Last summer, Parc Roscoe’s life hung in the balance with a severe sinus infection. In the past few months, the spirited 13hh has not only qualified but gone on to finish third in the Prestige Novice Silver Winter Championship at the 2024 NAF Five Star Winter Dressage Championships.
His rider Laura Wells was emotional after their lap of honour.
“Last year, he had a really serious sinus problem and we thought even if he survived we’d never be able to ride him again,” she said. “His owner Jacqui Holford sent him to Liverpool to have pioneering surgery – and his vet believes he’s the only horse who has ever recovered from what he had. She had to open up an area in his sinuses so he could get air in, or he would have died. The pressure was distorting the bones in his face and could also have compromised his eye.”
While Roscoe could breathe air in, he couldn’t exhale so huge pressure was building up. This made the soft tissue expand and push into his nasal passage, blocking one side completely.
Jacqui described how the dangerous infection developed.
“He’d had an episode in the school where he’d shot backwards, spun and thrown Laura up in the air; she went flying,” she said. “We thought, ‘there is something wrong, this isn’t normal’. Then when Laura was cantering in the field, he came back with a nosebleed. I didn’t think much of it, but it happened the next day, and the next and the next, so we got in touch with the vet and they quickly referred him.
“The vet Professor Debbie Archer said, ‘I don’t know how to do this because there is no textbook, so I’ll do with Roscoe what I’d do with my own horse.’ Only post-mortems had found the same problem, so as far as Debbie knows, there is nothing alive that has had this.
“Six weeks after the operation, he won his first event back the Area Festival.”
From £50 foal purchase to the 2024 Winter Dressage Championships
Surviving serious illness is just another highlight in Roscoe’s incredible story against the odds. Bought for just £50 as a foal from the Builth Welsh Pony Sales, Roscoe was destined for a showing career. His switch to dressage is impressive, given he’s dwarfed by most of his warmblood rivals.
“He’s a Welsh section C but at 13hh he isn’t really big enough, although he’s done well,” said Jacqui of the nine-year-old. “So last March he started with British Dressage. He thinks he’s as big as all the other horses.”
Laura, who backed him and has ridden him throughout his career, added: “He’s always had plenty of ability but he’s been tricky because he’s so bright that he can be unpredictable at times. But I can’t describe how special this feels. I was happy just to be here; to be third is beyond my wildest dreams.”
They clocked a score of 69.51%, with their canter work a particular highlight, and the C judge Kim Warren put them in first on 70.37%.
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