Renewed Start-Up

We do not wish to spread rumors or bring up negative feelings from anyone who knew how this barn was before our new team arrived, so we ask that no slandering or negative comments are included with this post.

Anyone who has been to a barn knows that all barns have their own projects. VIP has had the opportunity to rise from the ashes of age and neglect. From our first post you know that the main barn and indoor arena were built in 1999 so the facility is a bit older with 35 indoor stalls; large, indoor arena; Dressage, outdoor arena; two cross-tie areas; tack lockers; and a bathroom.

Nineteen years later when our new team first stepped onto the property holding onto a shared vision with VIP's owner, Christine, it was evident that a lot of work was needed to bring this barn back to life. Cleaning and improving the facility has been our primary goal along with building trust with previous and current clients, management, and the community as a whole. All of which has been on a tight, barn budget. 

When VIP Equine separated from GlymedPlus we had to reorganize management procedure and create our own system. Glymed has been very successful, but some of their procedures and policies just didn't quite cover some of the larger aspects of what our barn has...like horses. Who knew something as simple as incident reports would need to be changed from paper cuts to being kicked by a 1200 pound animal. We reestablished barn rules...wrote some new ones for the legal changes that occurred in the last 19 years and have started to rekindle some trust with our boarders.

We quickly realized this 20+ year-old company was a renewed start-up.

As of 2018, we have reestablished VIP as a luxury boarding facility for horses and currently some goats. We have various boarding options from indoor stalls with daily turnout, hill-top runs, paddocks, and some pasture. 

On a tight; barn budget, we have pinched pennies until they shine. Some of our major projects have been the West cross-ties, staking down the outdoor arena, building turnout shelters, and more. We can already hear you chomping at the bit for more details on these projects and how we did them. 

These projects have not been easy due to the fact that our team started working no earlier than November, 2017, during winter...aka the horse owner's favorite season (cough-cough). As always though, our top priority is the health and safety of the animals and people here at VIP. After weeks of almost losing boots, battling the flash freeze and thaw of Utah's bipolar weather, and the mountains of salt melt, our efforts turned one foot of mud into only a couple of inches of mud once Spring hit. 

Aside from our winter battles, VIP has a mixture of wide open spaces and formal facilities. Upcycled bleachers have been added to our indoor arena for a comfortable vantage point of the riding space.

On the West and East sides of the indoor barn; we have indoor stalls, tack lockers, and two sets of cross-ties.

The East cross-ties were completed by previous barn management, with a great layout, but the West cross-ties were separated by two barrels full of what looked like cat litter and a wooden saddle rack. As one of the features everyone sees when they enter the barn we quickly transformed the space into rustic farm styled cross-ties with wood we found on the property. Jarrett, our Property Manager, lead the project and did a fantastic job!

At the moment, we are in the long process of dismantling indoor stalls, cleaning them, and fitting stall mats for each stall. 

Stay tuned for more posts about some of our larger, outdoor projects we mentioned above!

Orbit Has a Problem with His Orbit

As part of improving the facility; we are also working hard on improving the health of the resident horses here at VIP. One of those horses is Orbit, one of the original stallions (now gelding) from VIP's breeding glory days. He's the father of Nebo, another gelding still present at VIP.

First picture of the cancerous growth

In the beginning of March, VIP staff noticed a "goopie" in Orbit's right eye while taking pictures. After cleaning his eye with water staff realized this wasn't an "eye booger" but some kind of growth on his eyelid. For weeks, we kept close watch of his eye and documented with pictures of what the growth was doing. After noticing a significant growth from the strange "eye tag", we decided to call the vet and figure out what it really was. 

Thoughts of cancer growths and other horrific outcomes of a veterinarian's diagnosis crept from the depths of our minds as we waited for the vet to come look at him. On a rainy day at the end of March, Dr. Blaire Albers, DVM, from Mountain Point Equine in Bluffdale, UT arrived to look at Orbit. Dr. Blaire performed a full eye exam and determined that the cancerous growth was not only attached to his eyelid, but to his cornea as well. Since a large animal optometrists is required to surgically remove the growth from the cornea and/or that section of his cornea; which costs around $5,000 for the procedure, we needed another alternative for the 25 year-old gelding.

Our short-term treatment options included applying Neomycin to Orbit's cancerous eye twice a day until his chemotherapy arrived from the vet. Orbit's long-term treatment depended solely on how well the Neomycin and chemotherapy effectively reduces the cancerous growth. If the growth does not respond to the ointments and continues to grow, our alternative option was to have his eye surgically removed for around $500. We were relieved we could use the ointments primarily instead of putting Orbit through surgical procedures and ultimately lose some or all of his sight in that eye. We are so grateful for Dr. Blaire's honest, caring, and compassionate professionalism every time she comes to examine our horses here at VIP Equine.

Here are the stages of the growth and recession. The first two (starting from the left) are growth and the last one is how much it has receded since administering the Neomycin. 

We have been administering the Neomycin twice a day for several weeks and are grateful that Orbit's cancer has begun to shrink and has actually detached from his eyelid. We are also so grateful that Orbit is the perfect patient and allows us to administer the ointment without holding him or using any halters or lead ropes; he stands quietly and always asks for extra head rubs after we give it to him.

The chemotherapy has arrived and the cancer in his eye has receded dramatically. If you aren't looking for it, you wouldn't be able to see anything in his right eye. His third eyelid is looking better as well. The Fluorouracil (5% chemo) is doing incredibly well for Orbit. We are scheduled another full eye exam from the Dr. Blaire to make sure he's making a full recovery and outline his long-term plan since the cancer is shrinking. 

Check out the recession after applying the chemo ointment to his eye!

Dr. Blaire did a full eye exam a few weeks after applying the chemo ointment and was thrilled with how well it worked with Orbit. His cancer is gone! So grateful for the help and knowledge Dr. Blaire has and the many options we had with treatment. 

Next month we will feature one of our big projects around the barn! Thank you for following us here at VIP Equine!