Eventer battles back to competition after life-threatening infection
Four-star eventer Trig Point has returned to competition after recovering from a life-threatening infection earlier this year.
A rare infection left Nicky Roncoroni’s 13-year-old gelding extremely ill following a tooth extraction over the winter.
Barbury Horse Trials (9-12 July) marked the combination’s return to competition, where they competed HC in the novice and jumped clear across country.
“He is very pleased with himself,” said Nicky. “He had a very, very big smile on his face.”
“It was just lovely to have him out and feeling so good.”
Problems started for Trig Point in November when he had an upper molar tooth taken out due to a slab fracture.
The trauma of the extraction resulted in some bleeding into the sinuses. Trig Point was given antibiotics and had a catheter inserted to treat the infection, which appeared to resolve the problem.
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Nicky told H&H at the time that it seemed like the horse was on the mend and was jumping and galloping again, but then the infection returned.
After an operation and weeks in veterinary hospital, Trig Point returned home to Nicky’s Gloucestershire yard on 11 February to recover.
In March, he had to undergo more surgery following a further re-infection.
Vets told Nicky that bringing him back into work would help his recovery.
“We felt it was important to have a bit of a focus for him,” she told H&H yesterday (Wednesday, 15 July).
“Part of his recovery really is feeling he has a job to do, feeling part of the team again.
“We are very much being led by how he feels.”
Nicky added they have to be very aware of what is going on and are neither asking nor expecting too much of him.
She also said she is “very thankful” to everybody that helped with his recovery.
The 17hh gelding, who has 467 British Eventing points, jumped clear across country at Badminton in 2013 and came 14th at Pau CCI4* in 2012.
Other results include wins in the CIC3* at Ballindenisk in 2012 and Montelibretti in 2013, where he was on the winning British Nations Cup team.
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Lucy is an experienced news journalist, reporter and presenter. Since joining the Horse & Hound team in 2015, Lucy has reported from major global sporting events including the Tokyo Paralympic Games and multiple European Championships, as well as Badminton, Burghley and London, to name a few. She has covered current affairs and sports news across the full spectrum of equestrian disciplines and racing, as well as human and equine welfare, industry news and court cases.