Marley

Marley came into care with 2 fractured petal bones, the worse laminitis imaginable and chronic white line disease. A number of different farriers and specialists told us that he wouldn’t ever be paddock sound let alone rideable but Marley’s never give up attitude and beautiful personality kept us going. After two years of rehabilitation, we took Marley, as a last resort, to the Gold Coast Equine Centre and the specialist had hope that we would get him paddock sound. His appointments were every 5-6 weeks and slowly we saw progress. When he first came to us the cracks in both hooves were from the coronet band to the toe and sadly after 2 years only one hoof grew the crack out completely. The second hoof just kept growing cracked. He stayed sound for 3 years then his pedal bone started deteriorating even worse than it was before. The shoes and plates wouldn’t stay on and we had to glue shoes on for a while.. (Marley suffered such bad laminitis that the growth mechanisms in his hoof changed and it would just grow cracked). There wasn’t anything more that we could do. While he was sound, he loved being in a herd and having his mates to play with but when sore and unsound, he was boxed and yarded. Marley hated this and when the vet told me we would never get him sound enough to be in a paddock again I had to do what was best for him and not what I wanted. Helen and Michelle were both with me and Marley when he passed over the rainbow bridge peacefully… Thank you to everyone who has supported Marley and watched his progress.. 5 years in care and so many people loved him.. He had an amazing time with SAHA and it was 5 extra awesome years he wouldn’t have had otherwise. RIP Big boy, I know you will be annoying all the horses at rainbow bridge and teasing all the girls with your striking good looks. You have touch the hearts of many people and we will never in a million years