"My horse is a rescue"
or
"My horse has been abused"
I almost cringe when I hear this depending on the context. I love to hear someone saying that their horse was a rescue and that they are out in the world riding them and having a successful relationship. In that context a rescue is no different than any other horse.
What I don't like to see is how people automatically want to label their horses because maybe they are skittish, unhandled or more sensitive than the average horse.
And yes, kudos to all of the horse rescues who are out there taking in unwanted horses, or outbidding the meat buyers at auction. You are amazing, selfless and dedicated people.
What I want to differentiate here is that horses are by instinct sensitive, high strung and flighty creatures.
Many times horses come from circumstances where they have been virtually unhandled and they are absolutely terrified of humans.
I have worked with many of these types of horses. They were not rescues. They were well fed and cared for. However, they were not handled at all and wanted nothing to do with people.
They hadn't been exposed to anything so every single experience was scary.
All they needed was time, handling, patience and more time.
I don't like to give any animal a "label". Even if they are a rescue, they deserve to come to me as a clean slate. Their life is starting anew. I don't want to label them for they become whatever that label is. Same goes for people.
I am a strong believer in that. Even when horses have a name that labels their temperament as something, I immediately change it so they can become who they are without any preconceived notions.
I have a little horse named Story who I have written about in the past. She could be labelled as a rescue. My friends outbid the meat buyer at auction. She had major trust issues for sure but I knew that she wasn't abused. I actually chose to call her a project. And I didn't mean a horse I was taking in to flip. I meant it more as knowing she was a horse that was going to need a lot of time to get through to. Today, she is a confident, kind 4 year old who is going very well under saddle. She and I are strongly bonded and I love her to pieces.
My gelding Sonny was a very difficult horse who could have mistakenly been labelled as "abused". If someone bought him at auction not knowing his history, I guarantee you they would have said he was beaten which is entirely untrue.
He had extreme issues with being touched around his head and poll. When tied in certain places, he would throw himself over backwards or just kick at the barn wall for no reason. Because I know his entire history, I can tell you that he was never abused, hit or beaten in any way.
The truth? He had a horrible case of strangles as a yearling. It came out all over his face, on his forehead and below his eyes were rivers of disgusting discharge. He was a very sick baby and lost a tremendous amount of weight as a result of his illness. Even pumping the food into him didn't help for a very long time. His full recovery took a few years.
He had a lot of behavioural issues over the years and I took him on as a long term project. He was supposed to be sold, but I couldn't in good conscience sell a horse like him because in my opinion he would either hurt someone or end up being canned. It took me a few years to get him sorted out and he still has days where he is all silly about his head being touched. I have approached him with an attitude of not trying to fix specific problems, instead ignoring them and just working with him in general.
I ended up purchasing him a few years ago and he has become such an amazing and beautiful horse, his problems disappearing much to my delight. For the most part he now lowers his head for the bridle instead of losing his mind on me. It just changed one day. I can't really say why specifically. He is the horse that I can take anywhere and he is calm and wonderful. He is happiest if I am within sight, but still behaves himself regardless. He is cold backed but I found something called a "Back on Track" therapeutic pad that goes under his saddle pad and since using it, he is no longer bracy or humped up when I get on him.
So all I am saying folks is everyone deserves a chance without being painted with a particular brush. If you look at and work with each and every horse (and person) as an individual and keep an open mind, listening to what they have to say, you will be amazed with what you discover.
Just my two cents...
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