Royal Velvet (V) is a 5-year-old off the track rescue horse. He is known for his sweet and goofy personality and has an overall wonderful demeanor. V has made a lot of progress in his training since we got him. He is enthusiastic to work, eager to please, and even started to allow younger riders to ride him. Unfortunately, about 6 months ago he started acting out under saddle, acting extremely uncomfortable and painful. Through working with our vet, he has had several different diagnostics and treatments to try and locate and alleviate the source of his discomfort. After months of no improvement, it was decided it would be best to ship him and have a more in-depth evaluation at Mid Atlantic Equine Hospital. There it was discovered he has “kissing spine”, arthritis in his neck with one spot they suspect is pinching a nerve, and inflammation in the tendons in his hock. They injected these problem areas to help reduce his pain, but to no avail. His next steps would be either a neck CT followed by surgery or back surgery, both being very expensive options on top of the costs of all his previous work ups. We want to do everything we can for our sweet V to improve his quality of life and hopefully allow him to have a working career. Any donations towards this surgery would be greatly appreciated!