Post by rj on Aug 9, 2008 14:48:55 GMT 1
Is it a success story or should I be on the PC board - you decide?!
OK, Nostalgia came into my life just days after Maisie died, by the absolute generosity of a fellow DG'er, who I won't name but others know who she is. You may guess from the story anyway, and I did post a while ago too about her!
So, 2hrs it took to get close enough for me to touch her last October. She was caught eventually by removing the other horses from the field first. Hadn't seen her before, and she was loaded up on the box and taken back to our field. Herbie was happy to have a woman back in his life & for 2 days he was boss...
'Tal would shake & quiver all over at the thought of being touched, everything scared her, but she was never nasty or vicious, she just wanted to get away, and would stand in a crouch shaking at the least thing.
She had started life in Argentina as a racehorse, then became a cow-pony before being brought over to England to become a polo-pony. No idea what her experience of life was in Argentina, but she has some pretty impressive scars on one leg.
The person who wanted to play polo with Tal decided he could make her braver by kicking hitting & beating her. He was seen to do this, first from on top, then he jumped off pulled her to the ground and carried on beating her. She lay there & took it.
So, she was sold a couple of times, til she landed up with her saviour about a year ago; no more polo for her - she was turned away last autumn to just be a horse again.
To begin with I had to catch Tal by advance/retreat, sending away if she turned her back and asking her to me when she faced me. I remember the first time I walked straight up to her & she stood to be caught. I then asked her to come to me & remember the first time she did so.
This morning, as his her current habit, she trotted over to me from about 50 yards, after hassling her field companions first.
We had been doing a fair amount of groundwork including liberty all through the spring, but I wouldn't ride her because :- I was too heavy (have you seen some of those polo players?) her back was suspect (Dr Dave has treated her - twice - & says she's fine) but really because I was scared. Scared of getting hurt, but also scared of spoiling our trust, the trust that has taken 9mths to earn, and which still has shaky moments.
But our time together is limited, she was never going to be mine for ever, and to help her to live a useful life, she ought to be ridden. So we procured the services of that well-known crash-test dummy aka JowithBen&Schooner. She came over last week and after some ground work, we saddled up & she got on.
Tal's very busy, reactive, wants to go, but Jo just calmly let her settle & walked her around. Then it was my turn. I knew I was fine, I knew I could do it, and we started off OK, but then Tal picked up in the fact that I was just pretending, she got anxious, I held my breath. Jo & a friend came and helped me out. One was talking to me, the other was leading Tal, calming us both, and we carried on like that for 20mins and finished when we had both relaxed.
A few days later I asked my friend to repeat the lead-rein lesson - I'm not proud, I just want to be safe. We have a vid, which I suspect is not pretty, as Tal was fidgety, twitchy and choppy. Long after OH got bored with filming, we eventually got half a circuit of long swinging loose walk, and stopped there.
That was Wednesday night.
Last night I decided it was time to take charge, and get on her on my own. No-one else was about, I did all the prep on the gound with her tacked up, led her to the mounting block, and - got on.
Sat for a while assessing our feelings, asked for walk, breathed to a halt, walked, turned, halted, walked turned halted. Just 5mins and I got off, very happy. I knew she wasn't really relaxed, but hadn't given her time. Just wanted to end on a positive note.
This morning decided to give it another go, and got on with the others watching, holding my halter rope like the snaffle reins, and the reins attached to the bit like the curb - ie long!
The others all drifted off home and we carried on walking small circles, stopping - still just one out-breath to achieve that - standing relaxing before moving off. I then made the circles bigger, used cones to go round in figure 8's . Occasionally the adrenaline would come up so we just calmed it down - I'm singing Christmas Carols already! - get ourselves together and move off again.
20 minutes later I stopped with a big grin on m'gob and jumped (I did actually jump rather than slither) off.
Lots more to work on - we only walked (oh but got a nice back up just using intention and lifting halter rope), but I think we can continue to slowly do more, baby steps, leading up to Tom's clinic next month.
If Nostalgia leaves me believing (most of the time) that the world is a safer place an no-one will hurt her, that willmake me very happy.
The help I have had from friend Sam, and Julia RA - one session, soooo valuable - has been fantastic.
Will update this in due course, if there is anything else to report!!
OK, Nostalgia came into my life just days after Maisie died, by the absolute generosity of a fellow DG'er, who I won't name but others know who she is. You may guess from the story anyway, and I did post a while ago too about her!
So, 2hrs it took to get close enough for me to touch her last October. She was caught eventually by removing the other horses from the field first. Hadn't seen her before, and she was loaded up on the box and taken back to our field. Herbie was happy to have a woman back in his life & for 2 days he was boss...
'Tal would shake & quiver all over at the thought of being touched, everything scared her, but she was never nasty or vicious, she just wanted to get away, and would stand in a crouch shaking at the least thing.
She had started life in Argentina as a racehorse, then became a cow-pony before being brought over to England to become a polo-pony. No idea what her experience of life was in Argentina, but she has some pretty impressive scars on one leg.
The person who wanted to play polo with Tal decided he could make her braver by kicking hitting & beating her. He was seen to do this, first from on top, then he jumped off pulled her to the ground and carried on beating her. She lay there & took it.
So, she was sold a couple of times, til she landed up with her saviour about a year ago; no more polo for her - she was turned away last autumn to just be a horse again.
To begin with I had to catch Tal by advance/retreat, sending away if she turned her back and asking her to me when she faced me. I remember the first time I walked straight up to her & she stood to be caught. I then asked her to come to me & remember the first time she did so.
This morning, as his her current habit, she trotted over to me from about 50 yards, after hassling her field companions first.
We had been doing a fair amount of groundwork including liberty all through the spring, but I wouldn't ride her because :- I was too heavy (have you seen some of those polo players?) her back was suspect (Dr Dave has treated her - twice - & says she's fine) but really because I was scared. Scared of getting hurt, but also scared of spoiling our trust, the trust that has taken 9mths to earn, and which still has shaky moments.
But our time together is limited, she was never going to be mine for ever, and to help her to live a useful life, she ought to be ridden. So we procured the services of that well-known crash-test dummy aka JowithBen&Schooner. She came over last week and after some ground work, we saddled up & she got on.
Tal's very busy, reactive, wants to go, but Jo just calmly let her settle & walked her around. Then it was my turn. I knew I was fine, I knew I could do it, and we started off OK, but then Tal picked up in the fact that I was just pretending, she got anxious, I held my breath. Jo & a friend came and helped me out. One was talking to me, the other was leading Tal, calming us both, and we carried on like that for 20mins and finished when we had both relaxed.
A few days later I asked my friend to repeat the lead-rein lesson - I'm not proud, I just want to be safe. We have a vid, which I suspect is not pretty, as Tal was fidgety, twitchy and choppy. Long after OH got bored with filming, we eventually got half a circuit of long swinging loose walk, and stopped there.
That was Wednesday night.
Last night I decided it was time to take charge, and get on her on my own. No-one else was about, I did all the prep on the gound with her tacked up, led her to the mounting block, and - got on.
Sat for a while assessing our feelings, asked for walk, breathed to a halt, walked, turned, halted, walked turned halted. Just 5mins and I got off, very happy. I knew she wasn't really relaxed, but hadn't given her time. Just wanted to end on a positive note.
This morning decided to give it another go, and got on with the others watching, holding my halter rope like the snaffle reins, and the reins attached to the bit like the curb - ie long!
The others all drifted off home and we carried on walking small circles, stopping - still just one out-breath to achieve that - standing relaxing before moving off. I then made the circles bigger, used cones to go round in figure 8's . Occasionally the adrenaline would come up so we just calmed it down - I'm singing Christmas Carols already! - get ourselves together and move off again.
20 minutes later I stopped with a big grin on m'gob and jumped (I did actually jump rather than slither) off.
Lots more to work on - we only walked (oh but got a nice back up just using intention and lifting halter rope), but I think we can continue to slowly do more, baby steps, leading up to Tom's clinic next month.
If Nostalgia leaves me believing (most of the time) that the world is a safer place an no-one will hurt her, that willmake me very happy.
The help I have had from friend Sam, and Julia RA - one session, soooo valuable - has been fantastic.
Will update this in due course, if there is anything else to report!!