Meet Holly

 

 

 

 

I started working with one of my barn owners horses during the Christmas break. The barn owner has 7 retired AQHA show horses that range between 18 and 27 years old. They get turned out in large pastures when the weather is good, but this time of year they spend their days in stalls with attached paddocks. Holly, one of the youngest at 18 was moved into stall with no paddock when a few new boarders moved in. With the weather changing to mostly rain in the past few weeks, she wasn’t getting turned out on a regular basis. I had handled Holly a few times over the past year; I brushed her out in the spring, gave her a bath or two over the summer and gave her another beauty session in October when winter blankets went on. I always found her easy to work with, she is a rock star in the cross ties for grooming and bathing but seemed a little weird when I would hand graze her. Holly would be happily eating grass and then out of nowhere would look up at me with wide eyes while snorting, like I was some sort of puma. She seemed to be waiting for me to do something scary, I would tell her she was ok and then she would put her head back down and eat.  The story I was told is that she is a very well-bred reining horse that didn’t hold up to the pressures of one of the top reining barns in the country. From there she went onto an amateur owner and was bred several times, creating half-Arab reining horses. She came to the barn I’m at to be a junior rider show horse, but her occasional melt downs didn’t make for a good junior or amateur horse. She then joined the string of retired show horses.
 

I started working with Holly to satisfy my own curiosity about hoof care. I was talking to her barefoot trimmer one day about the condition of the retired horses hooves. They are not handled or groomed on a regular basis; in other words, their hooves get picked out every 4 weeks when they are trimmed. I’ve been trimming my own horse’s hooves for the past 3 years. In that time, I’ve become downright anal about how well I clean out his hooves every day. If I only had time to do 1 thing with him, it would be to pick out his hooves. I asked the trimmer if Holly’s feet were better than the horses who had access to mud in their paddocks. She said they are actually worse because she stands in a dirty stall for part of the day, her hooves were packed with urine-soaked shavings and horse manure. I was only going to pull her out each day to pick out her hooves, but of course that sweet little mare ended up getting much more of my attention.

All 4 of Holly’s hooves had thrush the first time I picked them out. She had black stinky goo deep in her collateral groves. I used my hoof knives to dig it out and packed her feet with Artimud. I also brushed the knots out of her long, thick mane and gave her a good brushing. She would lean into the brush when I hit an extra itchy spot and she stood perfectly still as I fussed over her. I decided to press my luck, so I clipped a lunge line onto her halter and brought her down to the round pen to walk over poles. Holly went through the poles the first two times without question, then something woke up the fire breathing dragon within her. She started to snort with her tail lifted, her jog turned into a trot and then escalated into a lope transition that almost made her fall over. As she spun out of control on the circle, I stayed calm and talked to her. I slowly reeled her in making the circle smaller and smaller around me. When she came to a stop, she let out a big snort and looked at me to see what I would do. I told her she was ok and then changed direction keeping her on the small circle. My non-reaction to her outburst was well-received and she settled down a little for the rest of the session. Instead of being turned off by her behavior, I was even more curious; what had happened in this sweet little mare’s past that she seems to be always waiting for the other shoe to drop? What are her triggers, what sets her off? How do you take a horse prone to blowing up as I’ve been told she does and override that reaction? Was this reaction because she hadn't been out in a while or did I do something to set her off?  Clearly I am not going to be satisfied with only brushing her and picking out her feet.

I let the barn owner know that I had worked with Holly and let her know the condition of her hooves. I have the barn owner’s permission to brush her horses but I wanted to check to see if it I could also start working Holly on the ground on a regular basis. She gave me the greenlight and told me that if Holly gets pushed past a place where she is comfortable the horse would let me know by snorting and pawing the ground with her right front leg. I’ve seen the behavior a few times since and I find it fascinating that this horse will do everything in her power to tell you she is about to lose it well before she does. Her meltdowns are similar to panic attacks, they are few and far between but seem to have a trigger point before she starts to spin. Every time before it happens, Holly gives me fair warning. I’m able to stay calm and react accordingly. I give up any agenda I might have with her in that moment, which might just be picking out her feet and I remove her from whatever she is perceiving as a scary situation.

I’ve been getting Holly out of her stall every day for the past 3 weeks. Her thrush cleared up in the first week, it was amazing how quickly her feet were able to clear up with daily cleanings. Holly has a beautiful lope that makes me say “WOW!” every single time I lunge her. She keeps her shoulders up but will drop her head and neck on the circle like a super fancy reining horse. She is also super sensitive to my body position and will stop dead if I get out in front of her on the circle. Holly requests that I be fully present when I handle her. She is always looking to me for feedback on how she’s doing and wants to know that we are both safe from the scary things in the shadows of her brain.

I’ve always found working with other horses improves the work I do with my own horse. In the past few weeks, I’m more aware of Joe’s tendency to fall on his forehand and have spent a few sessions on groundwork to help him with his posture.I’m also finding the difference between “quiet, steady Joe” and “bored, tuned out, low energy Joe”. In the past two days I added in some fun groundwork exercises to wake him back up. I was thrilled to see his curiosity and interest show back up in yesterday’s session. He was incredibly engaged the entire time both on and off the line. Joe and Holly are very different in their personalities, backgrounds and conformation and its in those differences that I learn so much. I’m looking forward to seeing how I can help Holly with the health of her body and mind, I’m even more excited to see what it is she has to teach me. 

Holly now has a bridle path and braids!