Chico Rico

15/10/2022

I will be at Equifest in two weeks presenting 'Nourishing the Nervous System'. Chico played a huge part in the journey of learning about developing resilience in horses through attention to the nervous system.

I have written a blog post about the presentation, which builds on multiple other blog posts about the nervous system that I have written through the Kahu Creek site.
https://kahucreek.wordpress.com/2022/10/15/equifest-presentation-taupo-2022/

If you are interested in learning more about this topic there is also an online course of this material on the Kahu Creek Learning website.
https://kahucreeklearning.com/

As the Equifest Taupo event is approaching in only two weeks time, and my thoughts have turned to thinking about what information and demonstrations to present during my 45 minute sessions on Frida…

01/10/2021

I wish that I had known more about this as I suspect that it was the cause of Chico's hind leg problems. I read a lot now to educate myself because so much is not known by the general population of Vets. Chico was seen numerous times by my vet and his hind tendons were not a focus of his lameness. The left front was given more attention and had x-rays etc. No big clues from those could be found. Cellulitis in the hind legs should have been a big clue really. By that time it had been too long anyway and treatment options were probably slim 😥
Horse records should be available from all prior medical providers. Digging in the dark for what has happened is very costly and not fair on the horse.
https://thehorse.com/185052/equine-digital-flexor-tendon-sheath-injuries/

Digital flexor tendon sheath pathology can be difficult to diagnose and treat successfully. Here’s a look at Dr. Florent David's approach, which he presented at the 2019 NEAEP Symposium.

19/05/2021

Thinking of Chico over that rainbow.

19/05/2021

17/04/2021

It's been 2 months already since Chico was put to sleep at 13 years old. His story, is that of many horses where life wasn't completely fair. Produced to be a champion, but ended up where he is now.
Two things that really damage a horse are excessive jumping and being ridden with a contracted neck. He was given both. In his early days of life, he didn't have boundaries, which as he grew to 17.2hh made him somewhat dangerous to handle. I have heard stories of people who saw him at some events causing havoc in places where he wasn't supposed to be. Boundaries are important for giving a horse security and reducing their anxiety. Chico didn't bond that well to humans, even though he loved attention. He didn't give all of his trust to humans, he needed horses for that. Without other horses around he was worried, and that could make him reactive and even dangerous to handle. Once he tried to rush through a gate to not be left behind and ended up standing over the metal gate between his front and back legs. Suffice to say that caused a vet visit. Proper training in his early days would have helped him immensely.
Then his production into a sport horse came at a huge cost. Started and finished his career by 9 years old, he was jumped to the highest level. The heavy weight of him on those warmblood hooves would have been excessive. He had a "hard mouth" as people term it when the proper training is skipped in order to get a horse into production as soon as possible. From what I can tell, he was ridden in a contracted position with a bit severe enough to hurt his mouth in order to control him.
When I started training with him, I went back to basics. I got him in a halter and did leading training, hours and hours and hours of it. Every time I was with him I trained him to lead. He pulled, he tried to run me over (quite scary), and he was "hot" or more accurately the term would be stressed, just leading around a paddock! This was his level of disassociation from humans.
Eventually after about 6 months, he could lead quietly. Then we worked on riding, without a bit. It was a process of teaching him the most basic aids. Stop being the one that he didn't know at all.
He had a phobia about things near his mouth, definitely having a bit in his mouth caused him all manner of avoidance behaviours, but even putting a hand around his mouth made him anxious (applying sunscreen made him grind his teeth).
The more comfortable he became with humans, the gentler he became. It was hard to completely remove his herd dependence (only on one horse that he attached to) and as his body deteriorated more he was worse at the end. But over the years he did reduce his anxiety about being away from other horses, and there was no special training to do that - he was just more comfortable with the state of his life.
The signs of his body damage were visible from the beginning of our time together - I had just not been through the learning that I needed to do to recognise it. His neck would not bend very far to each side - I assume now that arthritis had set in. He had a left front forward stance almost constantly, and he was short stepping with the hind legs (I deduce now he had damaged tendons that had somewhat healed enough to disguise the injury). He also was disjointed at canter and rushed at any gait more than a walk. I found later that he had facet joint arthritis in the area just behind the saddle. His spine had altered into an S bend to try to compensate for all the damage. He had a hypertrophied muscle on the right shoulder as he used that leg to bear most of the weight.
Sadly, there was so much damage that it couldn't be repaired. If I had been informed there would have been more chance to help him, but then that would have reduced the money that the seller would get for him. His well being was the trade off in that transaction. I paid good money for a horse that needed extensive rehabilitation, but at least he came to me, someone who cared about his well being and put that first.
The thing I loved about him is that despite all that, his spirit was never broken. He endured and he was strong willed up to his last day. RIP Chico, the bravest of hearts.

05/04/2021

These are some pictures I took of Chico and his horse friends around Christmas time 2020. Cairo, the grey, was his absolute best buddy. Chico followed Cairo everywhere. He was a brave horse with things that would usually scare horses (no reaction to plastic bags, umbrellas, large machinery, windy days, objects that turned up in places he hadn't seen), but being away from Cairo was drastically scary for him. At times he was better about it (allowing Cairo to get out of sight while grazing) but it came back intensely in his last months. This is something that really told me how much he was suffering. He needed a horse with him, by his side literally, for a security blanket.
I was thinking to write more about Chico as a way to educate others. I will think some more on this. Humans participated to a large degree in his deterioration, and I found myself not able to pick up the pieces. He had a pretty good life with us for 4 years and we cherished him. I took his needs into account in finding a way to work with him, unpeeling some of the layers in his behaviour that had developed out of self-protection.
We need to learn the lessons from this. There is a better way for horses that helps them rather than uses them up like piece of machinery, discarding and moving on to the next generation model.
There are also many things I overlooked about him physically, despite getting a full vet report when I purchased him. I didn't know back then the extent of what damage he had, and optimism blinded me. His medical story deserves to be told as well for the benefit of others, and for calling out the people who profit from on-selling damaged horses and hiding known factors and medical details from buyers.
Those posts will follow, but for now, I am enjoying seeing the gorgeous Chico in the memories that I have. Living with his friends in the moment, ever cheeky and playful.

28/03/2021

On Friday we sold our farm and the place where Chico's body is now resting above the arena. In my last minutes inside our house after it was all cleared out and cleaned, a fantail flew in the open front door, flitted for a short while at the living room window that faces out to the arena side of the house and then left through the back door.
In Maori legend, a fantail in the house brings a messsge of death or is a spirit of the dead. Could this have been Chico saying goodbye? Perhaps it was.
I've never had a fantail in the house before. It seems to have a meaningful connection to the legend.

11/02/2021

The wind rustled and I knew it had taken you.
It nestled it’s wings under your hooves and climbed,
Light as air, into the wayward sky.
It took you over the trees and beyond the hills,
With speed, fluttering your mane,
And sweeping tears from my eyes.

You galloped in the sky,
Freely, like you did when young,
Before your joints were ragged and strained,
You frolicked, gaily and relieved,
That your suffering had been undone,
But it was pain that settled on me.

The rainbow of night has you now,
Under the colours of light galore,
And you sn**ch at them like carrots,
Gobbling happily, while I weep
For your life that was only half done.

There are no bridles there where you reside,
No pens, no shackles of any kind.
You are free my four legged friend,
To roam the wild blue yonder,
Kicking your heels and swishing your tail
As far as you go, you’re with me all the time.

07/09/2020

I did one of these hoof studys in June. It was the basis for finding out exactly the imbalance in his stride. He has been getting frequent trims to keep his toe short. These slow motion up close videos of the hoof are really helpful. It is hard to see exactly what is going on in motion. The feedback from this will be used to do his trim. It seems to be more telling that just looking at a stationary hoof.

23/08/2020

So here we are. Starting a little training again. Chico hasn't been doing any work for 9 months. He has been extremely sore and with no diagnosis. The last vet visit did some xrays on the left fore (as a result of a flexion test). No answer there. He's had another bout of cellulitis as well. His hoof balance was a bit off on the left fore, so have fixed that and trimming regularly to keep toes from getting long (but leaving good clearance on the wall and some heels to keep the frog from taking too much impact). It was either this change or something else we've been doing that has improved his condition. What else we've done is to modifiy his nutrition for more immunity, and the use of Sure Foot pads. He's not yet sound at trot, and just last night has run into something on the left shoulder getting a bit bruised and a scrape there. I think he's out of woods enough to put a little work in to help him recover further. The lunging was just to assess him. We will be doing some inhand work at walk to build up his weak areas.

20/06/2020

Ground level videos from back, front and side of Chico in walk and trot.

17/05/2020

Chico! He's not really "trained" to pick up things...just one of his hobbies...

19/11/2019

Chico Rico is having to stay home from Equitana unfortunately :(

He needs some herbal help for a few aches and hopefully he will be back to health again soon.

29/10/2019

Chico will be showing up for his first gig as a vaulting horse at the Equitana event! He will be demonstrating a beginner vaulting session on Friday 22nd November at 1.30pm in Hall 1. He will have to lose his rugged mud splattered look for the show!

04/05/2019

Playing with Chico today at liberty, and having a go at lunging without a rope. He seems to know what to do. This is something we haven't practiced too much, so keeping the attempts short. Nice to see that he keeps his forward down position and stepping under with his inside hind on the circle.

11/04/2019

Chico training last year for a performance. He is very trainable, a quick learner.
https://youtu.be/WajNK833cAc

11/03/2019

This video was taken a few days ago. Chico has not been ridden very much over the past few months. He is just getting back into training now, so my contact here is very light, and he is able to carry himself quite well without having to push into the bit. As training increases, I would add more contact so the reins are not floppy, but still keeping him carrying himself in balance. This is hard work to get a horse to do this - I have worked on it diligently. He is not a finished product for dressage or taking out to a show yet after his retraining to work in a snaffle bit with soft aids, but we have achieved some good foundations, and that is in the close horizon (if he does not sell in the next months, I have plans to take him out to a low level competition).