dobby need help - my therapy horse

Dobby is a 6yr thoroughbred born in australia and raced in hong kong, dobby only arrived into NZ 3 months ago to retire from racing.

His owners gifted him to me as i developed a love and bond for him instantly that will hopefully last a lifetime.

dobby is described as an over grown labrador, hes extremely smart and enjoys learning new tricks like undoing clips, gate latches, and more.

he gets bored easily and will find anything he can to play with, including throwing small tree branches around, carrying buckets and turning on garden taps.

Not many people know but i suffer from fibrmyalgia quite badly, chronic pain and chronic fatigue.

ive been a horse rider all my life and 12 months ago i got worse and was in hospital and on crutches.

horses helped me get off my crutches again but i still need them some days.

Because of my pain levels and flair ups i am limited to what i can ride these days, most horses movement causes me extreme pain and i cant afford to fall off.

Dobby is like riding on a cloud for me, im pain free when im on him and if hes unsure he will walk carefully rather than spook, he does his best to look after me and keep me safe.

hes also gentle with me at all times.

Dobby is my therapy horse, he keeps me mobile, keeps me positive mentally and is the reason i get out of bed every morning.

My doctors have said my riding is important for strength and mobility but i have to ride a safe horse and dobby is exactly that. hes also become my best friend from day 1.

Dobby was stood on in a truck while travelling on saturday.

he received a minor puncture wound just slightly above his back fetlock joint which appeared to be minor.

it was bandaged, treated and appeared to be fine.

sadly it very quickly became a major injury and a sever infection developed.

dobby is on a high course of antibiotics and is fighting it as best as he can currently but the treatment costs are expensive.

the infection is so bad that the vets are hoping it hasnt gone into the joint, if the infection doesnt respond to the treatment hes getting dobby will need emergency surgery to flush the infection.

surgery costs will be a minimum of $3000 on top of the costs of treatment so far.

dobbys vet bill excluding surgery at this stage has totalled between $1000 and $1500, the vet is coming today again which will increase this, i estimate the total costs all going well without surgery to be around $2000. im only asking for $1000 as i dont expect donations to cover the entire costs and i will do my best to raise the money for the rest.

Any extra that i raise i will put towards helping others.

dobby will be requiring another 2 bottles of antibiotics tomorrow that will last 2-3 days which will increase his bill further aswell as bandages, gamgee, animal lintex and more...

ive never asked for help before but dobby means the world to me and any help with his treatment costs would be greatly appreciated.