Final Lap of Honour for Lochnagar

We know so many of you were following the progress of beautiful Lochnagar after his severe mystery head injury.

We had thought that after Royal Windsor Show Lochnagar might be coming home as he’d been showing signs of improvement. Very sadly disaster then struck. At the same time as his head pain was becoming unmanageable; he ruptured a tendon, likely from an old injury that could have happened at any time. In normal circumstances we could have managed a tendon rupture in a retired horse but together with his head pain, likely caused by a skull fracture, there was simply no way the RVC vets could manage his pain and so the deeply sad decision was made to end his suffering. Such an unlucky boy in the end but he had an amazing life spanning twenty years, 11 of which were serving in the military as a DAC Rider.

Lochnagar was a superstar who won the Services Cup at Olympia three years in a row with our very own Mark Avison riding him. Mark had been running HM The Queen’s 90th birthday pageant when he came home to the very sad news. His groom here, all of us, the DAC team, the army vets and Mark especially are so terribly sad to lose him too soon; though he left us all, particularly Mark, with so many amazing memories. Goodnight Lochy, you’ll always be our champion! Even if you did enjoy biting people every now and again and could be a bit of a terror when you felt like it! Time for your final lap of honour. Sleep now champ.