Ella
I was called in by Ella's owner because her beautiful but somewhat energetic mare had started rearing when being led, especially past the chicken run. After listening the Ella's owner and, more importantly, to Ella, I realised that Ella was in the confusing position of being a young horse with too much energy and too much responsability. The recent departure of the lead mare, together with an injury to her owner, had left Ella feeling that she had become the decision maker around here. And she had decided she just didn't like those chickens!
After changing Ella's diet to something less heating, we worked to take back responsability from her by very clear leading and groundwork. The response was almost immediate: Ella was now a happy follower, even past the scarey chicken run.
She will always be a reactive horse but Ella and her owner now have a better understanding of each other, enabling them to work together in safety.
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Ellie
Ellie is a lady with history. Although she is generally well settled at home, she does still show the internal scars of her previous treatment. She is very nervous and distrustful of strangers. She also remains sensitive to touch in her vulnerable areas and is quite headshy. One of the issues her owner had not yet managed to overcome was clipping. I was asked if I could help Ellie to accept being clipped.
My initial assessment of Ellie was that she was less worried about the clippers (acutally a small battery shaver!) than about the person holding them. It was also clear that Ellie does not cope well with any pressure, no matter how small. It was therefore essential to build up trust first, which we did over 2 sessions, before teaching her the clippers held no danger, which went very quickly once the trust was there.
The key to Ellie was allowing her to make her own choices with no pressure. The 3 sessions took in total maybe 2 hours, at the end of which we had a happy, relaxed Ellie.
Rocky
Rocky is an 11 year old gelding who has had a harder life than most at his age should expect. He has been through dealers and riding schools, with his behaviour getting worse all the time, to the point that the next stop was the meat man. That is, of course, until he was taken on by his current owner. That must have been the luckiest day of his life.
As soon as I saw Rocky, it was clear to me that the root of his troubles was physical. If nothing else, he couldn't walk without dragging his front feet. This I felt was not the laziness that vets had diagnosed. His discomfort led him to be extremely defensive, defensive to the point of aggression. He had previously attacked complete strangers and the first day I met him he showed me clearly how he had got humans to back off if they asked too much of him.
As a first step, I concentrated on teaching Rocky that, even though he felt angry, biting and full on attacking would get him nowhere. By standing my ground with him while, at the same time, reassuring him and praising when he did just stand nicely, it was not long before he dropped the worst of his defenses we could start some basic lead work. This was then combined with work by an excellent cranial osteopath and herbal treatments, both of which had a dramatic effect on his ability to move freely and without discomfort.
Our second step is to rebuild trust. This involves putting him in situations where he previously would have felt the need to be defensive but taking over the responsability of worry from him. He is responding very well.
Rocky is a long term project and is still work in progress. There is more to be done physically, then there will be the challenge of introducing more structured work. He is, though, now safe to handle on the yard and is even now up to venturing into the outside world.
Update, May 2007. Rocky has now progressed to longlining and is making fantastic progress. He is positively relishing the new challenges that he is discovering he is capable of meeting. This is increasing his confidence in himself and in human beings. Contrast the rather uncertain pony above on his first foray into the outside world since beginning retraining with the confident boy and his Mum below.
Update December 2007. Despite his progress, Rocky's memories of his past working life continued to haunt him. Although it is probable that these could have been laid to rest with continued work, Rocky's owner decided that she did not wish for him to be a ridden horse in the future and that he would be officially retired. He is still quirky but is now a safe and much loved pet. This is a lovely outcome for such a troubled lad.