Nancy - ulcers

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Meet the gorgeous Nancy. Nancy is a beautiful 5 yr old mare who has not had the best of starts in life. She was bred in Belgium, then imported to the UK at, I think the age of about 3, then backed very quickly (through to canter in just 3 weeks) and not very sympathetically. She soon learned the feel of uncomfortable tack and an uncomfortable rider.

My client, Jo, has owned her for a while and tried various instructors, etc. but Nancy has not been receptive. She had, in effect, 2 modes of working - switch off or flight. The one thing Nancy wasn't too keen on was actually working with you. She was very reactive as well. Jo sent me some video of her having a lesson. Nancy is fighting the bit for her head, sort of submits, the is spooked by a tractor starting up and freaks, bucking Jo off in no uncertain terms. Having hit the deck a couple of times, Jo called me in to find out what was going on.

I should say up front here that the origins of Nancy's problems aren't with Jo but were already there when she bought her. So no blame there.

Nancy is quite a complex problem lady. She's young, she doesn't have much good ridden experience to fall back on, she associates riding with discomfort. There were some very noticeable traits when I first saw her. She was very tense in her face as soon as she went into the school. There are no good associations here. She has also learned a nice little set of evasions, or from her point of view ways of dealing with a situation she doesn't really understand and certainly doesn't like. Very obvious too was her headcarriage, especially in trot - very hollow backed and head way up high. The latter, I think, probably started with an uncomfortable bit but is now her default. That's still work in progress.

Clearly, the first step was to make sure everything is comfortable. Jo has had since her back and tack checked, and addressed where necessary.

The next step was to show Nancy that this wasn't so bad, that the school wasn't somewhere that should automatically cause anxiety, that she could do what we were asking of her, etc. In other words, soft, nice, confidence building. We tightened up Jo's body language when longlining and looked at some other ground exercises. As well as "nice", Nancy needs structure, so on that first session I left Jo with instructions towards clarity and consistency.

Jo has been great and let me know how Nancy had been improving. She was, though, hitting a bit of a block. Nancy was still switching off. She was still trying to opt out of work. Could I come and have a look at what was going on? That's where I was this morning.

It was immediately obvious that Nancy was much more relaxed. Her face looked happier and she had almost no reaction to being tacked up. Leading to the school was good but once in the school, she starting some very small things to take a bit of control. The first thing she did was have an itch with her teeth on her off side. Jo said she always does that, and she lets her. Now, to my mind, if she's itchy, she would have itched before then, so this must therefore be something else. By taking her head away from Jo and having an itch, and Jo letting her, she was effectively saying "no, not working yet...". It took one quick "come on" and she stopped. So, no more itching first thing in the school.

Jo then did some in hand work. It's much better than it was, but still some resistance moving off and backing up with Jo on the off side. Again, by moving her head from side to side, she was controlling Jo's ability to back her up. Once Jo saw that, she could keep the head straight and Nancy softened. We then had this on both sides:



The longlining is going much better but the energy needed upping a bit. Nancy had learned to ignore requests for greater impulsion, preferring instead to waft around with the occasional snatch at a weed poking through the area rails. So, with me backing Jo up, Jo asked Nancy to speed up, she ignored her, and she got a flap of a plastic bag as a result. THAT speeded her up! This was all it took for Nancy to know that actually yes, we do mean it, please, and from there on her walk and trot was generally very forwards.

She does still have a very high headcarriage immediately she goes into trot.




We discussed this afterwards and Jo will work on trotting on a circle more to see if we can reprogramme those muscles. My feeling is that this is remembered from the days of uncomfortable tack and that it will take some time to encourage her to stretch down.

After a lovely bit of work on transitions, we went for a walk round the tracks on the lines. I have to say Nancy was fab. She was a bit more alert but kept with us and even relaxed. Jo was a bit concerned about this as we did end up on the track at the edge of a lovely, big, wide open, grassy field - you wouldn't want to loose here there! It was a good opportunity to talk about how to set yourself up to make life easy. If you're on the opposite side of the horse to the field, pushing her towards that field, you're setting yourself up for failure. Simply by moving to the other side, giving Nancy the structure of hedge on one side, human on the other, she immediately relaxed.

Jo has a lot of homework. She needs to stop herself foreseeing the worst and planning how to make it the best instead. She needs to react to small details more quickly. And she needs to make sure she's not allowing Nancy to slip into her evasions.

It's so sad that a beautiful horse like this has been given such a rough start in life. Had she been taught and handled well from the start, she'd be a dream. And she will be later, but what a shame that she and Jo have to go through all this to get there.

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Jo called this weekend to say that Nancy is, in some respects, doing very well. She's listening a lot more and in general feels happier in her work. However, Jo's been listening too, and is starting to feel that Nancy still has something physical going on somewhere. She's going to hunt down the best chiropractor she can find and get Nancy checked again.

I can't stress enough how important it is to not just believe that your horse is right because someone checked her and said she was fine. If the horse says she's not, she's not. It is, of course, difficult to know if a horse is doing something through actual pain, remembered pain, habit or what. It's also difficult for us as RAs to judge how a horse is reacting sometimes as we see her for a brief spell when she may or may not be behaving according to her norms, and we don't see first hand how she develops over the following days.

It's great, then, to work with an owner like Jo who is constantly watching, constantly asking herself questions and who is trying different things to see if it helps, etc.

So, just a bit of a pause for Nancy while that back is checked again.

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I'm pleased to report Nancy is feeling much better now. Jo called physio Mish Brooker to give her a look over and Mish found one very sore and tight horsey! It's back to a lesson I learned the hard way, that even when you think you've had your horse checked by a professional, if the horse says she's still sore, she's still sore. Repeating myself, I know, but it's just so important.

I went over today to give Jo a had with a couple of bits and pieces. Although Nancy's not being ridden at the moment - that back needs a little time and TLC - she will be longlined to help her get fit and also to encourage her to stretch her muscles. So she needs to be tacked up. Jo felt Nancy was still tense, even with one of the softest rollers imaginable, and I could see straight away that there is a lot of anticipation there now. So, I showed Jo how to work through it, listening to the slightest reaction for Nancy, and after a while Nancy was able to stand still and relaxed while the roller went on her back and was tightened.

It's always interesting to work through a process like this, watching the goalposts move as you move step by step through each action you take in tacking up. Nancy's main worry point as when you reached under her for the girth, clearly anticipating what would happen next, and that took a good few minutes for her to accept. The main thing for me is not to press on to the next movement until she's happy with the last one. It takes time, but it's time so well spent.

Because the tacking up process had become a worry, we decided against longlining. Instead, we took Nancy into the school (actually half school half swimming pool!) and just did some in hand work.

One of the things Jo had mentioned before was that she wanted to despook Nancy thoroughly before she gets back in the saddle, so out came the plastic bags and .... nothing. Even on a windy day, just nothing. We hid them in a bush and she walked straight past. I flapped them... zilch. Methinks when this horse is feeling right she ain't that spooky!

With Nancy giving us little to work with, we tried to set her up to get a little excited. Jo thought a combination of trotting and poles would do the trick. Erm... no... Nancy has a stunning trot, and she extended beautifully. Now, I don't want to be too rude about my lovely owner, but Jo doesn't have quite the same float in her trot and her extension, well, it does leave a little to be desired.

This meant that Nancy kept getting ahead of Jo and you could see that this would easily result in Nancy being able to take control. She also was starting to look a little less comfortable with less clarity in the leadership. I showed Jo how to just give Nancy a brief but clear reminder early on, and reminded her Jo to correct Nancy as soon as she got ahead by even one foot, and we soon had a beautiful collected trot instead, with Nancy quietly slowing the pace as required.

It can be painstaking, this sort of work. It really does require close attention to detail. Luckily, Jo is enjoying doing it and it is paying off. Nancy felt so much more connected with us today. Instead of shutting off, she was constantly engaging. Ok, so she didn't get it right first time but that's partly because of habit and partly because we didn't get it right first time either.

She is a complex horse with complex problems. However, today we really saw some glimpses of the stunning mare that is about to emerge.

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Nancy is going through a rough patch. Following on from that lovely work she did just a week or so ago, things have rather gone downhill. Jo has struggled to ask her to work on the lines, especially in the far corner of the school, and she's not the only one. The last couple of times I've been with her have not been good. The first time I got her settled, last night I didn't.

She works well in hand but on the longlines she is just throwing the kitchen sink at us. My feeling from these last 2 sessions is that a large part of the problem is that we are being forced to work at dusk. It's not that she can't it's that she won't.

Continued pain hasn't been ruled out. Believe me, this is a conversation nantesse and I have regularly. Is this pain or is this "just" learned behaviour? Nancy certainly was sore. She has also certainly known discomfort-pain (and variations on that scale). It is more than likely that Nancy's current behaviour started with pain. However, my personal feeling from having worked with her a few times is that when she's happy to do something, she's lovely. When she doesn't want to, she has learned some very effective ways of saying no.

Nancy's behaviour last night has a pattern to it. She could longline down one end of the school quite nicely in walk and trot, but the other end created complete temper tantrums. She would walk down there in hand but she knows that all she has to do is throw a hissy fit and she gets out of it. Nantesse has noticed that, whichever school she has been in, there will always be one corner that Nancy doesn't like.

So, if it's pain, it's an odd pain that lets her work well in one place but not in another. The possiblity of pain will not be ruled out, of course, but it's not my main thought at the moment.

So, back to the reasons for considering sending Nancy away. Nantesse works during the day. The earliest we can do sessions is 4pm, when it is getting dark. It is an outdoor school and Nancy sees gremlins in her spooky corner more than usually. It is, to my mind, actually unfair to ask Nancy to work in these conditions. The work of despooking her to various parts of the school needs to happen, of course, but not now. The first thing we want to be able to do is work with Nancy in hand or on the lines safely, with her understanding that this is all ok, with her listening and working with us. At the moment, that's not happening because she becomes so fixated by that far end of the school.

To achieve this goal, we need consistency and clarity. Nantesse is great but Nancy is a difficult and complex horse who, in my opinion, would progress faster with someone with more experience of this type of horse. That's NOT knocking nantesse, just being realistic about things.

Before anyone thinks clicker, there may be scope for that at some point but not at the moment. I don't want to get into a discussion here as to why not, but just trust me on this, it's a tool I will use if I think it's appropriate but here it just isn't for the time being. Nancy needs a lot of "yes" but she does also need "no". It is fine to say that you're not keen on something or that something is difficult, and we will always listen and help her the best we can, but to go straight into flinging yourself around the place is not necessary and counter productive.

So, the plan is to have her checked by our physio again next week, and then start exploring our options.

A suivre...

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I sometimes start to wonder if my clients like me... you'll find out why later...

Firstly, though, physio Mish Brooker came out at the beginning of the week and was very happy with Nancy. The soreness she's previously found was all but gone, just one or two small residual spots that she worked through, but nothing that should cause the type of behaviour Nancy has been displaying. So one more box ticked.

We were then left with looking at some other sort of pain (ulcers being the prime candidates) or learned behaviour due to previous experience. Jo spoke to her vet again who said his personal feeling with the latter, so without ruling anything else out entirely, we are back to "working her through it".

The plan, therefore, was to try using pacifiers (blinkers), to focus her forwards and also possibly help calm her. Jo walked her out in hand during the week with them on (no discernable reaction), and I today longlined her.

I started in hand, first down the good end of the school, then into spooky corner. There was absolutely no doubt at all that her demeanour changed as soon as we headed in that direction. Her attention became focussed outside the school and she was less responsive. I had already decided to work her in walk (normally not a problem) in the whole school, but work in trot only away from spooky corner.

Given how explosive she has been, I started on the lines very gently, erring on the side of too little direction than too much. She was absolutely fine. Distracted in spooky corner, on attempt not to go into that corner, and a little tail swishing but fairly minor for her. So not perfect and relaxed, but no bucking bronco.

Testing her reactions to one thing at a time, I then trotted her down the long side away from spooky corner. No problem at all.



So far so good. Bearing in mind that our opinion before the start of this session was that she usually kicks off in trot when she gets away from the sides of the school, we then went to short sections of trot against the sides of the school at the good end. As expected, absolutely fine, apart from when you get to the centre of the school she tries to look at spooky corner.

After 2 or 3 of these with no reaction, I then went for continuing the trot on the circle away from the edge of the school. Immediately, she speeded up and started to try and take control. We then had a hissy fit. This was good, in that I had my hypothesis and she was confirming it for me. I did a little more work in walk, really letting her feel that I was on the end of the lines as we walked that section of the circle away from the edges of the school and then asked her to trot again. Oh my, we didn't like that one little bit!!! You may want to watch this with the sound down as the wind is noisy, but the most touching bit is at the end. I can hear Jo laughing... I love you too, Jo .



What had previously happened was that Nancy would spin, get the lines all caught around her legs or - her best trick - under her tail, so you'd have to stop and get it sorted out. Forewarned, I made sure that didn't happen. In fact the opposite, she just got pushed on. We had one more little test on the other rein (normally her worse one), just to make sure, when I controlled her fairly easily, and from then on we had a rather nice soft horse who found that she could trot a circle quite easily and, my word, could even relax her head while doing so.



That was where we finished. That was all we were asking for and once she'd agreed to do it then she could stop. Simple. I hope...

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Just a quick update. After the session on 6th, I went to see Nancy again. She was very unhappy and showing more significant signs of pain. We decided not to do anything more than walk her out in hand. She was, in any case, booked into the vet for scoping this week, so we decided to wait for the outcome before doing anything else.

Since first meeting Nancy, Jo and I have been talking about ulcers. Even though Jo's vet thought she was not really a candidate for ulcers, it has been in the backs of our minds for weeks. Given, though, the improvement following Mish's visit, we hoped that it was just back pain that was causing her reactions. Nancy was scoped this morning and does have significant stomach ulcers. Possibly as a result, her back pain has also returned. Nancy is therefore off work during treatment and we will see where we stand in 4 weeks or so.

I think this case highlights the difficulty of dealing with a horse who is not showing typical signs of something specific, or who has complex issues that give rise to different and inconsistent symptoms. You can plough in and test for/treat everything all at once, or you can be systematic in your assessment. Over the last 6 weeks, we have eliminated the obvious first, thought we saw improvement, but then progressed onto the next step. We are not yet out of the woods, but are hopefully on the way.

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So, you have this gorgeous horse, ok?, and you've spent months and months (and £s and £s) trying to understand what's causing her behaviour. You've had trainers, vets, trainers, physios, trainers... Then finally, yay!, you have a clear cut diagnosis of ulcers, you can treat them, yipee! Your horse should be feeling better. Instead, your horse grumps even more. How on earth do you feel? Frustrated doesn't quite do it, does it?

Frustration, though, can be your worst enemy and that was what it was here. We'd spent the last week emailing about what could be causing Nancy's ever worsening mood in her stable but when I got there today I didn't see a really upset horse. But then I heard Jo's explanation of how she was getting more and more upset, to the point of being angry with Nancy, and it made sense. I should make it very clear here that I completely understand Jo. It's all very well and good to say "keep calm" from a distance, but when you're living this emotional roller coaster, it's a different picture.

What was happening, then, was that Nancy was picking up on Jo's frustrations, was getting to expect a fight, and was just getting in there first. Working with an ordinary headcollar on, I simply did very gently pressure and release, asking Nancy just to keep her head with me nicely, then to lower it ever so gently, and then to even allow me to rock it. She softened, relaxed and gave her head to me.

I then worked on the recent problem that had started with having her headcollar on (possibly since the vet visit?). We had some resistance to start off with but it was minimal and, on the whole, Nancy kept quite relaxed.

She had a little munch of hay, then Jo took over. This is one of the nicest photos I've taken for a long time. Not going to win any prizes for lighting or composition, but just, well, nice...



2 more weeks of gastroguard... then...

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Yay!!!!!!!!!!!! An almost clear scope!!!

After the disappointing second scope when Nancy had only minimal improvement (after a month of being almost 24/7 in), this scope was the next best thing to clear. There were 3 pinprick sized grade 1 ulcers, plus an area of reddening, but the vet felt this was not inconsistent with her having been starved for 24 hours for the scope. And what has made the difference, apart from the Gastroguard? 24/7 turnout... Says it all, doesn't it? As always, no criticism of her owner, but this just does show the difference that full confinement vs no confinement can make.

The other good news is that Nancy's buddy, Bronte, was also clear.

And... both loaded really well, not only today coming back from the vets when they were still affected by the sedation, but also yesterday, straight from the field.

I think they have a much happier Mummy, too!

Nancy now has another week off on 1/2 dose Gastroguard. Jo then has to start working on gradually prizing these two apart. We've worked out a plan, let's hope it works!

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It's been a while since I last did anything with Nancy, other than take her to the vet!

She is looking SO much happier. It's early days still, but I think I dare say she's looking... normal! No grumps, nothing. Time, then, to start things moving.

We will, of course, take our time. Nancy's got memories of work that we'll need to bear in mind, and she is also in a new environment since last worked. Today, then, was just checking on groundwork and knocking a few spooks on the head. This sort of thing, really...



The key to Nancy's spooks is all in her head, so to speak. She is one of those horses, and there are more than a few on my list at the moment!, who uses her head to evade your requests. Take control of the head and you have control of the rest of the horse. That's the theory, anyway, and with Nancy it very much worked today.

Backtracking for a moment, what was happening was that - along the hedge between the field and the road, with horse eating cars zipping only half visibly the other side - Nancy was seeing all sorts of demons. Jo's strategy so far was to take her to the hedge to let her look, so she could see there was nothing to spook at. It sounds good but the problem when we do that is that the horse can interpret this is you saying "hey look at those cars, now you decide what to do about them". Nancy's decision was to spook.

A better strategy is to take leadership in our hands, say "ok, so there's a car. I'm not bothered, so let's get back to work".

So back to Nancy's head. She was very effective at putting her head in a position that reduced the control Jo had. Either sideways or downwards worked

She would back up, apparently willingly, but with her head in such a position as to make it clear she was not really with you.



By doing the L shape with the aid of some bits of wood to mark out the shape, and by paying attention to step by step good positioning, and by making sure Nancy knew that Jo was in charge of every detail, including head movements, we then got this.



That still photo doesn't show just how light and generous Nancy was.

The homework for the next few days is to continue with spot on leading, especially in the schooling area, to get Nancy back into the mindset of work. Then, time to pick up the longlines...

Watch this space...

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Fingers crossed, everyone. Nancy's starting slowly to come back into work.

She's apprehensive, understandably. I tacked her up with just a roller and she clearly expected it to hurt, skin twitching, tail swishing. However, she settled very quickly with a little pressure & release, which is a good sign that she is feeling well and is going to learn this is all ok now.

We did maybe 5 or 6 minutes on the lines, just in walk, just so she could feel it and feel... nothing. She was tense but behaved herself extremely well. Apart from trying to swerve away from the hedge along side the road, she did nothing other than what I asked. After 5 minutes, she started to relax and we ended it there. That's all we want, girlie, thank you.

Jo's homework is to carry on desensitising to the tack so that our next session on the lines starts from a point of less tension. And then...

fingers crossed...

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Slowly, slowly... we might be getting there...

It's really interesting times with Nancy at the moment. Since the move from a busy livery yard to just her and Bronte in a field with shelters, Nancy has been exploring her way rather. That, together with her feeling better, has made her a little difficult to deal with at times for Jo. We've had issues such as her trying to keep Jo away from Bronte, a bit of kicking out, and similar things that we really don't need, thank you!

Jo has been a bit hampered by trying to avoid any stress (because of the ulcers for both of them) and by the same weather we've all had to grind through. Time for things to change, though, Miss Nancypoos.

Jo is starting to do some loose work with Nancy. Neither join up nor loose schooling, just moving her around, taking control of her speed and direction and, most importantly, asking her to listen. It's hard work as Nancy usually has to show you that she's not happy at being moved about first, but once she settles she's starting to communicate nicely. And that's what it's all about, communicating. Nancy has to learn that it's not a good idea to challenge Jo, not a good idea at all.

So, not join up, but the effect was the same



A soft, happy Nancy (and a happy Jo!)

I took over and did a little longlining again. There is still a load of anticipation there and she was a little reluctant to get going but that lasted maybe only a minute. There was still quite a bit of tail swishing, too, so we are keeping an eye on it.

Again, just 5 minutes or so, nice and easy, and she did start to relax and listen. Then, we trotted. Just one circuit, then stop and praise, then another circuit, then stop, praise and stop. We had not feet flying, no spinning and turning, nothing. I hope she'll go away and realise that this now feels different, no longer painful, and that we can now go from strength to strength.

Here's hoping...

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I'm not normally someone who likes to count chickens before at least one or two have hatched, so I've been feeling a bit tentative and fingers crossed with Nancy, but after today I think we can safely say we have what appears to be a normal horse.

We'd been getting a flinch reaction from her with the roller. We'd thought maybe it was tickling her as it's a sheepskin lined one, with fluffy edges, so Jo had tried her with a thin pad underneath and found that she was ok standing still but her skin flinched when she moved. That supported the tickle theory, so today we put the roller on over her fly sheet. She was fine. We worked her on the lines (yes, we did!!!) and then took the fly sheet off. One quick flinch and a little bite at it, then she settled and took no more notice of it. So, probably then an association that I'm hopeful we're on the way to breaking.

Because today, Nancy was just FANTASTIC. Jo did most of the work and I'm sure she won't mind me saying that this highlighted some of the areas she needs to work on. It's just so easy to remember the bad times, to worry about what ifs, and to work with the horse of the past. I've taken loads of video of how good she was today so part of Jo's homework is to keep looking at it and see that this is the horse she has now, a willing and generous girl, who barely put a foot wrong.

Understandably, we'd both been quite gentle with our requests of Nancy, wanting to err on the side of caution, but today it was clear that she's much happier for clearer direction. Left too much to herself, she's on the lookout for traffic and goblins. Once we started to up the energy levels and be a bit more precise in our guidance, she relaxed and was brilliant.

And yes, we trotted. Not just a bit, but a few laps on each rein. She was responsive, willing, happy. No bucking, no spinning, just, well... normal! My goodness did she get some praise today.




It's still early days and we're in no rush, but I think I can now say we are back on track. We've now got some weeks of building up confidence and fitness ahead of us. And then a rider. It no longer seems such a distant dream.

One chilled and happy girlie (and Bronte's beautiful bum).

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Well, the rollercoaster that is Mrs Fancy Nancy Pants continues.

We'd started bringing Nancy back into work slowly, keeping her stress levels down, making sure that she understood what was being asked of her, nothing that she might get worried about, etc. As you can see from my last couple of posts, all was going really well and both Jo and I were pleased.

Then they started going less well. Nancy was becoming less happy to cooperate. She was slow, a little resistant and just not switched on. Was she bored? Was she just not stimulated enough? Or was it the dreaded ulcers coming back? She started pulling a few faces and then this week threw in a couple of rears and bucks. It looked ominous.

Jo talked to her vet and pencilled in a date to take her back for scoping, but in the meantime we decided to just keep things ticking over gently. We had planned on doing some despooking this morning but decided against anyhing that could be stressful. Instead, I took over some poles and a tarp to give us something more structured to do.

She was FANTASTIC!!! We started in hand, walking over the tarp (interested, but no more), then did the L shape in hand (now she started concentrating), then I put her on the lines and did the L shape both forwards and backwards on the lines. That was a great exercise for her, she really had to listen to instruction from the lines, and once she'd understood what was wanted she was great. We then did some circles round a couple of tubs, over the tarp on the lines, and then into trot. Just lovely, smooth trot. Ok, our steering left a little to be desired but that was not the objective of the day. After the first time of questionning if she should trot at all, she then responded to almost every request first time.

Structure, precision, stimulation... it was all coming together. It wasn't the plan to up it too much but when we changed rein and she didn't spot the tub till the last minute, then jumped it and settled again, I thought what the hell, let's jump.

With just one end of a pole balanced on a tub maybe 18 inches high, we did some diddly widdly jumping, both reins, both Jo and I longlining. I'm afraid we didn't quite get any clear rounds, but we went over, we had fun, we trotted, we cantered, WE DIDN'T BUCK!

Afterwards, Jo and I went through all the signs she'd given us before when she had ulcers - the skin twitching, the nipping, the biting at the girth, the tension in the tail - none were there. She just looked relaxed and happy.

And would you believe neither of us had cameras with us!