the show ring. Unfortunately, half way through the last season he came up lame at the AQHA Nationals. We took him home and the vet came and did numerous tests and over the course of a couple of weeks we discussed about getting an MRI done for a full diagnosis.

Unfortunately, the results that came back absolutely shattered my world. I got the call late Wednesday night (which I will never forget) – they found a grade ¾ lesion in his right hand, front foot, deep digital flexor tendon just above the navicular bursa – prognosis was poor, less than 30% chance of the deep digital flexor tendon healing, and there was very little we could do to help him as it was in the hoof.

We injected his navicular bursa with anti-inflammatory and put a 1″ bar shoe (which was slightly lowered every 3 weeks) on him to try and take the pressure off the deep digital flexor tendon and allow it to start healing. He started with full box rest then was hand walked, with the time increasing every week for 3 months.

His deep digital flexor tendon was then re-assessed, and had made a 30% improvement. The injections done again and he was then fitted with a wedge shoe. He continued full box rest and hand walking for another month and was re-assessed – this time he was 100% sound in a straight line and 90% sound on the lunge. Oh I was over the moon with happiness!

We slowly increased the controlled exercise to include some jogging – this increased over the weeks and he just got better and better. THEN one morning I went to walk him out of the stall and he was lame – the vet came out to check if it may have been something else but everything else was okay.

I was given a couple of options, get his deep digital flexor tendon injected again and put him out in the paddock and see how he goes – or start again with the rehab…

I was shattered, I put so many hours into him and did everything right. I was out there in the middle of winter walking him in the freezing cold rain, frost and wet. I could not give up – he means too much to me…

So I started searching deep digital flexor tendon injuries on Google, hours and hours of researching, many stories of success and also many stories with bad endings. THEN I found a forum and people were talking about ArcEquine. I went on with hours of reading, many many success stories – I tried to find negative feedback about ArcEquine and couldn’t!!! So I contacted Ian who was just amazing to deal with. I organised to purchase the ArcEquine and could not wait to get it here and try it on him.

It arrived only a few days after ordering it, and I am all the way in Australia. Now that’s service! I was super excited to try it on my horse so I got to it right away. I also must add, to hand walk him I had to sedate him to keep him calm and quiet as he had been stabled for so long, and Ian had mentioned to me that the first stage had a real calming effect on horses….

I put the ArcEquine on my horse that night and in the morning he was very calm and very relaxed – not like him at all! So I decided I would put him in a small day yard – he just walked around – he did not run around like a crazy horse, he was just calm and relaxed – Ian was right!!

I used the ArcEquine for a couple of weeks on his deep digital flexor tendon, then he became sound at the walk…. I then went on to follow the ArcEquine Rehabilitation program (but did not ride him) and he stayed SOUND!

At that point I decided it was best to put him out in the paddock for a long break, he has been out for 2 months now and he has run around a bit and is still SOUND! I will bring him in late this year and start using the ArcEquine on him again and slowly bring him back into work.

In the meantime I have been riding and competing another horse (my horse’s toughest competition)! He has always had a few problems with his stifles, so I thought I would give it a try on him. Wow, he can move so much more freely in the hind quarter it’s amazing, and he is much happier in himself. He used to be a bit surly, pin his ears and was just grumpy – well he is relaxed, calm and happy!

I recently had a large show, Summer Sizzler, and I really believe it made the show so much more pleasant for him. They always get more worked at a show and as the ArcEquine helps with lactic build up in the tendons and ligaments, he was a much happier horse.

It’s not very known in Australia and there are a lot of non-believers but after people seeing the difference in this horse at the show, people are starting to listen. I would recommend ArcEquine to anyone. As I own an equine business I am more than happy to promote in any way possible.

Thanks ArcEquine for all your help and advice.