Information about Donkey Boy

The elite, gold medal and champion stallion Donkey Boy, winner of the Danish Equestrian Federation's dressage championships 2016-2019, double WYCH medalist and father of several high-profile and award-winning offspring, who over the past few years have successfully been under riding training for the Grand Prix and been available to the breeders at Helgstrand Dressage, was injured in early summer 2022.

At Helgstrand Dressage, we have recently been confronted with different versions and myths about the circumstances of the injury, to an extent that we have to publish the facts about the occurrence of the injury, which were as follows:

Donkey Boy is in early summer 2022, as in previous years, every day in the paddock. This is done by agreement with the owner. The paddock is an outdoor paddock with a sandy bottom, where the stallion is solitary, but has contact with other horses. The injury occurred on June 29, 2022.

Rider Anne-Mette Strandby, who is also Donkey Boy's regular rider, found, during a hack around the property on the stallion Rockabye at 3 p.m., that Donkey Boy ran around in a peculiar way in the middle paddock behind stable 4, where there are nine identical paddocks.

Anne-Mette immediately called her groom Pernille Keinicke and stable manager Line Dambo, and it immediately became clear that Donkey Boy had an injury to his left hind leg, as he would not support it and that he had pain, which caused him to run around the paddock in panic.

A veterinarian from Højgaard Hestehospital, which has a department in Uggerhalne, was immediately summoned. Within 20 minutes, two veterinarians arrived, Lisa Coulthard Smith and Louise Maagaard Olsen. They gave him sedatives and painkillers and tried to establish if there was something broken, which they could not detect, but since they doubted and could not clarify it with certainty, veterinarian Helene Brassøe was also called from Højgaard Hestehospital. Nor could she determine with certainty, via mobile scanning and X-ray machinery, that something was broken.

As the horse would not or could not find support on the left hind leg, veterinarian Helene Brassøe ordered the horse to be transported to Højgaard Hestehospital's main department on Funen for further investigation and treatment.

The horse was taped up and an opening was made for the horse in the corner of the paddock. Our head of buildings and materials Jørgen Gadensgaard broke down the paddock. Meanwhile, a horse truck was driven up between the paddocks so that the stallion could be helped directly into the horse truck, without having to walk more than 2-3 meters. Throughout the process of diagnosing and treatment, COO Per Jensen was present.

The horse was taken to Højgaard Hestehospital on Funen by Pernille Keinicke and Line Dambo.

All myths that the horse has been damaged on the way to be collected, during or in connection with the semen collection and in this way should have run from its groom are not correct. Helgstrand Dressage does not perform semen collection in the afternoon. Christian Springborg, who is responsible for the semen collection of our stallions can confirm this.

Thus, there are 8 witnesses to the above proceedings.

The stallion remains under recovery and its future status as a riding horse and/or breeding stallion depends on the outcome of this.