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GEORGE RIP In memory of George 23/04/09-16/06/12.
I bred George myself out of my lovely tb mare and by Rebel Rouser the connie stallion. I originally bred George to be a 14.2 event pony but he grew to 16.1. In 2011 I sold his dam due to finances and decided to keep George as he had grown in to a lovely strapping young man. 
I had sent him away to be backed at three and had just started hacking him out he was a dream to ride and I was determined to get it right with him.

Sunday may 13th I arrived at the field just after 9am . Living in the highland we have quite a lot of ground and usually have to call the horses when out of sight, but they always come. I called George, no George , Jojo came but no sign of George , I called and called and eventually came into sight but stopped and wouldn't come any further, he kept looking at his tummy, but still wouldn't come. When I went over to George I noticed he was blowing bubbles and still looking at his tummy. At first I thought it was just a touch of colic, but called Jane my vet on the way to walking him back to the stable just in case, she agreed just a touch of colic and to keep an eye on him.
Once back at the yard I took his rug off I could see he was a little tucked up but nothing to drastic. By the time I had got his stable ready he had lost a considerable amount of weight and in was in a lot of pain, at this point I knew, even though I had never experienced GS I just knew.
I rang Jane the vet and asked her to come out as he was far worse and we were struggling to keep him stood up. She was really quick, took all his vitals and then just said " you know what it is don't you?" thats when I burst into tears, no please no not my lovely George.
Although explaining she had never seen one survive we decided to give him painkillers and see how he got on over the next couple of hours. They immediately made a difference, he started being his cheeky self again although still finding it difficult to eat. Jane advised me to syringe him with water to get him to swallow. Also to get loads of different types of food and grate it and just encourage him to eat.
I sent my friends off for supplies and phoned home to break the news, within an hour my fiance Dan had arrived at the field with his newly aquired motor home for me to live in and supplies , my friends were back with fruit veg and several different strange things to eat. 
We all new we were in for the long haul. For the next 12 hours I syringed George with water, through the night I offered him just handfulls of anything and everything. Having never had haylage he was quite keen on taking a few strands at the time. In the morning when Jane came back she was amazed at how perky he was ( later she told me she had carried the lethal injection in her car for a week and really didn't think he would make it through that first night).
Over the first week each day was the same spending every hour with him getting him to eat anything , syringing him with water, probiotics and oil. I was terrified to leave him and although I had the motor home I could not bare to leave him, just in case. Three times that week Jane thought she would get a call through the night, but George was a fighter and was so cheeky and lively throwing stuff around his stable. I spent any spare time I had on the phone to experts, feed companies and anyone else that could help, I also found the GS support group on fb and I would never have got through it without the support of them, my vet and my friends that dropped everything and helped me.
Over the next few weeks although George was steadily still losing weight he was eating small bits and even managed to go out grazing. The sweats and the tremors were the worst thing to watch.
I was even managing to go home at night, with help from friends who did the late night check,we would leave George a choice of about six feeds each night and trough the day he was fed a choice of things every few hours.
We all really thought he was one of the ones who was gonna make it.
Saturday 16 June 2012, Day 35 
I got up early and went up to the field as usuall as I opened the outside barn door I got the welcome whinny from George, the same one I got every morning, he would always be laid down, but we would have cuddle before he got up. Not this morning!!!! When I looked over the stable door the sight was awfull, George was down his stable was trashed, and he was in a terrible mess his face and teeth were smashed where he had been trying to get up. I knew that was it my lovely George would never survive this. George kept fighting to get up, so I sat on his neck while i waited for the vet, cuddling and talking to him. There was no discussion with the vet we knew what we had to do. NO one knows why George went down that night, was it a seizure, did he get cast, what if ? would he have survived? I don't know, but I lost my boy.I still cry everyday and writing this has been hard , so I am sorry if it doesn't make a lot of sense.

I learnt a lot from George. Two weeks before he came down with GS he was moved to my friends field, so that we could ride together,the first night someone let them out on the road, three days later we moved them back to mine as the weather was terrible and my ground was better.George was a terrible loader and took two hours to load that day. 4 days later , his best pal had to be moved away. six days later George had GS. I believe the stress, the moving and the weather caused it, plus i wasn't feeding probiotics.
I now feed hay all year . I am too scared to move my horses and feed probiotics and seaweed everyday.
If my story can help anyone that makes me smile and i know George would smile too. RIP George love u forever

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On march 3rd 2013 we found my son's pony caroline in the field also with EGS , she was rushed down to the Dick vet where they looked after her. She luckily came home on the 3rd of May, she still has a long way to go but we are hoping she is one of the lucky one's and is gonna make it. The GS fund which we are raising money for helped with her care in the Dick vet as she was not insured,

I pray for the Vaccine as I am seeing new cases everyday and it is heart breaking .