Starting Over with Beaugart…
Beaugart aka ‘Bogie’ is a young arab X NSH that came to Resting Heart Farm last winter. From the start he has been difficult for me to read….hard to catch, head shy, evasive….sometimes anxious, sometimes curious, sometimes over-reactive. He is a rescue and I don’t know alot about his history, but I can see he has some old wounds on his legs, and asymmetric eyes, so there has been some trauma. The question is….does the old trauma create his current state of mind or did his innate way of dealing with life make him more likely to have accidents. Doesn’t really matter, I guess…I have to deal with the horse that is here right now. And where we are right now is, well, complicated. Last summer, I was working pretty successfully with Bogie, or so I thought. I wrote about it here. Over the winter, our partnership started to deteriorate. He became impossible to catch without chasing him into a stall and cornering him. I can hear you all, rolling your eyes, in exasperation thinking…. ‘TELL ME YOU DIDN’T!’ Yes, I did. I let my task oriented nature make decisions. He had to have his feet trimmed, he had to see the vet, go to the trainers, etc….and my agenda forced the tactics. What I got for my trouble is MORE trouble. He now totally mistrusts me and we are back to square one. On the one hand I feel ashamed that I put that kind of pressure on him…a failure in my stewardship toward him. But one thing I know for sure about horses, is there is no place for feelings of regret or shame. I am either building trust, rapport and respect or I am tearing them down. Its a simple choice which side of the equation I want to be on.
Bogie spent the past month with Neal Perry and Bekah Bailey at Perry Farm in training. My fears were confirmed when they reported very slow progress with Bogie. Some of their comments: He seems scared and tense most of the time….over-reactive. He has some trouble with his vision on the left (something I was beginning to suspect prior). He adapts to new objects or situations quickly when a human is not attached…very slowly if a human is present. Every teaching session seems to have to start with alot of review, like he is retaining the previous lesson poorly. He seems extreme in how he reacts differently with people or objects in either eye or switching from one side to the other. Very hard to catch and halter without alot of resistant behavior. It wasn’t until the last week that Neal thought he might be ready to put a saddle on. He also does not seem to transfer learned behavior between people, so that if he learns something with Neal, Bekah could not necessarily start from the same spot and certainly I could not. But it was not ALL bad news. On the positive side, they thought he was smart, a beautiful mover, and had the capacity to be a great problem solver if he could be convinced to think instead of react. They also thought he was very kind. Not the type to purposefully hurt you, kick or strike no matter how scared he was.
All of this feedback was worth the training fee. I realized I had gotten into trouble with this horse a.) because of my agenda and lack of time, b.) because I was misreading him in many ways and c.) because I had talked myself into believing that ‘he was just not MY type of horse’ and gave up on the partnership.
So I brought him home a few days ago and we are starting over.
I’ve dug hard over the past two weeks, reading, watching old PNH videos and thinking about how my approach needs to change to fit Bogie’s horsenality. I did his chart. While he is primarily a Right Brain Extrovert, I see behavior all over the chart, which is why he is hard to read sometimes.
I have little experience with Right Brain Introverts, and I think that is where I am getting into trouble with him. But in truth, in order for this to work, I need a strategy that will set ME up to succeed as well. I’m very task and goal oriented, though I have learned over the years with my Left Brain Introvert, Manny, I can tone that tendency down by breaking any task down into tiny tiny steps and removing any timeline. But I have to have things to check off a list….its just how I am built.
So I have built a temporary paddock for Bogie, down by the chicken and goat house where he can be across the fence from the main herd, but not loose with them. Its a place where I spend a fair amount of time doing chores that have nothing to do with him and as such can serve as ‘undemanding time’ without forcing me to sit still (which would make me quite anxious). I have removed the water trough and plan to be his only source of water. So this first stage will serve to restore trust and rapport, the ‘goal’ will be to be able to approach Bogie and halter him without being resistant or bracey (either of us). However, if I just go directly to haltering, I will fall right back into the old pattern and get no where. So I have broken down the steps into microsteps, first bring water to Bogie, then taking him out to the water trough first with a collar and then with the halter, using a consistent pattern to help us both stay calm, focused and connected. So the steps might look like this:
1. Can he approach me and drink water from a bucket
2. Can I walk in a circle around him while he drinks…in both directions. No touching. Big circle at first (whole paddock), make it smaller as his threshold allows.
3. Can I touch his body all the way around while he drinks his water without him leaving.
4. Can I snap the lead line on his collar while he drinks.
5. Can I snap the leadline on his collar and lead him to the bucket.
6. Can I snap on and lead him outside the pen to water and then back again.
7. Can I put a halter on and lead him out of the pen, to the water and back again.
Each step might take a day or a month….and I might find there are other even smaller steps between these that I want to explore. Once we are getting close to the goal, we’ll add some distractors, like obstacles, balls, balloons or barrels. In truth, I believe if I can attain this small goal, the partnership will come very easily.
So the rules I am setting for myself: Never leave his paddock when he is braced, tense or anxious. No task can be checked off the list until it is consistently soft and responsive for 7 attempts in a row. Expect alot, accept alittle….every day.
What Horses have to Teach us about Healing…
I have been struggling to write this piece for over a week now. Its not typical for me to experience ‘writer’s block’ but there is is. And as it turns out, totally germane to the topic. Its been a tough week for me mentally and emotionally. Engaged in some politically charged organizational rhetoric….within a task I took on voluntarily to help a cause I believe in….I found I was not thriving. No details are required, but as a result of this turmoil, I have experienced indigestion, muscle aches, headaches, and poor sleep. Late last evening I was given the opportunity to remove myself from this situation and I gratefully accepted. I did feel better, but it wasn’t until the wee hours of this morning …..when I was roused from bed by the hospital to come in to care for one of my patients emergently ….that I fully released all that toxic energy. At my patient’s bedside, as I laid my hand on her shoulder to reassure her that she would be OK…wham…I felt it. My head cleared, my heart opened, and my body resumed its vibrant hum. That sensation, folks, and I know you have all felt it, is a chakra (or in this case chakras) opening or releasing.
Sit for a moment and think about how it is you are alive right now. How do you work…I mean what keeps you as an organism going everyday? What keeps your brain thinking? What keeps your heart beating? What makes your muscles contract on cue? What allows us to love, to care, to laugh? Why do we cry or feel pain? Where does our intuition come from? We are complex beyond imagining. Energy. Kinetics. Power. Connection.
Not to oversimplify, all living beings are made up of circuitry, energy banks that rely on each other for us to function properly. Visualize with me a house on a hill, at night, with all the lights on, inside and out…not a very ‘green’ image, but bear with me. Cut the power and everything goes dark, right? But its not just the lights. In addition, all the stuff in the house stops working…the TV, the stove, the computer, the refrigerator, the washer and dryer, even the water runs dry in some cases. So keep the image of the house in your mind and flip the breakers in the basement one by one. As you do, a section of the house comes alive. You see the effect because of the light, but you can also feel it…the hum of electricity! Now the house is functioning to its capacity and all sorts of complex activities can now take place within it. This is how I describe the chakra system to people. Chakras are our internal circutry, our energy banks. We need them to function physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Can we survive in a dark house without electricity? Sure. But we flourish when the power is on and all the connections are working.
So there are 7 main chakras…actually there are 8 major and many minor chakras, but we’ll concentrate on the 7 for now. For more specific information on each go here. Reno, below, will be our Chakra model. Pictured here at the height of his rehabilitation, all chakras humming with vibrant energy. These power sources are associated with different physical organs and body parts as well as emotional and mental aspects of our being. Power from these sources can be dialed up or down depending on many inputs. Injury and acute pain, for instance, can shut down one or more chakras very quickly. Our thoughts and emotions can also dial down these energy points, sometimes so slowly, we don’t even realize it. In some cases, our mental and emotional effects on our chakras can be so powerful that we develop physical manifestations within that chakra. And vice versa. So you can see its very complex.
My work with horses has taught me just about everything I know about chakras. As in most aspects of my life, horses are amazing teachers.
We’ve all seen neglected horses…thin, depressed, lethargic, injured. Like the dark house without any power, they are surviving, but shut up within the simple structure of their bodies. You’ve also probably seen the opposite.
I remember being at a Parelli gathering a few years ago. I just happened to be near the entry to the arena when Pat was coming through with his stallion, Casper. I was maybe 6 feet away as he passed by. I was stunned by the presence of this animal (that’s Casper, not Pat). He was not just beautiful, he was connected, energetic and powerful beyond belief. I remember feeling his presence so vividly, so positively…he made me feel joy. I’ve since studied photos and video of Casper and have to admit, he is not the perfect horse…not perfectly built and surely not a suitable partner for most, but he is all there. His energy centers are charged up and the juice is flowing.
Most of our horses are somewhere in between. Just like humans, these energy centers are sometimes open, sometimes closed. The energy flow changes, weakening or strengthening, affected by injury, nutrition, environment and socialization, herd dynamics and past history. The powerful lesson I’ve learned from the horses is that if you provide what they need nutritionally, mentally, socially, physically, you can open these chakras. Actually the horse opens them, we simply provide the raw materials. When they are open, the horse has the amazing ability to heal itself….just like it was magic. For years I focused on the physical ailments and injuries of my horses. Manny, who has been with me for a dozen years has had all sorts of afflictions over the years, arthritic hocks, S-I joint instability, uveitis, and sarcoids. I used every medical trick in the book for him. I was sometimes successful and sometimes not…mostly not. My horses have always had the ‘best of care’, but something happened when we moved to NH, they moved home with me and I began to give them the environment and social life that was natural to them. At the time, I had not tuned into the chakra phenomenon, but I watched Manny change over that first year here. He became sound, engaged, comfortable in his own skin. His uveitis cleared, in fact a follow up Opthalmology consult had the doctor baffled…’this horse doesn’t have uveitis!?!’ His arthritis and back issues resolved and his sarcoids dissappeared (seriously), without any intervention from me outside good nutrition, lots of room to move and engage with a herd and horsemanship that protected his dignity and natural power.
Since then I have been rehabilitating rescues. These are the horses that have shown me the way in regard to what was happening with the chakras. I was introduced to dowsing many years ago by a dear friend, Sheila Ryan and have developed modest skills over the years. Dowsing the chakras was always part of my program, but I didn’t see the connection to the healing I was seeing until the last two horses, Reno and Ripple. You can read about Reno here and he is pictured above. The initial work in his rehab was painstaking and I feared we would lose him several times. But one day he just seemed better. My dowsing revealed all his chakras were open and flowing, despite being on stall rest from a second injury. I was perplexed. Shouldn’t the injury be affecting his energy in at least one chakra? But there it was. The power of the energy available to him for healing was evident over the ensuing weeks as he made a record breaking recovery in less that half the vet projected time period. Whoa…that is some weird science!
So I was anxious to test my theory with Ripple. Rip has some hind end issues, probably OCD in the stifles. He came to me pretty weak in the hind end in general, so its hard to know exactly what is wrong. Instead of focusing on a diagnosis, I simply used my dowsing to figure out what he needed in regard to nutrition, turned him out with the herd and waited. It was over a month before the first chakra opened….the heart…a product likely of attention from me and acceptance by the herd. A week later came the third eye. This one I saw immediately. In stead of watching me move around the paddock out of one eye or the other as was his habit, he was following me with both eyes. A couple days later the crown opened followed by the throat chakra. The front half of the horse connected. Not surprising given the lack of physical power in the hind end. So I waited another week and then bam, in rapid succession the last three opened…solar plexus, base and finally the reproductive chakra. I knew these had opened just by looking at him…relaxed, integrated, soft expression. So now the healing can begin. Its the power of animal healing. We all have this ability. I have believed that for a long time as a physician, though never understood its power until now.
The Ripple Effect
This is a story about a horse and social networking. Say what, you ask?
I remember the day I was invited to sign up for Facebook by a friend. Don’t remember the friend, but I remember being annoyed…..thinking FB was just another tool to invade my privacy and bog down my internet traffic. I signed up anyway, added a photo of myself and took some queer quizzes about what sort of dog I was and whether I was a redneck or not. Then facebook suggested some friends for me. How did it know I knew these people? Ah, its invading my gmail address book…again, I was annoyed. Of course a few weeks later, other friend requests came through that I though, hmmm…I haven’t spoken or emailed that person in years. I hooked up with cousins and family that I normally don’t stay in good enough contact with (despite resolutions to the contrary). Facebook even hooked me up with my ex-husband, Angelo. This was becoming kind of fun now. I was in daily contact with people I loved but for whatever reason I had lost a connection. I mean that’s what we all want right? A connection to other people. A way to share our life with others and vice versa.
Recently as I neared 400 friends, I realized how blessed I was to have such a busy social life, without having to go too far or buy a plane ticket or even pick up the phone. Many of my ‘friends’ now on FB are mere acquaintances or friends of friends, some of whom I now feel like I know very well, even if we have never met. Its fascinating, really!
Over the past decade I have started to believe in and practice manifestation. I keep a perfect picture of the things or events I want to see happen or come into my life and then wait. It has never failed. So I was not surprised when a horse meant for me popped up randomly last week on facebook. The interesting thing is that I did not purposefully manifest this horse. I believe my subconscious mind did. Here’s the story as I know it….
Many of you know I rehabbed a Percheron, Reno, a couple of years ago, who completely stole my heart. Over the past year or so I had been considering adding another percheron to my herd, possibly a teammate for Reno. I have looked at several percherons as well as other drafts, some very pretty, and well trained. Many of these horses were outside my budget, but the truth is, I could have scrouged up the money to buy one. But I didn’t. I think, now, looking back, buying a well trained, perfectly sound horse wasn’t what I was looking for. What I truly needed was to rescue a horse in need. Which is pretty much how all the animals on my farm arrive here. I’m a fixer. I like to fix things. Lets say I have a knack for it.
When I saw Ripple on the Frog Pond Farm Draft Rescue, something in my heart exploded. That’s him, I thought, surprising myself with this odd revelation. It was amazing how certain I was in a matter of seconds. Stifle problems, oh goody! So I emailed the rescue, filled out a application and got in my truck and drove to Ohio to collect him. 72 hours and 1400 miles from application to driving into the driveway with him near midnight on New Year’s Eve.
So someone asked me, “Are you going to change his name?” Hell no. His name so clearly illustrates the whole experience. When I found him on FB, there was an immediate flurry of posts and comments. Of course, I stayed connected with those interested with status updates during my trip to Ohio. By the time I was half way to Ohio, I had dozens of people fascinated and routing me on. What once would have been a simple road trip, became an epic journey…shared with friends, family and perfect strangers. Yes, I now have perfect strangers as friends on FB!
Meet ‘Ripple Effect’….
Re-starting Beaugart
Yield your hindquarters and follow me...
So many of you know of my most recent rescue, Beaugart. He is a 5 yo Arab x NSH and has been with me for about 6 months. He was skinny and scared of everything when he came to the farm. As with all my rescues, health and socialization come first. Beaugart has spent the past few months with a small herd with plenty of room to roam, play and move his body. There have been very few demands made on him from me and I have spent the time building rapport, by being a consistent presence in his daily life. Trust took a long time. He really had no interest in anything I did, nor could he stand me approaching him directly. But one day, not long ago, I found him nibbling on my elbow from behind me while I did my chores! At last, some curiousity! The next day, he allowed me to approach and scratch his itchy spots (it is black fly season), curling his lips with pleasure. That was the turning point and the day I knew I could start working with him in a more meaningful way.
I know very little about Beaugart, but have been able to piece together some info. He was born in Colorado and was quite a fancy weanling, winning an ‘in hand’ championship as a yearling. I also have in my possession a photo of him being ridden by a man….no idea where or what level of training he was at. My experience handling him has led me to believe he has had some training, though there were some big holes in his foundation, or possible evidence of some rough handling.
The first issue I encountered was that he was difficult to catch. If he saw a halter or lead rope, he was ‘out of dodge’. In the beginning he would simply leave and I had no hope of catching him outside of trapping him in a small paddock or stall which I was loathe to do. Right around the time his curiousity about me appeared, his behavior shifted somewhat about being caught. While he was still not interested in being haltered and would move away, he ran in circles around me instead of leaving the area completely…a huge shift in his behavior. Instead of panicing, he was thinking. This was a very good sign, but I knew he was still very far from thinking of me as a partner.
The second issue I noted was that he was extremely head shy. He did not like stuff over his ears, like a bridle or leather halter. I could manage with a rope halter swung over his neck, but nothing that had to go up and over the forehead and ears…well, not without him rearing straight in the air 
The last big issue was his left shoulder. He was in the habit of using his left shoulder to move people and block any access to his zone 3 (where the saddle goes). He is pretty unbalanced side to side in general, but that is common, as people tend to lead and mount horses from the left and do very little from the right. He was alittle extreme in this way. I get the feeling someone did alot of work teaching him to yield his hindquarters without paying much attention to this evasion. I knew I could fix this problem pretty easily once I had his confidence.
Anyway, by happenstance, I was invited to visit my friend Brenda Ladd at her farm and encouraged to bring Beaugart up for some training. Brenda is in Bridgewater, NH and has a gorgeous facility with a large indoor arena and round pens. She hosts many clinics each year with fabulous clinicians (Dave Ellis, Karen Rolph, David Lichman to name a few) and does some horsemanship coaching in between. Brenda and I have been online friends through Parelli Natural Horsemanship for several years so I was delighted when she and her husband Jonathan moved their venue to NH! She is a wonderful coach with good instincts about what is working and how to build on what the horse offers.
So Beaugart and I spent two days with Brenda. We camped out and did a little bonding. Lots of opportunity to become better partners. Brenda took some photos, which will serve as an outline of what we accomplished in just over 24 hours.
Oh, its a carrot stick!
OK, I guess I'll stick with you now...
We worked in a round pen. I used the pen to create forward movement and then worked on changes of direction. Bogie had trouble at times turning towards me. Brenda suggested I approach him less directly and push his hindquarters away, allowing the front end to come towards me…brilliant! At first he could only yield a step at a time before stalling, but before too long he would follow through with forward movement toward me. We built on that the first day till he was following me consistently. Next we had to tackle the friendly game with the stick and string. I elected to put him on line for this and we played with some approach and retreat. He caught on very quickly. It was pretty clear that he is a quick minded horse and does not need alot of repetition to learn. Brenda thought, ‘why don’t we do this with a saddle on’…kill two birds so to speak. Now I know he has worn a saddle before, but what I don’t know is if he had any issues with the saddling process or with the saddle itself. So we treated him like any young horse. He checked out the saddle and pad and seemed very confident about it. I saddled him at liberty and he had no problems at all. Well, I should say, until the next day, when in anticipation of riding him, we found a girth that was small enough for him (he is still not that round). Since it was our second saddling and he was so good the first day, I didn’t expect any reaction to the girth being tight. And there wasn’t at first. I tightened the girth, then walked away and he set off crow hopping around the arena for 20 seconds or so. I was so surprised. He then stopped and walked over to me and put his head down as if to say, ‘sorry, I just had a moment there’. Just goes to show…never make assumptions about any horse and their previous training. If you didn’t see it with your own eyes, it never happened.
saddling was uneventful, though there was not a small enough girth to be had in the house!
Bogie learns to yield his hindquarters without blocking me with his shoulder...
Day two: I knew I could get on Bogie the second day, based on what we had accomplished the day before. So I went straight to work teaching him to pick me up at the mounting block. OK for those of you, saying ‘What’s with the mounting block?’… I have a rule. Either mount from the ground or teach your horse to pick you up from a block or a tailgate or a fence…willingly. Mounting a 16 hand horse from the ground takes physical strength and flexibility. Teaching that horse to pick me up takes savvy and focus. Its ALL good, people!
Teaching Bogie to pick me up at the mounting block
testing the waters...
Bogie had no issues with the idea of me getting on his back, but you know what they say....'better safe than sorry'
And we're off....or rather 'on'...
Asking for lateral flexion...
very nice, short, relaxed first ride
Next we tackled the bridling issue. It was a big deal to him. But with some persistance and patience, along with good timing with the release, we got the job done. I had a goal of getting the bridle on 3 times (once I had done it once) with each try more successful. Mission accomplished, but we still have some work to do in this area…
Bridling was another story...
Bogie wasn't sure which was worse, the bit or the headstall going over the ears...
while he was worrying about the bit, I worked on the ears. I let him think about this for awhile...
Success with dignity!
I think we are off to a great start...
So Bogie is off to a great start! There is loads of work to do, but I am confident he will be an awesome partner. His movement is wonderful and it will be fun to try to recreate that undersaddle. He would make an awesome hunter for some teenager! Many thanks to Brenda from Ladd Farm for her support and suggestions! Their website is: www.laddfarmllc.com Check out and come audit a clinic this summer!
My fine hostess and coach, Brenda with my pup, Newt
The spectacular view from Ladd Farm...oh and the horse ain't bad either!
Did you ever hear the story of the ‘Ugly Duckling’?
Bogie's mane was one massive, dreadlocked, matte of a mess...
You know the one where he finally realizes he is a beautiful swan…
I finally got some clear photos of Beaugart in his ‘ugly duckling’ state. Truth is, he looks better everyday! He has integrated nicely into the herd. I caught him playing with Doc yesterday…shoulder to shoulder. Every morning I find Manny standing near Bogie…both of them snoozing. He starts pushing him around when he realizes I’m there with breakfast….but I know he likes him 
Reno’s another story. I’m convinced Bogie has never seen a mammal as big as Reno and he will not stand within 20 feet of him. They’ll get there I suppose…
I shut Bogie in a stall at night for the last couple of nights, just to be sure he was getting his fair share of hay and to monitor his fluid intake. I also needed to get some wormer into him. That sure proved challenging! I finally had to blindfold him to get it into him. I guess I’ll be working on that with him in the near future. But tonight I found him drinking out of the main water trough and mom said he has been with the herd all day, so I thought he might be ready to go it on his own out with the herd tonight. Its very good progress in just 5 days!
Photo credits go to my friend (with a nicer camera), Jean Cross…Thanks!
Its not pretty but at least I didn't have to roach it!
Alittle ribby....but already looks less tucked up
Beaugart meets the herd…
Introducing a new horse to a stable herd is always an undertaking. It takes nerves of steel and an optimistic attitude.
Ideally, a new horse would be exposed to the new herd over a fence line for a while, then have some turnout with a low-ranking herd member…so they have a buddy. Then they enter the herd proper. There is always some squealing and some running around. They all have to sort out who is the leader and who follows.
Beaugart does not like being kept in a stall. I like that about a horse and I understand it. I knew I needed to get him outside and soon. Being winter, I have limited options…its hard to move fences in January, lol! So my only option is to integrate him into the herd relatively quickly.
Manny shows Bogie the water trough...
My vet was out today and looked him over. Besides being underweight and slightly dehydrated, she thought there were no serious issues and thought some outdoor exercise would do him good. She did not recommend adding him to the herd just yet, but acknowledged that I might not necessarily follow her guidelines to the letter;) True to her word, I set about freeing Bogie as soon as she left the barn. I locked up Manny and Reno and turned Bogie out with Doc, my retiree. As I expected, there was no drama at all. I let Reno out and he was alittle pushy and bossy, but not persistently so. Finally I let the alpha out….Manny. He surprised me completely. In stead of being his usual nasty self, he investigated the new horse…softly (almost protectively) and moved him here then there. He was just showing the new guy who was boss….but he wasn’t doing it in a very aggressive way (which has been his style in the past). So I am optimistic that Bogie will be able to join the herd permanently very soon. One of the things I love about my track (I have a 15 foot track around the pasture next to the barn) is that there is nowhere for anyone to get stuck…..they just keep moving on the track in a circle…there is always a place for them to go.
Manny stares Bogie down. Bogie has to come to an agreement with Manny, the alpha horse in order to join the herd.
Manny moving Bogie around the track. Bogie has an effortless way of moving..can't wait to see what that looks like with some weight and a topline!
Even the dog seems to need to negotiate with Bogie for terms...
Beaugart
Beaugart is a 5 yo Arab x national show horse (1/2 arab, 1/2 standardbred)….reads mostly arabian;) He’s registered and well bred. Unfortunately, he, his herdmates and his owner fell on hard times this year and all have been doing poorly. I became aware of the situation only a few days ago, made some room in the barn and drove down to rescue one of these horses today. I came home with Beaugart.
He loaded right on the trailer and as soon as he discovered that there was hay in there, he had no intention of getting out. I took off his halter and switched it out for one of my own while he happily munched away. His simple delight at his very own pile of hay made me smile instantly. I let him settle in the trailer while I perused the remaining horses…stallions, mares, youngsters and babies. I struggled with the urge to take them all home.
I give alot of credit to the local law enforcement as well as Patricia Morris, a local lawyer for skillfully managing a potentially horrific situation, making it possible for the owner to give her horses up to safe and loving homes with her dignity intact. I just hope all those wonderful animals find a place like Beaugart has. A place where they can live well, eat plenty and play hard….and maybe someday have a job.
So Day one for ‘Bogie’. He travelled well and ate a whole hay bag full of hay in the hour it took to drive home. I’ve never seen a horse eat that much while traveling! He was introduced to the herd over the fence before settling into a stall across the aisle from the the other horses, who came in and out all day saying ‘hi’, ‘who are you’, ‘I’m gonna kick your butt’, etc. etc. I gave him a half bale of hay and plenty of water as well as a deep bed of shavings and headed off to work for a few hours.
My initial assessment was that he was dehydrated. His poop resembled shavings….ick! I can’t recall seeing a single bucket of water at the facility he was at either inside or out….so no surprise he was alittle dry. His body score is at best a 3. Probably if it were summer, he would look more like a 2. The long winter coat hides alot. Feet aren’t horrible, but in need of a trim. And best of all… he is sound! He has that floaty arab trot that I just love…
Upon my return, he had again amazed me at how much hay he had put away. Only drank a 1/2 bucket of water though. Not much poop in the stall and I couldn’t see that he had peed yet. But he had a brighter look in his eye and was investigating his stall and surroundings, apparently now that his belly was full. I found immediately that he has some haltering/bridling issues and does not like to be handled about the ears or poll….duly noted. I got a rope halter on much more easily after a few scratches under his unruly dreadlocked mane. We’ll work on that more…
I closed the barn doors and 
let him wander in the aisleway while I picked up his stall and reloaded his hay and water. He pow-wowed with the other horses, squealing here and there. Manny promptly turned his butt and kicked the wall between them repeatedly. Always interesting, introducing a new member to the herd. They’re already triing to jockey for their place in the new herd.
I decided to feed him some warm soaked beet pulp with some probiotics, dyna-spark (an electrolyte) and oxymega (an omega 3/antioxidant supplement) for his first dinner. I’m not a huge fan of beet pulp as many of you know, but it does offer benefits in situations like this, so I keep some around. Its a good way to get fluids into a dry horse and it also has a positive effect on GI motility and hindgut pH. Plus it allows me to get the other stuff into him and I certainly don’t want to stress his system with grain just yet. He seemed to like it, but took his time eating….probably more food than he’s seen in a long time. I left him munching happily…
Spirit’s hoof rehab
Spirit is a mini that I rescued in December. Since I have such an interest in feet, I thought it would be cool to record the changes in his hoof quality with regular trimming. On his arrival, it was clear that Spirit’s feet had recieved little attention in the previous few months. He had bad thrush infections in all four feet..tiny necrotic frogs and alot of false sole in reaction to the frog weakness. Below you will see his left hind…pre-trim, then post first trim (you will see the false sole and lack of concavity)…then post third trim (where you will see normal concavity and a healthy frog)…a thing of beauty! This foot was in the best shape (and the photos were the best) so it is presented here. But the remining 3 feet are coming along as well. As the frog health improves, so does the rest of the foot. I’ve used Eclipse wound cleanser with each trim. We’ve had cold hard conditions here in New England which has helped the cause tremendously as well. I really like Cleantrax for thrush infections but in the winter it is difficult to impossible to apply successfully.
Comments welcome…I’m pretty happy with his progress!
Meet ‘Holiday Spirit’…
In early december, I became aware of a miniature stallion at risk at the New Holland Auction in PA. Though at the time I thought surely someone would adopt him… it turns out he was out of time. I had to step up. As fortune would have it, I instantly had a crew willing to drive (9 hours each way) down to get him, as I was out of town for a meeting. I returned home in time to get a stall with a run-out ready for the little guy. He arrived the evening of Dec 15th…my mom’s birthday!
