Blind Horse, Baby Horse, Bossy Horse

This week I had our vet, Dr. Landes with Equine Medical Services, take a look at Huck's eyes.  He had completed all the pre-ride training I would normally do with a horse but still had a strong startle reaction with a large spook of the "duck and spin" persuasion.  He had unloaded Dolly Bottoms a few times, and I noticed he was spookier in bright light than on cloudy days.  I had not gotten on him to ride because of this big spook, and I felt it was worth checking his vision.

When Dr. Landes did the exam with the opthalmascope we discovered that Huck is almost totally blind.  We found severe cataracts nearly completely obscuring the lens of Huck's eyes, and they were affecting the nerve in his eye so his pupils don't constrict in bright light.  This means that Huck couldn't see much of anything, and in bright sunlight he was probably entirely blinded by the brightness.

This explains everything I've dealt with during his training.  Huck is a saint for accepting the training I've done with him so far!  He would let me tack him up, lunge both directions at the walk, trot, and canter (with voice commands), let me tie pool noodles and other nonsensical paraphernalia to his saddle, and would lunge with Dolly Bottoms aboard.  He acts so herd-bound because he uses the other horses for safety and a buddy horse/seeing eye horse to help himself get around.  He has been very touchy-feely with me, and when nervous he puts his nose on my arm or on the scary thing.  If it moves, he presses his nose onto it more firmly.  I now think he was doing this because he couldn't see anything, so he used his nose and pressure to determine if the novel stimulus was safe and to make sure I was still there to protect him.

Knowing this, the vet and I definitely don't recommend using him as a riding horse.  It's pretty darn amazing that Huck let me do as much training as I've done with him, and shows a super personality for him and a LOT of trust in me.  What's next for Huck?  He's going back to his owner, who will keep him as an "uncle" for young horses and weanlings to teach them equine social skills.  Huck did a wonderful job managing my herd while he was here in the big paddock with everyone, and he'll do well teaching the youngsters at his owner's barn.  He'll always be kept in an area where he can't accidentally hurt himself on fencing since he can't see it, and enjoy his life there raising baby horses in the big pastures.

I took Huck back home this weekend, and he was happy to be reunited with his herd.

While I was there I got to visit Lacey who had been here in training a couple months ago.  It was a happy reunion!  I called out hello to her, and she immediately came to the gate to visit. 

I also met a couple new horses, one who's name is Elle.  She'll be coming for jumping training eventually and has a super cute face and gorgeous movement.

Elle reminds me of Fason, my big red gelding I had a couple years ago.  Same super friendly personality and similar faces.

Another horse we met was a newborn foal who had arrived the night before!  The dam is a warmblood cremello named Marzipan, and the foal is a HUGE buckskin filly.  Take a look at those legs!

After we had admired the new baby, Huck's owner sent a new mare back with me for training.  Her name is Ferriana and she's a dark bay eight year old Hanoverian/Dutch warmblood cross.  She had a couple rough goes with trainers in the past, including falling in a horse trailer and being trapped upside down under a divider, as well as flipping over backwards on the cross-ties.  At the farm they were able to lead her to and from the barn and turnout as long as she was following a friend, but that's all they were able to do with her due to how reactive she is.  Ferriana was never successfully put under saddle.  Other than the difficulties at trainers', she has been living at my client's place since she was a foal.  My client has invested a lot of time and money into her and wants to make sure she does right by this mare, and so she's sent Ferriana to me to do some problem solving.

Ferriana was understandably anxious about getting into a horse trailer.  Knowing this, I donned my helmet, backed up my trailer to the paddock gate, and opened up the entire back end so that it looked bright and inviting.  My rig is built so that you can walk a horse in the back and out the front stall, a nice feature with this type of situation.  We had Ferriana's roommate, an elderly mare, climb in the back and walk out the front several times so Ferriana could see it was safe.  Then we just loaded and kept her friend in the front.  Ferriana tried the usual tactics to avoid getting in.  These included trying to pull away from me, backing up, trying to turn away from me while throwing her weight into the halter, as well as crashing into me to run me over.  She wasn't actively malicious, she just was adamant that it was too scary to step up into that big box.

I did put a chain on her halter over her nose so that I could hold onto her when she turned and threw her weight into the halter, and that stopped her from turning right.  I held a buggy whip, and when she would back up I would lift the whip.  If she stepped forwards I lowered it.  She is very intelligent and quickly realized that walking forwards would earn her praise, a cookie, and I would release the pressure applied by the height of the buggy whip.  I did drape the whip across her haunches a couple times - not hitting her, just increasing the pressure to encourage her to go forwards instead of backing away from me.

Once she realized forwards was the answer, she began trying to launch forwards towards the trailer, but instead of getting in she would turn into me and nearly run me over.  When she tried this the first time, I whacked the side of the trailer twice, making a loud noise with the handle of my whip to give her notice that sort of thing wasn't allowed.  The second time she tried it I clocked her on the head with the handle of my whip so she would get off me and not run me over.  It only took once, and she realized that wasn't an option either.

At that point Ferriana realized her only choice was to get in.  She wanted to do it, but was scared.  She began to paw ferociously at the ground, which indicated to me that she was almost ready to load in the trailer.  Horses paw when they want to go forwards, but can't.  That's why you see horses pawing at gates and stall doors, because they want to go through but can't.  She was pawing because she wanted to go forwards and get into the trailer but didn't think she could.  After a few minutes of this she got close enough to the trailer that she could put one hoof in, and paw at the trailer to inspect its integrity.  Not long after that she launched in.

I knew from what her owner had told me and how she was behaving that the mare was going to turn around once she was inside.  Fortunately my trailer is oversized and there is room for her to safely do that.  I was ready, and when she hopped in the people helping me closed the back doors so that it didn't appear to be an exit anymore.  They weren't latched of course in case I needed to get out quickly, but the visual of a wall goes a long way to prevent a horse from trying to plow her way out. Ferriana turned around and was facing the back, so I closed the last partition to establish a physical barrier between me and her to keep me safe.  I stood there and talked to her for a few minutes until she settled down.

In the horse trailer I had before this one, the dividers were made so that a horse could ride in the trailer backwards safely.  However, this trailer didn't allow for that because there was nowhere to tie her head to travel backwards, and she might have tried to jump the divider due to its shape.  I needed to turn the mare around so she was facing forwards for the actual trip back to Bit of Honey.

I did this by putting a lungeline on Ferriana, feeding the rope through the front window, and having Sara hold it.  I then opened the dividers again to give Ferriana enough room to turn around (always keeping a divider between me and her so I wouldn't get squished).  Once there was enough space, Sara pulled on the rope and Ferriana turned around to face the front.  As soon as the horse was in position I closed the back divider again with her facing the right way.  I nudged her forwards a little, and when she took a step I closed the second divider closest to her so she was situated in one compartment.

I exited the trailer and through through the front window I removed the lungeline.  Then I tied her with her leadrope facing forwards, and we were ready to hit the road.  She was anxious in the trailer, and did some thrashing around while sweating quite a bit on the ride home, but she made it in one piece.  I'm sure grateful for a sturdy trailer that can accommodate that kind of horse, as she is definitely neither the first nor the last to have this kind of episode.

We arrived at Bit of Honey in once piece.  Ferriana unloaded nicely, and despite being concerned she walked politely to her paddock.  Highboy hustled down to the fence line to greet her and officially welcome her to Bit of Honey.  They touched noses for a moment and then Ferriana visibly relaxed.  All the horses at my place are pretty laid back, so new horses feed off of that and settle in well.

I can see why Ferriana has been difficult, as she is very intelligent and athletic.  She also has enough of a dominant personality to try to be in charge of things, but she doesn't really want to be in charge.  If she thinks she's responsible for the herd or what's going on it stresses her out and she gets strong trying to avoid a stressful situation.  I think once she settles in here and realizes I'm a trustworthy human who will keep her safe she will chill out quite a bit.  Even Highboy coming over and welcoming her to the barn seemed to go a long way.  I'm eager to get going with her!