Las Vegas is an 18.2 hand KWPN who was imported from the Netherlands and was winning 3rd level dressage in the big circuits at Wellington. Vegas sustained a soft tissue injury right after taking the blue ribbon at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival in Wellington a few years ago. His owners decided they did not want to deal with the rehabilitation and asked a local rescue to pick him up. The full thing was all very clandestine - they would give no information on the horse and even made the rescue pick him up from a remote location - presumably because they did not want their prestigious name associated with such behavior. But they forgot one thing - he has a microchip - and we were able to access all him information - so their efforts to make him disappear didnt work !
We purchased him and put him on our rehabilitation program but we soon discovered that it was more than a physical injury he had sustained. For lack of a better phrase Vegas had been brain fried. He was a young horses that had been pushed too hard - way too hard - and was competing at levels that was meant for a horse 4 years his senior. The physical injury we resolved no problem - but his mental state took a lot longer.
Vegas is now such a great horse that he is part of our lesson program - he can teach kids to walk and trot - and advanced riders love to learn from him - he now happily performs at PSG level