- hoffywhf
Welcome OverDrive
We welcomed a new member to the family recently. He joins us from the west coast of Canada – Victoria, British Columbia to be specific. OverDrive, affectionately known around the barn as Spike, is 15 years old and tops the measuring stick at a bit over 18 hands. He is a BIG boy!
OverDrive, aka Spike, and his mom at a show. I absolutely love this picture of the two of them.
Spike and his mom over a jump. You can tell this jump is nothing for him and he is hardly having to try.
Spike with his mom and his baby brother. I told his mom when I saw this picture that both of her boys are too cute. I want to reach into that picture and squeeze her little boy’s snow boots!
DSLD is short for Degenerative Suspensory Ligament Desmitis. DSLD is essentially a systemic connective tissue disease that affects tendons and ligaments throughout the body. DSLD typically presents as bilateral meaning either both fronts or both hinds are affected, or all four legs. As his mom said, hindsight being 20/20 the roving lameness was clearly due to the front legs compensating for the back legs. Spike’s mom and attending veterinarian attempted several things over the last couple of years to try and rehab Spike and see if he could be made comfortable enough for light riding. Unfortunately after a lot of time, money and TLC they did not have much success and the decision to fully retire Spike was made.
Spike and O’Reilly grazing
Spike and O’Reilly grooming each other
He was even happier after being integrated into his “family” group and suddenly Spike was a completely different horse. His favorite place is near O’Reilly, but as he gets more and more comfortable with the other horses he likes to be surrounded by as many of them as possible. He also really likes having regular physical contact with other horses. Often this takes the form of a mutual grooming session but he is also content to just be touching his nose to someone for a moment before returning to grazing.
Spike has an incredibly expressive face as you can see in this picture
