Brecknock Golden Boy 15/06/2004 - 01/05/2009

It is with great sadness that we have to report the sudden death of our much loved Rupert from equine grass sickness (EGS). He was such a special and talented young man with huge potential and will be greatly missed.

Order of events

On Thursday 30th April we noticed that he ate his breakfast a bit slower than normal but appeared to graze OK. On Friday 01st May he only ate two mouth fulls of breakfast. We pulled him into a stable and monitored him for two hours. There were no signs of colic or other forms of distress. After two hours he failed to pass solids and a call was made to the Vets for urgent assistance. When the vet arrived there were still no signs of colic and Rupert appeared in good health other than a high heart rate and patchy sweating. The dreaded discovery was then made that the gut was silent. The vets worked on the poor young man for a few hours. The conclusion given the symptoms was a 60% chance of acute EGS although the absence of colic type symptoms was strange. The decision was made to rush him to hospital in Newmarket. The Vets at the hospital worked on him to diagnose the problem with the gut and make him comfortable. Just before 20.00 we were called into the meeting area where we were told that the diagnosis of EGS was confirmed. There was no chance of recovery and no treatment available to cure this dreadful disease. It was with a heavy heart that we executed the last major responsibility for his welfare and authorised him to be put to sleep, to spare him the misery, pain and distress of what was to come. Rupert was euthanased just after 20.30. God rest his soul.

His Short Life

 Rupert as we called him (due to his bear like coat) was an Andalusia Irish Draft cross Gelding. He was 15 hands 3 and joined us on 21st October 2006 as a two year old . We backed him in 2007 and have started light training work with him. He is a very affectionate horse and seeks human attention. We have built quite a bit of trust with him which has helped us train and work with him. He had his first clipping session in November 2007 and was surprisingly good during the session. He has been off work for a few weeks following a scare over a suspected fractured leg which thankfully turned out to be only a bruised bone. Rupert has a lot of potential to be unlocked and has very little fear of things. He has also followed the Grey tradition of getting into mischief when the opportunity presents itself.