Atila's Progress (English)

Dear friends, warm greetings from a Spanish laminitis patient. We are here in Andalusia, and here we have a former PRE stallion who suffered from years of laminitis until he was rescued by his owner. She has been rescuing horses for almost 30 years, is a veterinarian herself, and has an incredible story. I rode my first horse here about 20, 25 years ago with her. She is entirely responsible for the fact that I work with horses. And so the circle closes, unbelievable. I built a toolbox here so I don’t have to tow the trailer all the way to southern Spain. I made my shoes in a local workshop using their welding equipment. I took care of the hoof here. Of course, we did a local anesthesia, so a little blood is running down from the top. Exactly, I then started with the treatment, and I think I did quite well. The horse had suffered from chronic laminitis for four years, which means it has an extremely osteolytic coffin bone. So, there’s very little of the coffin bone visible at all. Nevertheless, due to its strong will and ability to endure, it still has a chance to lead a happy life with a special shoe, even though it can no longer be ridden. But it definitely still has a chance, and we are working on making that happen. A big shoutout here again to the owner. It’s really something to organize everything and take me all the way to the other side of the continent, financially covering it as well. We already have 2,000 euros just in travel costs—this shouldn’t be underestimated. And this is indeed a huge undertaking, and it’s absolutely commendable that there are still people who do this, who support it. And that is also immediately reflected in the results. Compared to how it was before, it looks entirely different now. One always has to consider that with these long-term laminitis patients, they can become somewhat ataxic over time. Here, he is wobbling around the garden now. They become ataxic due to their impaired gait, which compresses the spinal nerves; the horses eventually lose feeling in their hind legs. That is also what contributes to the disturbed gait pattern. The horses need to get moving, they need to exercise a lot. Here you can see, he reaches out forward again and moves independently, even though he lay down so much before. He gets out of his paddock by himself and looks around and explores. Before, he was lying around a lot. And yes, it’s looking really good now. This was the day after the treatment. I’ve been going there every day since, checking on him. It’s always a 1, 2, 3, 4-day process. If the horses really have such a long history of illness, that needs to be monitored closely. Here you can see the problem with feeling his hind legs, turning, and so on. He would love to trot and canter at the moment because he feels so much better than before. But he can’t yet because he lacks coordination. That needs to come back. It’s like human rehab. And then I’ll finally get to surf a little again and hope that we’ll see each other soon and that a few more people will join in Spain, so that such a trip is worthwhile. Then I am also happy to come to you and get your oat muffins fit again. See you soon! I am sometimes asked why I am treating a horse that can no longer be ridden. And I have to say, you know, when you look at Attila and just seeing him again like this brings me so much joy. I am already happy that he can walk again at all. And my greatest joy would be if he could trot and canter again and simply be a horse. We don’t even need to talk about riding.