Oof, this is a hard one. 🧡

Sweetest, most darling mare in the whole world seeks loving, likely-mostly-companion home. Ember is an 11yo, 16.2hh grade Belgian X mare who came to us in 2022. She has been an absolute star in our program (we’re a small nonprofit and we run summer camps for kids & teens, among other things), not to mention she’s actually the most friendly, snuggly, wonderful horse to grace us with her presence, and while it breaks my heart to see her go, it’s time for her to find a more ideal home.

We started noticing that she was having trouble holding her feet up for trims, specifically her hinds, and then this past winter, things got worse when she was in deep mud for a short time. She was laying down a lot and would walk off lame for a bit when she got up. We took her to our local vet who recommended Dr. Dora Ferris at Summit Equine. We brought her there May 1st for an eval and they did some ultrasound imaging, and we discovered that she’s got damage to her hind suspensory ligaments (not DSLD) and to the bony surfaces between her hocks and her cannon bones. She had Renovo injections in both hocks and a shockwave treatment at the clinic, and then two follow-up shockwave treatments at home, and she’s been on ¼ tab of Previcox daily since mid-April. All of those things did help a lot, and things haven’t gotten significantly worse, though we do still see her resting her LH (the worse one) more often than I’d say is typical. With some veterinary maintenance, she could carry light riders (<100lbs) at a walk—which she successfully did some of this summer (and would have done more of if we’d needed her)—but we were advised that that’s probably about her limit. In a riding context, she goes great in a side pull and does not need a bit. She is barefoot and has good feet, and with the Previcox and limited riding, has gotten back to where we can trim all four feet, with some patience and breaks.

I have many of my own thoughts & feelings about having to rehome a horse because she can no longer do the job, but my hands are tied, and this is my job. I will miss her dearly.

If we were in a position to keep her, I’d do some further investigation of holistic interventions or Chinese medicine, as I’ve heard some improbable recovery stories with alternative medicine options, but I’d caution anyone in getting their hopes up about that.

She would be best suited to live out in a group with space to move; I do not think being in a stall would be good for her body, and she’s great with other horses. I also do not think that she should be bred; it would put undue stress on her body.

She would be wonderfully suited to be part of a herd doing equine-assisted ground exercises, or to be an occasional leadline “pony”. If she were a human, people would say she lights up any room she enters, and I often compare her to a big Great Dane puppy—she really *is* that friendly and interested in being around people…though maybe a little less floppy than a puppy 😉.