Story
Rubínko is a Polish cold-blood. No one knows exactly where he injured his leg: in the forest at work, or at home in the yard when he stepped somewhere unluckily.
His owner treated him for about a month. When it turned out it wasn't going to be quick, it was too much for him as a horseman: a horse that doesn't work for months still has to be fed and treated, and a horseman earns his living by working in the forest. It isn't that he didn't care about the horse. He simply couldn't carry it any further.
It didn't start with buying him. First we went to treat him at his owner's home, then he spent some time being treated here with us, and only when it was clear how things would go with him did we officially buy him. So he would not end up as meat.
The treatment took a whole year. We healed the wound, but arthritis showed up in the leg and he must not go back to work.
And that is not the only thing he brought with him from his previous life. His front legs are damaged too, and not by an injury but by shoeing. He wore shoes on them for far too long. The horn kept growing and growing until it grew over the shoe, and that pressure had to go somewhere: it pushed his coronet upwards and the hooves gradually became deformed.
The coronet is where the horn grows from; when it is damaged, the hoof below it doesn't grow as it should. How Rubín's front legs will turn out, we honestly don't know. We are convinced that pasture, movement and regular trimming help them, and over time they may improve quite a lot. But we won't promise that until we see it on his hooves.
We write this here on purpose. There was no bad intent, only shoes left on too long, and that was enough for a horse to suffer with his hooves for years. This is something anyone with a shod horse can watch out for.
For Rubín it doesn't matter as much as it would in the forest. He is in a well-earned retirement, he has taken over the herd and runs it: he has ten draught companions on sixty hectares of pasture.
Rubín today, on the pasture among his own.
How Rubín is doing
This is what Rubín's legs looked like at the beginning, when we were still going to look after him at his owner's place. He still had shoes on then.
The first days. A wound above the hoof and a thickening above it.
We treated and disinfected the wounds. We soaked the swellings in Epsom salt, but always only the other leg, the one without the wound. Salt doesn't belong in an open wound; it would irritate it and sting. We did it the way our vet advised us.
On top of that he has so-called CPL in his hind legs. It was confirmed by later diagnostics, including X-rays. Our vet says that this is also the most likely cause of the thickening in the photo above; from a photo you can't tell whether it is swelling or thickened skin. What CPL is, she explained to us and also sent us a scientific study to read, but naming it properly is her job, not ours.
His hind leg was very swollen at that time. From the outside you couldn't tell what was going on inside, and with a leg like that you can't guess: we needed to see inside.
Our vet came with a portable X-ray machine and we took pictures of Rubín right here in our stable, on the rubber floor. One of us held the cassette by the hoof, the other aimed the machine.
An X-ray right here at our place: the cassette by the hoof, the machine opposite.
The images showed severe arthritis above the coffin bone. What exactly that means and what can be done about it is up to our vet; that day we mainly saw for the first time what is holding that leg together.
His legs still hurt sometimes. So he calmly lies down on the ground by the stable and rests.
Rubín on the left. Only a horse that is at home in the herd can afford to lie down among the others.
They graze together at sunset and Rubín tends to stay at the back. Now and then he lifts his head and checks the herd to see whether anyone has wandered off.
Evening on the pasture. Rubín keeps an eye on who is where.
When someone moves away, he starts calling to them straight away and looks for them. Once a mare was missing like this; he raced over almost the whole pasture until he found her and drove her back to the herd.
The horse that was headed for slaughter with an injured leg now counts the others.
A word from our vet
When I was called to Rubín for the first time, I was given rather unclear information about what had or hadn't happened and whether it had been going on for a long time or not. So I basically dealt with it as an acute case: the leg was swollen, hot and he wouldn't stand on it. At that time I wasn't yet equipped to do a full diagnosis. I suggested we try an ultrasound and see what was going on. But it wasn't easy to examine. The leg was thickened and handling a young stallion wasn't easy either, but somehow we managed.
When I visited him the second time, there was a slight improvement, but it was already quite clear to me that this condition would be more or less chronic and that there had been some problem there before. We still couldn't find the specific cause. Because the leg needed regular treatment, as there was also a wound on the coronet (after an abscess), I looked for someone who could take part in the treatment and come to an agreement with the owner.
In the end the owner decided not to treat the horse, because it was quite demanding both financially and in time. So we offered that we could take care of him, and the Slávik couple decided to take him into their care.
An X-ray right here in our stable. The cassette by the hoof, the machine on the other side.
There we looked after the leg as an acute condition, and later, when I had the equipment, we did additional X-ray diagnostics and found quite extensive arthritis. So we reassessed his condition and set up rehabilitation so as not to damage the surrounding structures and so that the horse could move. With regular treatment, regular trimming and a clear rehabilitation plan, we have got him to where he manages on pasture without problems.
In the meantime he was gelded so that he could join the herd and not miss company; he is a herd animal. Now he lives on the pastures, we vaccinate him regularly, take blood for the necessary tests and check his teeth, so that he can eat well and look like a healthy “draught sofa”.
Photo gallery: Rubín
Photos of Rubín, added as we go. They are sorted by date, from September 2024.
Some of the photos document the healing of the wound on his leg, and there are some harder images among them. We don't put them here for effect: they belong to his story and to what such treatment involves.
Virtual adoption
Rubín is not healed. His wound has healed and right now he doesn't need treatment, but it left him with arthritis, and on top of that his front hooves were damaged by neglected shoeing. Both need ongoing monitoring and care, and it will stay that way for a long time.
A donation for Rubín goes on this ongoing care, on hoof trimming and on hay for a horse that still has many years of retirement ahead of him. You can send it by bank transfer using the details below.
Bank transfer (SEPA)
Account holder: RIO o.z.
IBAN: SK97 8330 0000 0027 0350 7560
BIC/SWIFT: FIOZSKBAXXX
Payment reference: Rubin
Our account is transparent, every payment is public here. Before you confirm, please check that the recipient is RIO o.z. and the IBAN ends in 7560.
What we need right now →
A light aluminium shovel for mucking out, a corrugated pipe for a reservoir, LDPE hoses for a water supply, concrete utility poles. Maybe you know where to find them.
Thank you →
Everyone without whom it wouldn't work: those who come to help and those who support us professionally.