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REHAB & RETIREMENT

 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF FAIR CROFT FARMS
 

Located in Ridgeway, SC, Fair Croft Farms was founded in 1977 to breed Hunters for the show ring. My very first broodmare was my King Ranch bred Quarter Horse, Flit Bar Peppy, barn name Dallas. We'd done everything from Western Pleasure to jumping 4 1/2’ fences when I was young and foolish. My favorite ride was my stallion, Fair Ripple, who produced many Champions over the years, including Solarus, Hush Money, Fair Affair, and out of Dallas - Fairfalutin’, Task Force and Command Force. Ron Danta was my trainer, and we operated a full service show barn as well as a breeding farm. After I graduated from vet school at UGA in 1988, the show and training operation was closed, but the breeding operation continued on a much smaller scale, ending for 12 years in 1996.


Jeanne Owen on Dallas


My husband and I were married in 1993 and moved to Maryland, where I became interested in eventing and met Tom Waters. We were very successful in importing Irish Sport Horses for resale in 2000, and kept several, including one that Tom competed to Intermediate Level. Jim and I moved to Camden in 2003 with our personal horses and retirees to be nearer to family, leaving the competition horses in Maryland with Tom, including Beal Na Blath who, at 18 H, couldn’t hold up to the galloping, but went on to become a top Medal-MacClay horse. After that, still looking for a horse with international potential, we imported Sundown from New Zealand.
 

     Dallas with Fairfalutin’, my first foal    Fair Ripple - Proud Papa quietly observing

 

 


 

 

 

REHABILITATION

 
 
Recognizing injuries early and doing the appropriate
rehabilitation is a very important part of keeping an event horse sound long enough to move up the levels successfully. In 2006, we met Dr. Kerry Ridgway, one of the top integrative equine health specialists in the world. He has shown us a new approach to rehabilitation integrating conventional medicine with alternative modalities such as chiropractic, acupuncture and kinesiology, as well as proper foot balance, dentition and even saddle fit. We first consulted him for our rescues, Dudley and Billy, but he’s been invaluable in helping us with Sundown. After allowing a year to transition from Down Under, Sundown did a couple of Training Levels then moved up to Prelim, but became increasingly more resistant in the Dressage. Top veterinarians and trainers were consulted; multiple treatments and training techniques were tried with no resolution to the problem. Then we heard that he’d had the problem in New Zealand as well, indicating that there might be long term chronic injuries that couldn’t be easily identified. Dr. Ridgway had introduced us to Dr. Carol Gillis, also of Aiken, one of the top ultrasound specialists in the country. She can identify lesions that previously could only be seen on MRI’s under general anesthesia at a fraction of the cost and risk to the horse. The decision was made to bring Sundown to Camden for long term rehabilitation. Dr. Gillis was able to identify multiple ligament and deep muscle tears from T 15 to L5, as well as SI joint subluxation. Thanks to her detailed long term plan of stall rest and controlled exercise under the supervision of Dr. Ridgway and our local vet, Dr. Nicole Cunningham, Sundown is slowly recovering from these long term chronic back injuries.

 

Sundown - Then and Now

 

 
The Rehab barn has four 12 foot matted stalls with a 12 x 12 foot covered matted run and a 12 x 12 foot  open run with screenings. The horse can have access to one, two or all three areas, depending on their stage of rehabilitation.
With all athletes, even human, there is tremendous pressure to use every means to get them back into competition as soon as possible. Unfortunately, in the initial stages of healing, the scar tissue that forms lacks structure and is prone to re-injury. Different modalities, such as shock wave and stem cells, are used to speed up this initial healing period, but all too often, athletes feel good enough to go back into competition long before adequate re-structuring has occurred. Or the opposite may happen with a horse being "turned out" for 6 - 12 months to "heal" without any structured rehabilitation. In either case, there is increased risk of both more damage to the initial injury and compensatory injuries caused by trying to protect the original injury. This is probably what happened to Sundown over a period of many years. By the time he came to us, he had already learned that Dressage at a certain level hurts, so there were behavioral issues as well as physical.

 
   

We have learned that there is no substitute for tincture of time - confinement with controlled exercise - to allow the restructuring of the scar so that the tissue regains its initial strength. Initially, this requires hand walking twice a day in increasing increments. Over months, first walking under saddle, then trotting is added. This period is also invaluable for revisiting the basics and regaining trust that they can work without pain. Sundown has now begun cantering with limited turnout. By this Fall, he will be ready for full turnout and training. His injuries were so extensive and so chronic that it’s doubtful he’ll return to upper level competition, but it will be worth it to have him back as a happy, healthy schoolmaster. Two other horses in our rehab barn are recovering well from hind limb injuries. When stalls become available, a limited number of outside horses may be accepted for rehab.


Sundown relaxing in his run

 

 

 

 
Because our summers are hot, the rehab barn is designed for maximum ventilation, with plenty of high velocity fans. On our rare cold winter nights, the north east and west sides can be sealed up. The South side is open, with three covered runs, each with gates into two of our four 1 - 2 acre paddocks for easy pasture rotation.

 

 

 


 


RETIREMENT AND RESCUE

 


Retirement Barn with All’s Fair & Billy

Our policy has always been that horses we’ve bred that are injured have a home with us for life. Of our six retirees, four are homebreds, including our two broodmares. My husband’s old Quarter Horse is another. Dudley, a 12 YO TB with Polysaccharide Storage Myopathy, was successfully rehabbed, but developed an ethmoid hematoma, so he’s our sixth retiree. Billy, a 6 YO TB gelding, was rescued and rehabbed from an accessory carpal fracture. He is big, gorgeous, athletic and sound for flatwork and possibly foxhunting, but not a lot of jumping. We’d like to find a good home for him, but he’s not a horse for the faint of heart, so he may be our seventh retiree, way too young!

 

 

Billy & Jim at a Natural Horsemanship Clinic

Billy, All’s Fair & Dudley - Supper time

 

 

 

 

 

 

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