09/09/2024
Dougal: A Story of a Difficult Horse 🐴❤
A long but meaningful read....
I get to meet lots of special horses. Some of these horses have stories that need to be recorded and told because they hold important messages that need to be shared.
I have asked Dougal's owner Charlotte, to tell the story, because Charlotte is pretty special herself. She is one of the most dedicated and devoted owners I have ever come across. Dougal's story is so special because of her sheer determination and effort to help this once troubled horse.
Before I hand this post over to Charlotte I will explain that when I met her Dougal was difficult, spooky and borderline dangerous. However, Charlotte followed my program and she turned him around but there was a glitch in his progress. Charlotte then switched her attention to finding what was interfering with Dougal's ability to fully relax on the trails and use himself. After multiple vet visits arthritis was found. With this treated Dougal became the relaxed fun trail horse she hoped.
So this story is about being open to trying a different approach, identifying evidence there can be an insidious soundness issue interfering with progress....and a bittersweet reality of the management of soundness issues.
I hope you enjoy this tremendous story of perseverance and the turn around of a troubled horse ❤
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By Charlotte McIntyre
My introduction to Dougal was somewhat unorthodox.
Recovering from surgery and therefore forced into idleness for the first time in my life, I found myself responding to a random Facebook post.
“Wanted: quiet confidence builder for timid rider. Will swap for 2 year old gelding.”
I had just such a confidence builder; my stoic brumby who I had acquired as an ugly duckling 2 year old, and was now 16 and a perfect gentleman.
What was I thinking? My nearest and dearest enquired. I couldn’t really answer, I just wanted a challenge.
When I first met Dougal he was doing bog laps of the yard he was in at full gallop, screaming like a banshee.
The seller explained - “He hasn’t been away from his herd mates before.”
No kidding! Despite him ignoring me completely I managed to pick up his feet, check him all over and manhandle him back to the paddock, where he took off without a backward glance. Yes, can’t see any red flags here, I’ll take him.
My stoic old gelding moved home without batting an eyelid. His new owner (who I am now good friends with) worshipped him from day one and made very few demands apart from a gentle ride to the farm next door and back again. He thought he had landed in heaven.
Once we knew that part of the swap was good, Dougal arrived. I had high hopes of an immediate and loving bond between us. So, when I entered the paddock that evening and he came at me with pinned ears, standing on two legs and demanding I relinquish the bucket I was carrying, I was a little taken aback.
Over the next few months he slowly gave up trying to intimidate me. The time came when I wanted to start some serious groundwork and build on those new found vibes. For that we would have to go to the equestrian centre. No way was he going on the float and in one afternoon he reverted to the aggressive feral horse who had first arrived!
After many tears (mine) and escalation of objectionable behaviour (both) I resorted to calling in help. A friend of mine and horse trainer got us started, but it would be many journeys and gnawed horse float panels (him) before he was entirely comfortable with travelling.
When he turned three and a half it was time to put a saddle on. My friend was the crash test dummy and after a relatively short round penning session he was sitting on a calm looking Dougal. No explosions, no drama.
But then things got complicated.
From the very first day he responded well to a squeeze of the legs by moving forward – until he didn’t. He would simply stop sometimes and no amount of escalation could get him to move. My friend was exasperated. The hardest horse he had ever backed, he said, sweating away trying to kick Dougal into a trot. I was frequently stuck as we very publically ground to a halt and well meaning passers - by would shout out ideas as to how to get him moving again.
Each of the gait transitions took months to accomplish, trot to canter being the most hit and miss. I tried hard to make my cues as soft and predictable as possible; kiss first, then squeeze, then kick. The frequency of the refusals became fewer and fewer.
I began to take Dougal out on little forays into the bush and quickly realised this was a place he was not keen on. Any time he went near rustling trees, blind corners or dense vegetation he would tense up and start looking for things to spook at. He found plenty: sticks, birds, leaves, anything, nothing. For a horse that didn’t like to move, he sure had the 180 degree spin down pat. While unnerving, I was grateful that he didn’t follow through with a buck or bolt. He was much better in company than alone, but this was not always possible.
I persevered with the notion of ‘practice makes perfect’, convinced that if I just spent every spare moment doing something with him he would improve. But it didn’t. The spooking, even on the ground, did not go away. He would spin and mow me down and sometimes he felt unrideable. Such a contrast to my old horse, with whom I could plod round the hills, or on the beach, even in just a headcollar.
In desperation I subscribed to an online horse training video program. I went to clinics in nice safe arenas and I kept telling myself that he would get better in time, I just had to keep exposing him to new things.
Two years ago I attended a clinic with Shelley. I was in one of my lowest and most sceptical moods. “This isn’t going to change my horse!” I thought, “We are hardly even working them!” But then I began to understand Shelley's very methodical approach and realised all the minute steps that I had overlooked in my haste to just get out into the bush. Dougal had been expressing his anxiety to me and rather than give clear directions to provide him with a sense of safety, I had either been just as scared as him but for different reasons, or just plain angry. No wonder he chose to block me out and find his own way to cope with his fear.
So, I set about unpicking all the damage done, which was surprisingly straightforward.
Shelley's online courses appealed to my process driven brain, and I could see that Dougal appreciated the clarity – and the lack of emotion. As he began to believe in me, I began to believe in him. Covering less distance, but with more relaxation we edged further out into the bush. But there was still something ‘not quite right’ about the way he moved which Shelley identified in that first clinic. Dougal’s gait was stiff, especially in the hind. While he now did transition upwards, it could be that this was preventing him from really wanting to move.
The first vet did a perfunctory lameness test and diagnosed arthritis. Dougal was put onto supplements and showed an improvement in his gait. His behaviour slowly stabilised.
But It wasn’t all plain sailing. We had a couple of setbacks: the first when I was leading him along a narrow lane and a truck came the opposite way. It didn’t slow down on approach and Dougal was overwhelmed. He tried to escape by rapid reversing, hit the end of the lead rope and fell over backwards. The truck just sailed past. His fear of large vehicles was magnified after that, so what did I do? Took him down the same road a few weeks later hoping to ‘desensitise’ him, only to have the same thing happen again. Unbelievable!! It took many weeks of careful exposure to trucks, getting closer but not so close as to cause him to panic before he could even cope with the idea of trucks.
With lots of work today he doesn’t mind them now at a safe distance, but we would be in trouble if caught in a tight squeeze on that narrow lane.
The second setback was that his stiffness returned, despite the supplements. He was, as the second vet described “not lame, but not sound.’
Shelley had convinced me of the link between soundness and the horse’s ability to cope with its environment by then. It wasn’t going to just be a case of riding him through this. After months of veterinary investigation and a small fortune in vet bills, bodywork and extra gear the conclusion was that he does have an arthritic hock, which has responded well to steroid injection. He also has a small bone spur. Neither of these will get better, but can be managed for the next few years by regular injections and careful riding.
So, last weekend Dougal relocated to his new home, a small family run riding school here in my home town. I know the owners, they care for their horses brilliantly and they are completely aware of Dougal’s physical limitations. He has already been for a few trial lessons and behaved angelically. All that is required of him is three one hour lessons a week on flat firm ground and strictly no jumping. It is a safe and predictable environment where he will always have company and he is already a firm favourite for the dozens of teenagers who ride there.
When the arthritis no longer responds to treatment, I will take him back, which the vet believes will be in about 4 year’s time.
I have made this difficult decision because it is a good outcome for Dougal. But also for me. If I kept him here he would still probably only have two or three more years trail riding before he had to retire, which would leave me having to start a new horse as I turn sixty. I need this time now to put the gift of knowledge and skills that Dougal has given me into a young horse that I will be able to enjoy into my later years.
So, I farewelled dear Dougal with regrets, but having learned much more from this little horse than I could ever have imagined ❤
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Thank you for reading this story. Charlotte and I hope you too can learn from this very special horse.
