Ritz

Three years ago, I purchased a rescued OTTB who had been retrained as a hunter. When Ritz was delivered to the stable, we all were taken aback by this skeletal patchwork of a 16.3 Thoroughbred that carefully backed out of the trailer. Never wasting resources, the stable owner had Ritz saddled immediately and put through a short course of simple jumps to assess the new arrival. What Ritz showed us was physically, he was lacking; but mentally he was engaged, obedient, and willing. I fell in love and bought him that week. I slowly increased his diet with high quality hay, a pelleted protein feed, equine senior, and supplements. Past racing injuries and conformational imperfections would expose themselves through sore legs, late changes, and deteriorating work ethic. I tried hock injections, laser therapy, chiropractic, and sacral steroid injections. Nothing really lasted. Through a friend, I heard about Dr. Woodford, and how she could resurrect the most hopeless cases of equine lameness. Dr. Woodford’s countenance with my usually over-reactive TB was so calm and reassuring. Ritz took to her immediately. Her examination was thorough and the first treatment lasted nearly an hour and a half! Her recommendations included a twice weekly lunge with increasing time on a neck stretcher to develop Ritz’s absent topline. She taught me how to perform various stretches for Ritz’s shoulders, legs, and neck. Within one month, Ritz was going with much more fluidity and suppleness. Within 3 months, his topline was vastly improved and his sacral soreness disappeared. Truly, Dr. Woodford’s treatments and prescriptions for maintenance were extremely effective. Just the other day, she visited Ritz for an acupuncture treatment and his condition was so good, she decided he didn’t need the acupuncture this time. She is professional, knowledgeable, and punctual. I would recommend her to anyone who has grown frustrated with traditional injections as a means of maintaining chronic equine lameness.