Background

Hi Ball was bred in Texas on April 3, 2008. He had 39 starts on the race track, with 1 first, 1 second, 4 thirds, and total earnings of $16,340 -- not very much into racing! His breeder sadly passed away, which we feel certain led to his appearance in a kill pen in Texas. When we saw him, he had 24 hours before he would have shipped to slaughter. The lot pics below show a skinny horse, covered in scrapes and cuts, with atrocious feet, and his video showed him favoring his hind end slightly. The lot reported he had been doing dressage and some hunter jumpers, but the video showed a strung-out horse who moved rather green. Two angels came together, asked us to help him out, and we secured Hi Ball for our program. He is currently in quarantine in Texas and will arrive near the end of March.

Rehabilitation Plan

Hi Ball has already started the first phase of his rehab. In QT he will be briefly assessed by a veterinarian and his feet will be addressed. He is on a de-worming program already and there is no more competition for feed. Hi Ball arrived in QT in rather good spirits -- curious and alert but well mannered. He was delighted by his shavings-filled stall.

Atrocioius feet can contribute to lameness. We begin with the farrier to see if that solves the slight lameness in the hind leg. If he is still not comfortable on arrival, we will do a complete lameness evaluation and get to the bottom of what is going on. He doesn't appear to be in pain, nor is his range of motion severel affected currently -- we'll just have to wait and see how he does.

When the lameness issue is resolved, or we have a diagnosis that tells us his limitations, we will begin exploring how much of that "dressage / jumper" experience he might have, and where his suitability is for placement. If he has indeed been doing dressage and jumping, he should shift to our available for adoption list pretty quickly. If he's green, we will need to make sure he has all the "track kinks" under control before we can allow him to go home.

Generally About Hi Ball

He's a tall boy with a relatively good amount of bone in his legs (surprisingly). As of this writing, we have owned him less than 48 hours, so we are still learning and rely on our QT facility to keep us informed. We have been told he is super willing and kind, and somewhat of a goofball. He seems extremely happy to be back in a stall (racing days) as opposed to the lot environment and mud. He leads well in his new videos, and did not appear to be coughing or have a grossly runny nose.