Take a look at vicky and jorgie’s story. It is a truely emotional story, they have come along way and been through so much. This pair is an inspiration for anyone. Keep going.
If you want to follow this pair hope over to their facebook page at Enter at A and proceed down the centre line
I bought Jorgie a then coloured 15.3hh ISH as a rising 5 year old, barefoot and very green but a lovely horse and I instantly fell in love! A lovely lady and her daughter had loved him for around 18 months and bought him when he came over from Ireland, he taught them lots but she wanted more for him.
I called his breeder and wanted to know everything about him ! I wanted to take him home the day I saw him! 
He was stabled on Boldheath and seemed such a genuine soul. I went through with the sale after a thorough vetting and Jorgie was mine.
Jorgie was forward, green and lacking muscle being a baby and not being in much work. We started the basics, hacking and schooling once or twice a week just lightly to begin whilst getting to know each other as I found it difficult at first from having a veteran to having a baby.
Jorgie turned 6 and we decided to take him to our first dressage competition. I had no idea what I was doing, first time in the box with my best friends, first time competing on grass- Vicky was nervous!! Thankfully Jorgie was not, he was tense but he got on with it and put me at ease. I got the bug and wanted more.
I started lessons and I was keen to improve my riding and learn more about dressage and showing and get Jorgie out and about. We joined a riding club and started progressing in our lessons, we were learning lots and Jorgie was muscling up nicely and my instructor loved him! We even went to Somerford and Jorgie was great! I was bonding with this horse and doing things I had never done before …
Jorgie was now rising 8 and after various competitions and some local shows. He was proving to hold lots of tension and although his paces were lovely and we were getting some lovely comments I was beginning to think something wasn’t quite right. We continued with our lessons but I was convinced that we should have been progressing quicker than we were. Jorgie was tense, lacking suppleness and this sometimes effected his paces meaning he would go ‘stuffy’ but his canter was still poor. He often went four beat round corners and felt unbalanced four beat canter, saddle slipping, odd footfall and action and bruising to the hoof. I began to worry that my dream horse had something wrong .
I booked the Physio and decided to get him checked, we were given exercises and after a few weeks they didn’t seem to be helping 
. Our Physio referred us to the vet and a full scope and possible work up. We got to the vets, the scope went ahead and we found an ulcer (grade 1) I was relieved but the vet wanted to investigate as there was no reason for him to have an ulcer, constant access to haylage and 24/7 turnout in summer. Something still wasn’t right and I was worried, I was crying and wondering what the future my hold for my poor boy.
We decided to leave him at the vets and my heart sank, my best friend came to support me and they started on blocks. The vets lunged and knew it was his hind, he had blocks/x-rays and scans and after a heartbreaking and very emotional time the issue was found and my poor boy had damaged cartilage and severe changes in his left hind fetlock. I fell to pieces and I knew I should have done something sooner and seen the signs. I hated myself!
A month or so later he had already had treatment for the ulcer and it was decided that to help lengthen his life and ridden career an operation was needed to keep him comfortable. He went for his operation and they completed a removal of a fragment and cartilage and looked round both fetlock joints, the right hand slight changes and steroids were administered and the left had quite a lot of issues. His action behind and possibly maybe from him being a foal something had happened and this had an impact on his joints.
If was months of rehab and stress and nobody really knew the outcome, what made it 100 times worse was that at the time my Gran was in hospital, she was very poorly and we knew she wasn’t going to come out and my world fell to pieces. I was emotional and devastated, I continued with rehab, box rest two weeks, in hand walking from then with a very excited Jorgie, who knew it but Jorgie must have Spanish decedents according to some of the leaping he was doing.
My gran was still in hospital and I was showing her videos of Jorgie as he eventually got allowed out in to a small pen, she was going blind but loved listening to the birds and could hear Jorgie eating the grass! She smiled and her face lit up. I was determined to get Jorgie right and wanted my gran to come and see him. Sadly I lost my gran a month later and my heart broke in to a million pieces. The toughest year of my life, I felt like giving up, I hated Jorgie for taking my time up and I hated myself for not getting him looked at sooner.
12 months on and lessons again and slowly I was getting my horse back after 8 months of rehab and around 6 months of getting his fitness up and taking it all slowly we were starting again.