Aussie WEG recovery – Part one

Sonja Johnson & Ringwould Jaguar at WEG, photo thanks to Franz Venhaus

I thought now, six months on, it was time to catch up with everyone and see how the horses are in particular, given that Sonja Johnson’s Jag, Megan Jones’ Jester and Paul Tapner’s Inonothing all had quite serious issues.

In the process of writing this story I also came across another extraordinary groom – Amy McGregor, Stuart Tinney’s Groom, doing her job beyond the call of duty. In the words of Sonja Johnson “Amy is the only reason we still have Jag today, she saved his life”.

This story is one that required phone conversations from right across Australia and to the UK over a couple of weeks to make it happen, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you.

There are two horses in particular in Aussie Eventing that make me stop and watch, every thing they do. They are not flashy big warmbloods but they are DUDEs and they know it. They love an audience, have big hearts, an amazing jump and I just love them, they are Jag and Jester.

Ringwould Jaguar, 19 year old, Australian Stock Horse

Sonja and Jag at Fence 19, this is after the injury occurred, you can see he is protecting his off hind, photo courtesy of Evalyn Bemis and Sonja Johnson

Yes, Aussie Stock Horse, this horse was bred to chase cattle over the West Australian countryside. Only one problem he doesn’t like cattle at all, but he loves to jump. Jag is not a dressage horse by any means and always puts in a consistent, workmanlike test that gives him a chance to catch the leaders out on XC.

I caught up with Sonja back home in Albany Western Australia on her family’s sheep and cattle station. 

Jag picked up a small puncture wound on XC, which subsequently got infected. So I wanted to know how Jag is today and what happened.

Since WEG Sonja has tried to find every available photo of Jag, on XC to help identify what happened, when and where. What she knew at the time was after dropping into the water over the angled brush at 17a, Jag wasn’t as responsive as usual. He still did everything he was asked, at no time showed any signs of lameness, he had just lost top gear. At the time Sonja figured she was riding a 19 year old horse, perhaps age has finally caught up, he wasn’t as fit as she thought and they could finish without making time.

During that final part of the XC they had a couple of scrappy moments including banking one of the fences near the end, but they finished. At this stage the Aussies were down one after Paul Tapner’s retirement on XC due to Inonothing’s stifle injury.

When back at the stables, Sonja’s groom Natallie Hibbert checked him over and found a small nick in his fetlock. This was then examined and dressed by a team vet and Jag left to rest.

The next morning when preparing for the jog, Jag was a little uneven, given his age it was thought he would get better as he warmed up.  Unfortunately this wasn’t the case, on further examination and scans, the puncture wound went well into the joint cavity.

Jag was withdrawn from the Event and taken straight across the road to Rood & Riddle for treatment. The infection that had amassed in his joint was extraordinary, his white cell count was off the charts, they force flushed massive volumes of sterile fluids through the joint to clear the pus. Jag was not in a good way.

After about a week of treatment he went into quarantine with the other Aussie & Kiwi horses that were due to fly back to Australia and New Zealand.

Amy McGregor, rider Stuart Tinney’s long term groom – she has her 10 year anniversary at the Tinney farm in August of this year – was left responsible for the Aussie Event horses returning to Australia. Jag entered quarantine with a few days of antibiotics left, a light dressing protecting his healing wound and was well on his way to a full recovery.

Team Tinney, left to right, Peter O’Connell (owner Vettori), Amy, Stuart, Vettori, Karen, Kathy Ward (owner Vettori)

Unfortunately, a week or so into the quarantine Jag hit the wall, a new infection had emerged. Despite the fact they were in quarantine at Coolmore and getting the best of support, Jag needed help. Amy managed to persuade everyone to allow Jag’s Rood & Riddle vet into quarantine to treat this new infection.

So there was Amy with two other grooms looking after 18 horses between them with one very sick patient in Jag who needed extra special care. Jag’s recovery was slow, given his immune system had already been smashed by the last infection and there were doubts right up until the last minute of whether Jag could make the 10 hour truck drive to Chicago and then the long plane ride to New Zealand. (The Aussie horses needed a further two weeks quarantine in New Zealand before coming home).

Amy did everything she could to ensure that Jag wasn’t left behind, including I think pushing and being quite stern to ensure her opinions were listened to. Amy had limited access to vets the whole time in quarantine and knew that during the two weeks in NZ, after two separate courses of antibiotics in the USA, that if Jag crashed again either on the flight or in NZ he would not be allowed to be treated properly. That is the point of quarantine, they do not want treatment to mask an illness.

When I spoke with Amy about her weeks in quarantine and how she ended up looking after Jag and the rest of the Aussie horses, she was so modest and understated I almost thought there wasn’t a story to write. There was a story and what I found out is that Amy is just too modest to claim any glory for saving the life and retirement of one of Australia’s much-loved Event horses.

Amy is a consummate professional and runs the Tinney yard in the outskirts of Sydney. She has travelled Australia and the world with Stuart, including bringing nine horses to the UK in 2008 as part of a last ditch effort (the Equine Influenza outbreak in Australia disrupted competitions and plans of many for several months) by Stuart to gain selection for Beijing 2008.

So, did all of Amy’s efforts pay off? Absolutely, Jag is enjoying a wonderful retirement.

Jag was always due for retirement after Kentucky, he is 19 has done everything he could in his career including bringing home a team silver from Beijing. After a few weeks of rest and recuperation after the drawn out travel back to the Johnson farm Parkiarrup, Jag was turned out into his favorite paddock.

After a few weeks, Jag got bored and started to do his thing again which is make a general nuisance of himself. It must be said that despite their amazingly close partnership, Jag will NEVER EVER let Sonja catch him in the paddock. So after a few weeks playing the role of farm clown, Sonja had a call from a family friend and great supporter who was trying to find a horse to help their 13 year old polo playing son learn more about Eventing.

Jag, after much convincing on Sonja’s part, was sent up to Perth and started to do clinics and sporting days in the life of a Pony Club horse. Barrel racing was a minor problem as Jag had never been asked to go round something before, much simpler to go over it. So yes Jag is enjoying his retirement and has now moved on to another of Sonja’s friends who is taking him around baby class Eventing, he loves it.

Brookleigh Equestrian Estate">Jag and barrel racing is a funny combination. Photo courtesy of Brookleigh Equestrian Estate

I asked Sonja, how she felt about all this. She said to me that the ride that Jag gave her around Kentucky was a magical feeling, he gave her every ounce of his big heart and never once let her down. She wants to remember that feeling forever and for that reason will probably never jump in the saddle on Jag again. He owes her nothing and has earned the right to enjoy whatever retirement path he chooses to take, which at this stage looks like teaching a new rider how to Event.

This is the end of part one of this story, stay tuned for part two, where I catch up with Megan Jones to see how Jester is, following his illness and Paul Tapner, to see how 2010 Badminton winner Inonothing is faring following his injury in Kentucky. Just too much to fit in one story.

Yours in Eventing,

ESJ