This part 2 of our article on Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and how it is helping the horses recovering from the True Prospect Fire. Click here for part 1 from yesterday, where we spoke with Dr Slovis from Hagyard. In part 2 we hear from Caitlin SiIliman about the True Prospect horses who are benefiting from the therapy and from Bruce Jackson who runs the Fair Hill Hyperbaric Chamber.
Caitlin told me Neville Bardos especially seems to be quite taken with the Hyperbaric Chamber!
“They do enjoy it, I think it’s quite relaxing, and it’s nice and cool in there, I think it probably goes to about 60 degrees. They can see us out of the window, and Neville – the oxygen comes out of these little holes in the bottom, and as soon as Neville gets in there he puts his nose right down to the hole and sucks all of the oxygen off out of it! It’s pretty funny how he figured it out! We sedated them a tiny bit the first couple of times, because it’s a little bit bigger than a stall, but it’s a round stall and there’s only a small window that they can see out of, and it makes a bit of a hissing noise when you first turn it on. Now, though, they haven’t been sedated for a long time, and they’re so relaxed doing it, and the barn is beautiful, and they get to wait in this beautiful stall. It’s a bit of a social actitivity for them; Neville’s back to work now but my mare’s on stall rest and I think she actually enjoys going because it breaks her day up a bit, gives a little activity.”
Hoku before and after 14 treatments in the Hyperbaric Chamber.
Caitlin travels both horses about half an hour to the Fair Hill Training Center, the site of the event, where Bruce and Amy Jackson run the state of the art Equine Therapy Centre. Bruce told me that alongside the Hyperbaric Chamber, he also has a number of other treatments available,
“We also have a cold salt-water spa, which is very, very cold salt water that the horses stand in to treat their lower legs. We have an underwater treadmill, which is really a high-resistance, low-impact workout for horses that have some ailments, and we also have a brand new vibration therapy floor which improves bone density and stimulates circulation through the horse”.
Although traditionally racehorses have made up the bulk of Bruce’s business, he says he’s gradually increasing the sport horse side of things. Bruce has experience with both, as he evented in England for some time, before training racehorses over here in the States. Bruce has had the Hyperbaric Chamber at Fair Hill for about three years, and says that although it’s among the most expensive of what he has to offer, the results are tremendous.
“We did some research and we were following the great results that you were getting in Kentucky, and we felt that it was something that we could provide for the horse industry in this part of the world, and provide a service, and it really has been a tremendous tool.”
Since embarking on the Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment, Neville has had regular scopes on his trachea, and the improvement has been astounding. The plan is for the horses to have 20 treatments in total; they went every day for the first dozen treatments which have now been completed; they’ll go every other day for the next six treatments, and then they’ll do the remaining two treatments three days apart. Since so many people have asked, Caitlin told me insurance will cover it but unfortunately Neville is not insured, and Hoku’s insurance money was already used up at New Bolton. Caitlin wanted to acknowledge all the tremendous fund raising efforts that have helped to raise so much money, and said she’s incredibly moved and grateful.
The Calcutta Team Auction at Bromont to raise money for the TPF fire victims
According to Caitlin, the horses are all recovering well,
“They’re all really good. Neville’s back in light work, Silva flatted him yesterday, just lightly, we’re being very, very cautious – he jogged for a week and now he’s doing light flat work. Otis is hacking. Min, unfortunately, came home from New Bolton and went back and had to have colic surgery, he’s staying at New Bolton because it’s a big recovery coming back from colic surgery, and we sent Rose over to Courtney Cooper’s to sell, because we’d actually had her for sale for a while, and Courtney just sold her last week, so she’s off to a new home.”
I asked Caitlin how she and the rest of her non-equine team are bearing up?
“We’re good. We’re busy again which is wonderful. There was a bit of an odd week or two where I was spending a lot of my time at New Bolton, between the horses being there, and then we didn’t have that many left here at home; the couple that were left were on a bit of a summer vacation so we had a weird lag time where there wasn’t much to do, we were doing a lot of re-organising. Now we’re busy again, we’re full up. We’ve got 24 horses right now and we’re really busy so we’re slowly getting back to normal the further we get away from the fire. Phillip and Evie had a grief counsellor come out and talk to all of us as a group which was actually interesting to talk to everyone together, and then he spoke to Ryan, Lillian and I individually too which was very helpful.”
Caitlin and I talked about this a little more, and she told me that it’s hard to move on, that’s she’s still grieving for the others who lost horses in the fire, and that it’s put everything into perspective. She also said that although she & Ryan couldn’t care less about all their personal belongings, their clothes, etc that they lost in the apartment and that can be replaced, there are some things that were special,
“Ryan and I lost all of our horse pictures, and he lost his family pictures from Australia, and I was actually looking online at different photographers yesterday thinking I might have to buy some more pictures to put up in our new place.”
Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of Catlin or Ryan, otherwise I would gladly send her enough to wallpaper her apartment with! I’d like to extend my heartfelt thanks to her for chatting with me, and also my admiration for continued strength and resilience. We’ll continue to bring you updates of their recovery, and I hope to take tons of photos of them all competing again soon. Massive thanks also to Dr Nathan Slovis and Hagyard Equine Medical Institute and of course Bruce Jackson at Fair Hill Equine Therapy Center, check out his website, you can watch videos of all the different treatments, pretty cool! Thank you for reading as always, go safely, and go eventing.
Otis at Red Hills this spring
