Connected Riding ~ Case Study
by Trisha Wren
Connecting with an Orphaned Horse
In February this year I was offered an
intriguing challenge. Dolly is a 4 year
old mare, who was orphaned at birth.
Bringing up an orphaned foal is a tricky business, and can have long
lasting repercussions, as you will see.
It’s too easy to feel such sympathy for the foal that we spoil it, and
often it doesn’t have a mother to teach it horse manners. All too often orphaned foals end up in your
face, pushy and scared of nothing.
We know little of Dolly’s first 3 months,
except that she was possibly treated more like a puppy than a foal. Her journey to her new owners at 3 months old
was fraught; we suspect for instance that her ears and nose may have been
twitched. The next 2 years went fairly
smoothly. Once weaned, Dolly was turned
out with other horses and treated as they were.
However, at 2 years old she and her new owners were visited by her
breeder. It seems Dolly was not pleased to see him, and reacted by
squealing and striking out at him; his presence must have triggered unpleasant
memories of her first few months. From
then on Dolly became unmanageable by anyone other than her owners; if anyone
else approached her or tried to pet her she would squeal and strike. At first her owners hoped she would simply
grow out of this behaviour, but by the time she was 3 it became clear that if
she was to have a productive life something had to be done.
When I first met Dolly, to be perfectly
honest, she scared the **** out of me!!
She is a big girl, with high head carriage, and she had learned very effectively
how to scare strangers away by intimidating them. I couldn’t get closer than about 10 feet
without her expressing her displeasure.
So, the first couple of sessions I had her owner lead her to the arena,
then at the end of the long lead rope pass Dolly to me. This way I could keep her at a safe distance,
but start teaching her to focus on me and tolerate my presence. It quite took her by surprise that suddenly
someone wasn’t backing off when she wanted them to!
In the next sessions I had to start getting
closer, for her to learn how to tolerate and trust me in her space and touching
her. In the beginning I did this work
standing on a large block; this way I could stay more level with her head, and
out of range of those lethal front legs.
(In these early days I was eternally grateful for the 2 years I spent
with master horseman Mark Rashid in the
Next I introduced some Connected Groundwork
body exercises, which were a great way of keeping Dolly calm, soothing her and
persuading her to release her tensions.
Soon I could do them on the ground next to her, instead of up on my
block. Once she was tolerant of me close
to her side we progressed to S walking in the arena, and 1 line work. She started to release the tensions in her head
and neck more, lifting her back and engaging her hind end. Where previously her tensions had made her
look like a horse made out of spare parts, suddenly we were seeing a softer
more Connected horse. She became less
reactive and more tolerant, and her whole shape and demeanour changed. Most
rewarding for me is that when Dolly sees me coming for her lessons she whickers
to me.
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Dolly still has a way to go. Whilst her owners can do anything with her, it
would still be dangerous at this point to take her out in public where a
stranger might unknowingly try to ‘pet the pretty horse’!! What would have been the alternative for a
horse like this? It’s possible that
sending her to a ‘breaker’ or someone who just made her knuckle down and
‘behave’ may have worked, but by using the Connected approach Dolly has been
accepting of every stage of the process before we move on. She has learned to
trust and tolerate new people, and is learning balance, softness and engagement
into the bargain; old, tight, angry habits are being replaced with happier
ones.
Dolly’s owners say, “Breeders, please find
a surrogate mare to foster your orphaned foal!
Don’t for one minute think you can be a replacement. Do we regret having an orphan? Yes.
Do we regret having Dolly?
No! She is special, and the hours
and hours spent to achieve one step forward are priceless. Trisha has simply been God sent, and we have
high hopes for Dolly with her continued input.”
Caution: please seek professional help if you have
an orphaned foal, or a horse that is dangerous to handle.
Trisha Wren
©Trisha Wren
October 06
as printed in: The Organic Equine magazine (Nov 2006)