Adonis

3 Year Old 19 hh Percheron Gelding

Oh Adonis, he truly is one of the most incredible horses that I have met.

First things first, yes you did read that right and no it is not a typo, he is in fact 19hh and is only 3 years old. He is a big boy! Although he DEFINETLY still has his toddler moments, he is the picture of a gentle giant. He loves attention and believes that he is a dog. He is waiting for the day we finally let him in the house with us!

Adonis came to me from a farm in upstate New York that was trying to offload him as he had bone chips in his stifle and would require surgery. I have a soft spot for Percherons’ as my first horse was a percheron. After going to look at him and just see how bad of a shape he was in I knew I could not leave him there. He was a tiny yearling when I got him, just skin and bones standing at 15.3hh. He was turned out in a field and was not getting any attention or being watched in terms of his health and weight. We got him to the barn I was boarding at and started getting him fat and healthy. He was a very sweet and mild mannered boy, especially for being a minimally handled yearling. You could put anything on him, walk him down the road like a dog, walk all round him, touch him everywhere, pick up all 4 of his feet, cross type him and have any amount of chaos going on around him with minimal reactions that were very easily calmed.

He still needed to be gelded, so while he was under anesthesia, we also did X-rays on his stifles (knees) to see the extend of his condition. He was very sore and slightly lame on his back left leg and had a large swelling/mass on the stifle as well. It turns out he had a whole bunch of bone fragments/cartilage floating around in his stifle (knee). He went up to NH to a specialist for surgery to remove the fragments. Because he had just been gelded, we opted to wait a few weeks for that to heal before we do the stifle surgery. The gelding site and the stifle surgery site would be very close together and have a high risk of any bacteria from that incision to go into the new surgery site. This would cause a bad infection and because they would be working on his bone, it would be a bone infection which is very difficult to heal.

Because he was still sore on his stifle, he did not like to move around much and did not like to do anything more than walk. The lack of movement cause limited drainage from his gelding site and resulted in a severe infection. Unfortunately the infection persisted despite heavy antibiotics and lots of wound care. Between myself, his regular vet and the specialist we decided that the best course of action would be to have him come in for surgery and stay in the hospital for a day or two before on stronger IV antibiotics and try to get some of the infection under control. The specialist would then perform the surgery on his stifle as well as surgery on his gelding site to remove any infected/atrophied tissue. He went through the surgery very well and they were able to successfully perform both surgeries. After a few more days in the hospital to ensure proper healing (and to give the staff a fill of their massive yearling snuggles), home he came to finish his recovery. He recovery very well and was 100% sound and feeling so much better!

Unfortunately all that proper food and hay with proper vitamins and minerals really made him grow. Normally we would be eastatic! He was finally starting to look like a horse and not a sickly baby moose. In a year, he went from a 15.3hh scrawny thing to a 17.3hh giant! Because of such a rapid growth, he developed more fragments in his stifle. This is nothing we could have avoided, it is just his body growing far faster than his bones.

So a year after his first surgery he went back for his second surgery on the same stifle for the same reason. The staff was happy to have him back and were shocked at how he grew! He had another successful surgery and made a full recovery back to 100%. Although he will probably need some joint injections in that stifle periodically throughout his life, he is 100% sound and loves to run around!

Today, we have been slowly working on training for riding and driving. We spend a lot of time of ground work and have been starting liberty training with him as well. He is such an amazing horse to work with, he is so smart and so curious and takes everything in stride. I am beyond excited for the adventures we are going to have together.

He will be the first one at the gate ready for his attention and wanting to play.