This is truly our specialty, even with the horse that many vets are saying to put the horse down or that the horse will never be sound and healthy... these horses are sound and healthy today. This is our normal services for horses donated but we now offer them to all owners for a fee, those owners who really want to keep their horse and make it better but may not have the time to do the rehab themselves and may be paying large boarding fees while the horse is getting better. This now gives the busy horse owner a chance to totally rehab a horse from injury, illness or neglect. All these services are rarely offered by any stable for one flat fee and especially so cheap as many rehab facilities charge for one night what we charge for a full month of rehab.  Here's some of the things we've been able to rehab during our 12 years of experience doing this work:

1. Rehabbing horses that are thin, starved, neglected, abused physically or mentally
2. Rehabbing body weight and body condition, getting the horse to body condition level 5 (Heinachy scale), getting them fit and round
3. Repairing feet from laminitis/founder, navicular, seedy toe, mechanical founder, poor feet condition, transitioning from ouchy feet that always needs shoes to hardy sound barefoot feet, traveling problems (brushing, interfering, knee-hitting, cross firing, speed cutting, forging, scalping, overreaching, stumbling and elbow hitting), abscesses, hoof cracks, quittor, gravel, thrush, windpuffs, splints, sidebone, shoes boil, capped hocks, suspensory injuries, spavins (bog, bone, jack, blind), stifled, bucked shins, thoroughpin, curb and osselets.
4. Recovering from all soft tissue injuries including tendon and ligament injuries
5. All hard tissue rehab, including major fractures, recovering from chip fractures
6. Rehab for the EPM horse or other horses needing to slowly increase their endurance, immune system and work level (the horse must be strong enough to ship to us), usually two to 3 months of rehab and 2 to 3 months of easy conditioning to get strong.
7. Rest and recovery from ulcers (which is usually one month in rehab and the rest in regular full board).
8. Transition from being a hot house flower to a hardy, social member of a herd in 24/7 turn out.

Our rehab does not in any way take the place of good veterinary care, diagnosis and treatment but should be used to complement the vet care and as a follow on to the vet care. All illnesses and injuries should be diagnosised with an vet that has experience with this injury or illness and by doing the appropriate tests required to make a good diagnosis and then possibly a second opinion before making any life changing decisions for the horse.

The bottom Line: CSS does what ever is necessary to get a horse sound and healthy by natural means. Specifically,  these are the services you will see for each horse:

$500. for full rehab. We currently only have room for 20 horses in retirement/lay up or rehab so we suspect there will always be a waiting list.

Included with full board:

• full board with either a 10 x 15, 12 x 12 or 12 x 16 depending on the needs of the horse
• stall cleaned daily
• 8 to 18 hours of turn out daily (dependent upon weather, the time of year and the needs of the horse)
• clean sawdust stall bedding around the horses needs
• grain and hay twice daily 24/7, 365 days a year and according to the horses needs 
• paste or pelleted deworming included every 60 days
• farrier trim with the stable farrier every 45 to 60 days around the horses needs
• coordinating, meeting and horse holding with vet for vet calls and farrier
• Can only take a max of 20 horses in retirement, layups or rehab at any given time
• use of all facilities for the horses care (wash stalls, arena, round pen, trails)
• 100 gallons of fresh water available in stall and 500 gallons in pasture
• daily turn out on 30 acres with a group (dependent upon weather),
• the horse is rugged for winter below 30 degrees and sheeted/masked if sensitive to flies/bugs,
• fly spray if needed
• grooming daily or as needed, picking feet daily
• grooming every time they get wet outside (all horses are in their stalls during storms and rain under 40 degrees)
• a regular update to the owner with pictures sent through email
• stable emergency support between the hours of 8pm and 8am (Included)
• blanketing/sheeting/rugging during inclement weather, fly sheets/masks in summer (owner supplies blanket/sheet/rug/mask)
• giving supplements/special feeds or meds daily (owner supplies meds/supplements/special feeds)
• Providing panacur power pacs or special deworming (owner supplies special dewormers)
• Mare care during pregnancy, lactation, mare and foal care (only available during lay ups and rehab)
• special turn out for a limited number of horses
• the following shots done annually: wee/vee/eee, tet, flu, rhino, wnv (included in board). Our vet does the rabies shot and updating coggins which is paid directly to the vet each spring by the horse owner.
• burial on CSS is 1/2 off for all horses in retirement at CSS
• CSS will do a free pick up for any horse located within 250 miles of CSS if doing a 6 month program rehab program, long term retirement or a 8 month or more lay up), that includes Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, Ohio, Lexington, KY, all of WV, Northern Virginia, Pittsburgh and Erie, PA, Buffalo, NY, DC, parts of DE, MD, NJ and NY
• Bathing, clipping, grooming as needed, if needed daily because of skin problems, will be done daily.
• Equine Sports Massage Therapy as needed to heal
• Electro Magnetic therapy (Equi-Stim) that has had so much success in the racing and competition world is completed as needed to speed healing.
• Exercise Riding and Training is completed as needed in Rehab
• Hand walking as needed
• Cleaning, dressing injuries, legs or packing feet as needed
• Deeply bedded stalls as needed for the injury or horse
• Washing and care of blankets, sheets, fly masks, coolers as needed (does not include replacement or repairs)
• Foal Watch, foaling and imprinting included as needed
• Additional services are available on an ala cart basis are as follows:

Additional fees to by paid by the owner (if needed) All fees in this area are much more reasonable in WV than in other parts of the country, we could not do what we do for horses anywhere else because of the costs, including special shoeing, vet and dental care. Everything is getting more expensive but thank goodness, WV is still one of those pockets of the US where you can still find reasonable costs.

Before any additional costs are added to the owners bill, CSS will confer with the owner about the horses needs and associated costs but we will say that most rehabs are not dependent upon expensive treatments but more time, handling, hand walking, therapies and manipulation of the injured area but with certain injuries we use electro-magnetic therapy which has been very successful for increasing blood flow and healing. CSS can and will cover the cost of things like penacillin, bute, SMZ's, tri-hist, Tribrissen or banamine, thyro L, aspirin, most hoof packing, some topicals if needed and within reason. CSS is more a holistic and natural rehab facility, we do not mask or cover up injuries with drugs, injections or jacked up shoes. Everything we do is to make the horse better.

Here are the types of extra things that we may ask the owner to pay for (if needed):

-Panacur power pacs, special deworming, special antibiotics or vet treatments, special supplements and meds, special feeds like a very low carb high fat feed for cushings/thyroid or foundered horses (just the cost of the supplies, you do not pay for us to administer).

-Pick up/delivery, transport and emergency transport if needed is $1.00 a loaded mile when done by CSS (CSS will do a free pick up for any horse located within 250 miles of CSS if doing a 6 month program rehab program, retirement or a 12 month or more lay up), that includes Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, Ohio, Lexington, KY, all of WV, Northern Virginia, Pittsburgh and Erie, PA, Buffalo, NY, DC, parts of DE, MD, NJ and NY).

-Provide fly sheets, turn out sheets, blankets, rugs, fly masks, wraps, boots, bell boots, protective boots, possibly boa boots. All these are on an as needed bases and CSS does have a large selection of all these stuff in which we have no problem using to help horses but it will just depend on the number of horses we have in rehab at the time. The owner will cover the cost of repair or replacement of these items when needed. All these things are returned with the horse when the horse returns home. The horse must be trained to accept blankets/sheets/rugs/fly sheets/fly masks/wraps and packing. CSS will make every attempt to get each horse to accept these things if they need them.

-Shoeing or special shoeing is paid directly to the farrier (Tom Powers or Pat McCartney) by the owner, if the horse requires something extra. Generally, CSS uses natural trimming and barefoot treatments but in some cases the horses must have a cushion until the pain is gone and shoeing becomes a must.

-All Veterinary care or emergency care is paid directly to the stable vet, Dr. Mike McDonald, Audubon Animal Hospital or WV Equine Service and Dr. Winney Maset.

-All Dental care is paid directly to the stable dentist, WV Equine Service and Dr. Winney Maset, he has power floats and does the best job on teeth, can also handle special dental problems.

-Farm call costs will be shared when the vet is coming to do several horses.

-This does not include supplying epm drugs like Marquis or any other injections needed by the horse, rabies & coggins/health certificates (must be done by a Vet according to state laws),  We will administer Marquis to the horse if the owner will purchase it at no charge. All funds go to the horses care and then to SWAP to help other horses in need, if there are any funds left.

Procedures for sending a horse to CSS for Rehab:

Fill out the rehab forms (click here to get the rehab agreement that will also give us the details of the horses needs)

Horse must be healthy enough to travel here without foundering, stabilized and out of immediate crisis.

All vet, shot and coggins records must accompany the horse, if not, we may have to get our vet in touch with the horses vet to get copies of xrays, etc. The more we know about the illness, injury, past therapies, the more we can help.

CSS asks for all payments in advance and a deposit of the first and last month (which ends up being applied to the horses last month of rehab).

CSS does move a horse into general boarding as soon as possible, we don't keep horses in rehab after we have reached our rehab goal.

Of all the injuries and illnesses we've seen and addressed here there are only a couple that CSS/SWAP has not been able to fix. The only things we can not or may not be able to fix are things like ring bone, bone to bone contact in any joint, sesmoid injuries and major fractures, stifle injures or permanent damage of stifles (this does not include horses becoming stifled which can in some cases be an easy fix through fitness and condition). Major fractures of hard tissues may require surgery and pins and some chip fractures may require removal through surgery, that is really a veterinary decision but major hard tissue injuries (fractures) CSS is a great place for the horse to come to get strong and sound again.

Once we get the forms, vet records and payments, the owner can set up the transport with either us, from our recommended list or anyone you feel comfortable with. To prepare for transport, do not give shots, wormers or any drugs prior to one week before departure. Remove back shoes (unless required to keep the horse from extreme pain) but remove them prior to one week before departure. Put the horse on Vitamin C for a week before shipping. Do not change anything in the horses life one week before shipping. Do not put anything on the horse for shipping that the horse has not worn recently or often for shipping, do not add stress to the horses life in any way one week before leaving (do not change schedule, feed, turn out, handler, etc). Pack up all the horses stuff in a bag with the horses name on the bag. Do not over deworm, over vaccinate or over do anything before traveling but do make sure shots and coggins are dated within 6 months. CSS recommends eee/wee/vee, tet, flu, rabies, wnv, rhino and botulism shots but done well before traveling. SWAP will automatically put the horse in the stable deworming/farrier schedule depending on their individual needs.

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