William - Education in progress ...........

[Zoe RA]

I first met four year old William back in April when his owner, who had recently rescued him in poor condition, realised that she was out of her depth due to his extreme behaviour.

He was very defensive and mistrusting, and would rear at things so tiny that it appeared to Nerissa as an almost random reaction to nothing, although he also reared when asked to do something he didn't want to do, like come in from the field, or walk in a direction he didn't want to go. He was also extremely handy with his back legs.

Nerissa suffers from a physical condition that means that all her joints are not held together properly by the ligaments etc, so it was vital that we worked with William to help him stay calm.

After seeing them together, it became apparent that Nerissa and William were fast spiraling down hill, and understandably, Nerissa was becoming scared of William.

Most horses are not born leaders - they rely on somebody - either equine or human - to keep them safe. If the person they are with is not showing reliable leadership not only do they say "blow you, I can do this my way", they also say "look mate, I can't cope with looking after you as well as me, so I don't want you near me, you're a liability!!".

William was definitely wearing the trousers in the relationship, so to this end, I worked with them both to turn the balance around in Nerissa's favour by teaching her how to move William's feet around, and to hold her ground when he threw one of his little wobblies. As long as she was leading him on a long line, if he reared, he could do it at the other end of the line, so she could keep safe, then just carry on doing whatever it was that they were doing together.

That day we backed through L shapes, and walked him over tarpaulins, and over cavaletties over tarpaulins. As he was picking his feet up over the cavaletties I noticed that he wasn't picking up his off hind properly, so suggested he have his back checked.

The upshot of this was that he had various minor back problems, but the main thing that was found was that he had a luxating patella.

Seven months down the line, and their relationship has gone from strength to strength. He has put on weight and his coat gleams ;D

Unfortunately, do to the physical problems on both sides, they haven't been able to do as much as Nerissa had hoped, but they are now a lovely trusting team.

Today I went to teach them both to long line. Because of all the ground work and desensitization Nerissa has done with William, he figured out really quickly that the line all over him was fine, so off we went

We started him off with Nerissa leading him to give him confidence (interesting trying to steer a horse whilst taking a photo!):



Then Nerissa moved away a bit so that he could learn to be confident walking on his own:



Nerissa then unclipped all together, and I spent a happy time teaching William how to walk in strait lines, work on a circle, stop, back up etc which he learned really well. We did have a very interesting bronc moment when something in the hedge startled him (very windy day!), but once he stopped that we carried on as if nothing had happened and he was a model pupil. In fact, I found they both were once I handed the lines over to Nerissa ;D




Look, I can stop too!



And stand still!



AND I can smile for the camera ;D

[Zoe RA]

It was rain sheet weather today

And William, decided that long lining with a rain sheet flapping around his bottom AND being asked to trot in it was NOT a good move

He started off quite well in spite of the wind wrapping his tail round the lines



Then said "NO"!!!!!!











And then he settled again




Now, remind me again of who is supposed to be gaining the most musculation out of this, because by the time we had finished, it was me who was in the muck sweat ;D

[Zoe RA]

On a misty, moisty morning .................... we did umbrellas, tarpaulins, walking over poles, walking over poles with tarpaulins, long lining over poles and tarpaulins, and getting used to bicycles ;D

Tarpaulin? Can I eat it?



Poles? Can I eat them?



Umbrellas? Can I eat them?





(Yep, it needs mending! Been eaten too many times )


Oh, ok, I need to actually DO something about them do I?



Yeah, and you finally remembered to put my boots on - AFTER I'd already gone over it once Please save a poor defenseless pony from blond trainers



"I'm siiiiiiinging in the raiiiiin, I'm siiiiinging in the raiiiiin........"







In deference to William's stifle I didn't ask him to walk over the raised pole on the long lines as he had leaped over it in hand a few times and he needs to build more musculation befor he is allowed to do that too many times.

Hmmmm, not so sure about being long lined over them ..........



Ok, but only if I can run!! (Just as well the pole is only flat on the ground ;D )



Eek, not sure if I meant to do that



When it came to the bicycle, William wanted to play with it, and threw his toys out of the pram when I suggested that Kelly, who was riding the bicycle, did not want half a tone of pony landing on his head (especially as he had forgotten to put his hat on Have suggested it would be a good move to remember next time!!).

Grrrrr ......



All right then, if I have to, I will walk nicely behind, in front, and to the side of it

[Zoe RA]

We have now done some more work with the bicycle - with Kelly remembering his riding hat this time!



Where did't go??



Some more pole work:

Ooooo, I think I like jumping!!



And some long lining down the lane to meet some cars. This was Baptism by fire for William, as the neighbours were having a party and the road was full of over excited children and mum's in their 4x4s taking up the whole lane! He was a star though



Spot the running leg. Not resting, just ready to leg it should the need arise!

[Zoe RA]

It isn't often I cheer loudly when the roads are closed for maintenance, but on this occasion, the timing is perfect. The road at the end of the lane that Will lives on is closed for 8 weeks for about a mile whilst they trim back hedges, lay some pipes, and resurface, so, whilst there are not many cars going up and down (it's the usual "access only" thing) we decided to put all our spook busting and long lining practice to the test

With Nerissa clipped on to the Dually at his head, and me behind him with the lines, he walked past bollards, and diggers, and great big lorries. He walked over big white SLOW signs painted on the road (sheesh, they needed serious looking at!), he walked round manhole covers and investigated recycling bins. He even stood right next to a couple of workmen and their generator that was making such a noise that we couldn't even explain that he is a baby and this was his first outing

He spent most of the way out with his nose on the ground investigating the different textures and colours of the road/white lines etc, and most of the way back peering over all the hedges and investigating the road signs on poles ;D

He was a total star, and both Nerissa and I are very, very proud of him ;D ;D


Sorry, no photos this time - it wouldn't have been safe for either Nerissa or me to take our eye off Wills!

[Zoe RA]

As soon as we got William in from the field today we knew he was going to be a pickle ;D Neither Nerissa or I said anything to each other untill it had happened, but we both felt it lol!

So, we tack him up in his stable (fiddling a bit as he has a new breast girth which needed fitting and had stiff buckles), took him out side, and immediately he was "IwanttogoNOOOOWWWWW "! So, after calming him down enough to actually get the long lines on him we set off.

Off he marched down the lane with his ears pricked and a spring in his step. We got to the road (closed off if you remember, so perfectly safe), and he was as cocky as a cocky thing as he sprung along thinking "I know what this is all about"

But then, he saw the bay pony eating curb stone and BANG

We had rearing and bucking and attempting to spin and more rearing and more bucking and and and ........................... a very contrite pony once he realised that, actually, throwing his teenage hooligan paddy was not going to change anything. We were still going to walk down the lane, the curb stone was not interested in eating bay ponies, and Nerissa and I had not reacted at all!

Off we went again, but this time he was listening to us and, even though he was more forward going than last week, all his hooliganism (if there isn't such word there should be ) from earlier on had dissipated.

We had a really lovely walk down the road to meet the diggers and lorries again. Interestingly, as we got nearer, he dropped his head with his nose almost on the road just as he had done on the way out last week. I think it is a submission gesture on his part similar to that which is exhibited as one of the final stages of Join-Up - a "I trust you to keep me safe here" gesture.

This time, after we had got fairly close, we turned him round and asked him to stand with his back to them so he could get used to hearing load noises behind him that he couldn't see very well. He was willing to back up quite close to them and was absolutely trusting us - even licking and chewing - which was lovely to see.

When I asked him on again, he walked off calmly and happily, and that is how we arrived back at the field.

More proud moments for Team William

[Zoe RA]

Oh William, sweet William - what a worry you have become to your poor Mum

In the last few weeks William's behaviour has been getting dramatically worse again. From being relaxed and happy on the long lines and in life in general, he has started biting people again, and become so worried/angry with the long lines that last week when we worked with him it took ten minutes to calm him down enough to get the lines on him.

Now this is a horse who looked decidedly sad not so long ago when Nerissa and I decided the weather was too bad to do any work with him, and followed us all round the field with a "hello, I'm here, when can we play?" look all over his furry face! So, something has to be wrong.

We carried on with our session last week, to see if we could pin point what was wrong. He appeared sound enough, so it wasn't his old stifle problem flaring again, and he was working softly enough in walk. Once he was warmed up I asked him to trot and all was fine for the first couple of circuits, but then ..........





After persisting gently enough so that he didn't learn that rearing brings anything he doesn't like doing to an end (baring in mind that we still actually had nothing obviously physical to go on at this point), we ended the session on a good note, untacked him, turned him back out, then got down to the serious business of discussing what is going on.

Nerissa and I both agreed that the very first port of call must be the vet, but we also discussed the fact that, as a result of Nerissa not being physically able to keep up any work I do with him, he may just never get enough work to build his musculation and ever go forward.

So, today the vet came to look at him. William did his dance to be rollered and long lined, but then proceeded to walk around nicely for me. Once again though, after a couple of circuits in trot he started dancing around, bucking, and rearing. Nothing like as spectacular as last week, but enough to give the vet an idea. He did this on both reins, but is worse on the right rein.

The vet asked me to completely drop the contact and just let him trot round in a strait line, or whatever direction he wanted to, and sure enough, William was a lot happier, but got cross again when I took up the lines again to a more realistic, safe contact.

It is SO useful to have a fresh set of eyes on things. I had always been so focused on keeping the lines away from his waving legs that I had never correlated his behaviour with increased contact!

The upshot is that the vet agreed that it is always really hard to decide if an issue is behavioural or physical, but has found a very sore spot just to the left of his poll. Although he also said that he thought William's behaviour is 20% pain related and 80% behavioural, he did agree that what one horse reacts to another won't even notice, and that sore poll does tie in with his biting (always when anyone is on his near side), and his worsening behaviour when he knows he is going to have to flex.

Depending on the outcome of the scans, Nerissa is throwing around a number of realistic options concerning their future together.

Whatever Nerissa decides, when she paid his owners meat money and took him away from the horrific conditions he had been kept in, she did a wonderful thing for him

[Zoe RA]

William is on the move!


The insurance company are only willing to pay for 50% of any scans/X-rays etc that William needs, which makes scans etc prohibativly expensive for Nerissa. So, he is going to go off to live on the farm belonging to a friend of Nerissa, in a herd of youngsters, whilst he undergoes a course of physio.

If the physio does the trick and sorts out his poll problem he will be brought on by Nerissa's friend, and if his condition is not going to respond to physio, then he will stay out with his new chums for as long as he is happy and comfortable.

Nerissa, you have done a grand job with William under very difficult circumstances, and I think you are making the right decision for both you and him

[Deleted]

Could I just pop in to say what a brave but right sounding decision this is. I'm never sure which is harder sometimes, keeping going or accepting that a situation maybe just isn't right. I envy neither!

[Zoe RA]

Thank you Liz. I have only just found your comment now that I have come to do an update for William