Meet the Horses in our Rehab Program...
We are not a horse rescue, but somehow by just being in the horse business we are regularly given the opportunity to help our equine friends. Sometimes it is with health issues, sometimes it is behavioral problems, and sometimes it's a lack of training that needs to be corrected to help a horse or pony have a productive, happy, and healthy life. Sometimes these horses can be brought into our riding program once they have completed their rehab and sometimes we help them find a forever home.
Zippy
Zippy is a 6 year old Quarter horse mare who contracted Equine Protozoal Myeloencephelitis (EPM). This is a disease that is picked up by coming in contact with opossum feces or something that has touched it. Once the protozoa enter the horse's body they can remain dormant for a period up to 2 years, and when they become active the protozoa attack the central nervous system of the horse. The early symptoms are; stumbling when moving, crossing the legs when standing at rest, and general incoordination. The traditional medical treatment for this disease is expensive and not always effective. We opted to first try a homeopathic remedy and homeopathic nosode (vaccine) combination treatment (check out http://holisticvetclinic.net). We started treatment in May 2008, it took about 6 weeks of treatment to run the full course, but by the third week we already saw improvement in Zippy. Her coordination was coming back slowly, so we started exercising her lightly to help build her muscle and rebuild the nerve connections in her nervous system. It has been a slow road back to full health, as she had what seemed like a setback in the summer. She had three abscesses blow out of her front hooves over a period of about 8 weeks, one after another, after another. At first we were concerned and upset , but then we realized that she was probably flushing the toxins from her disease out of her body. Her hooves have healed up and she is perfectly sound and happy at this moment. Because she had so much time off from riding, and was so young when this all happened, she is now back in training. Zippy has helped with therapy riding classes on and off, and should soon be back helping with the therapy riding classes regularly.
June 2009 Update: Zippy has been working with our able bodied lesson students and the only issue she is dealing with is just being a bratty 5 year old! She loves to go on trail rides with Ms. Amy every week and is turning out to be a great horse!
January 2011:
Zippy is Ms. Amy's favorite ride these days, she is so great on the trails and even goes out with no other horses. Zippy has regular chiropractic treatments and massages. There is no sign that Zippy once dealt with the crippling effects of EPM!!!
2008 -Zippy's special hoof booties to help her abscesses drain and her hooves be more comfortable.
Kashi
Kashi is a beautiful 7 year old blue roan mare. She is a Quarter Horse, Percheron cross who is big and strong and muscular. She stands at only 15.3 hands but has a wide and stocky build. Kashi's history is a bit of a mystery. She came from a Hunter / Jumper barn where she was refusing to jump and was bought by a dressage rider who didn't need her to jump. Seemed like a good match, but as soon as she arrived here she started showing signs of spookiness and had fears about everything. Ropes, gates, and people mounting and /or dismounting always caused her to be nervous. We worked on positive reinforcement to get her past her fears, and this worked for a while, but then her mounting and dismounting fears got worse again despite our dedication to making it a pleasant and positive experience. Kashi is in full blown rehab at this point. We removed her from any riding, and we are retraining her from the ground up. Right now she is undergoing desensitization training, where she is taught to relax her head downward on command (horses are naturally relaxed with their heads down, because out in the wild a horse would be eating in this position), she is asked to trust her trainer to throw the lead rope over her head and on her legs and belly, she is asked to walk through squeky gates over and over until it's no big deal, and has even gotten to the point that a noisy plastic grocery bag can be rubbed all over her body while she stands there relaxed.
Our next steps involve retraining mounting and dismounting. As you might imagine, this is one of the most dangerous points in your ride on a horse. You are off balance, don't have your feet in the stirrups, and are generally in less control than at any other point when riding. Most riding injuries happen during this process. So this is the place where you most definatly want to know your horse is going to be calm, cool and collected. Let's hope for Kashi's sake that it won't be long before she is calm, cool and collected!
The sad part of a horses life and their reliance on people, is that they are so big and expensive to keep that if they don't have the capacity to do a job, their life is at risk. A horse with behavioral problems will often be passed from owner to owner until they end up at auction. Anyone can buy a horse at auction, even the dog food companies! We hope to give Kashi a second chance, keep checking back to hear about how she is progressing, and please, if you can, donate to help support our work.
June 2009 Update: Kashi is doing wonderfully. She was given 2 months off from any riding activities, and during that time we worked on desensitizing her to all types of situations and scary items. We also started a regular ground work program with her to build trust. She has now been ridden in the round pen, on trails, and at the local show grounds. Her fears associated with mounting and dismounting have disapeared and she is learning to stand while calm and relaxed with a rider on her back for extended periods. She has also learned a few behaviors, she loves to give kisses, and she can present her hoof when you lift your foot to ask, she learned to kick the soccer ball and the cutest ever - she will shake her head yes when you ask her a question!
June 2010 Update: Well Kashi really hates riding, but she is so smart. She now knows how to answer questions with a shake of her head, she knows how to bow and most impressive of all, she knows how to paint! She is Kashi the painting horse!!!
January 2011: Kashi has come such a long way. Ms. Amy can ride her bareback with her bitless bridle www.bitlessbridle.com and there are no signs of her past mounting and dismounting issues. She still hates saddles and even the bareback pad that cinches around her she protests, but each individual little thing can be worked through over time. Trust is the big factor, and even though Kashi will always have a spooky tendency with trust she will work through her issues.
It's very interesting that Kashi is a favorite participant during Equine Assisted Psychotherapy groups. She really seems drawn to helping people with their issues=)
Kashi likes to give kisses too. Look at that big soft nose, don't you just want to plant one on her:)