02/09/2025
I’m super proud of this little mare, which is a different little Arabian that I’ve been doing some training with. She trailers in for school, and with the garbage weather in January, we’ve really probably only gotten to work on average once a week since the beginning of November. When I first met her, she had just come from a different trainer who had not treated her terribly well. And when her owners bought her almost a year ago, she came from a neglectful situation. Our first session, she was very up, very scattered, very outward thinking, and not really able to pay attention to me. Though we did manage to calm down quite a bit and get some work done, it has definitely been a process. She didn’t want to walk over poles, tarps were terrifying, she sort of knew how to lunge, but the biggest thing was addressing her feet. I’m a little mad because I don’t have a before picture. But on our first meeting, she wouldn’t even let me touch her back past about midway. Forget getting down to her feet. Even the front feet were a little challenging to start with. We’ve done lots of bodywork and groundwork, helping her get more comfortable in her own skin, and learning that she can, in fact, trust people. I had gotten to the point where I could pick up all 4 feet, the right hind was always a challenge. At her last trainer, she got tangled up in a fence and had some pretty significant injuries to some of her limbs. This has likely caused a lot of discomfort throughout her body. We’ve been getting better and better, front feet no problem at all anymore. Her left hind has gotten quite good, and today she let me actually pick it up and hold it for her to give her a chance to relax it. The right hind was still pretty tricky though. We’ve been working up to a Farrier visit, And today was the day. The recent snow, ice, and mud has virtually every horse body sore in some way. So, we started out with some bodywork, and then I started asking her for her feet. Her low back was pretty uncomfortable, so I really only got a chance to work with her left hind. trust me, we used some sedatives for her to get this done today. The best I was thinking was that we might get her front feet done today. They do not match at all. One of them grows long, one of them grows up in a club. The universe sometimes puts me in my place, and She was an absolute rockstar. A drunk rockstar, but still a rockstar. Front feet no trouble. Left behind no trouble. Right hind almost no trouble. Partway through she got a little worried and unbalanced, and it took the Farrier and I minute to get her settled again. But he got all 4 feet trimmed up really nicely, as shown in the photos. I don’t know how I got so lucky to be able to do this for a living, but horses really are magial.
