Gabriel is a little draft cross we rescued a few years ago- he had been purchased at an online auction in Louisiana and transported to California to be used as a therapeutic riding horse. He failed out of that program by just standing and refusing to walk during the riding sessions!
He had a bit of a myriad career- he was trained by one of our supporters as a driving horse, and while he worked OK in a pair, he has a shoulder injury that is exacerbated when the shafts push against him as a single driving horse. It was obvious he was not happy in that discipline, so we adopted him out as a pleasure horse. His owner tried to train him as a gymkhana horse, but his previous injuries prevented him from staying sound in that career. He finally found his way back to Hanaeleh.
Moving at Gabriel’s pace.
Gabriel had been bounced around to so many people that he was a bit shut down once he finally returned to us, and instead of being aggressive when not wanting to do something, he had learned that he could just refuse to do something. Didn’t want to go where the human wanted him to go? Just stop moving. Didn’t want to exercise? Just stop moving. Didn’t want to be ridden? Just stop moving. If the people started to get more aggressive, that seemed his cue to pull back and bolt in the opposite direction. He seemed primed and ready for a fight, so we decided to play instead.
When he would stop and refuse to move forward on the lead line, we worked with him doing some basic horse agility in the arena, giving him food rewards as well as verbal praise. Horses of all ages/abilities can participate in horse agility, and we have found that our horses really enjoy working through the courses! He seemed confused at first, but he is quite food oriented, so he started to look forward to his lessons quite eagerly, even getting excited when he saw the dressage whip (we tap his side lightly with the whip to ask him to go forward, back, or to the side), because he knew that meant food and fun time! He will still nosedive if there is something yummy on the ground, but he’s a horse, after all.
When he would stop and refuse to move forward during a free longeing session, we wouldn’t make him run- we would walk with him until he got bored, then he would start to trot, and then canter and then run around on his own. We always make sure to tell him he is very fast and commend him on how pretty he is when he runs- he seems to appreciate that.
Gabriel has similar issues when being ridden- he seemed stressed at first and would tense up, waiting for a fight, but instead of trying to collect him up and push him to do something that may trigger his shoulder injury, we let him move out on a loose rein, and don’t ask for more than a walk. He seemed confused, but once he realized that we just weren’t going to fight him, he stopped trying to fight.
When you can’t change the direction of the wind, adjust your sails.
We noticed that Gabriel’s overall attitude started to improve. For example, he had a visceral response to being wormed when he came back to Hanaeleh- he would freak out and pull back, once even breaking a lead rope when we just walked up to him with the wormer. Part of this may have been fear, but another part we realized was that he had decided that this was yet another fight he was going to have. So, instead of fighting, we worked on introducing the wormer slowly and without stress. Now, we can just walk up and give him his wormer quite easily. A few weeks ago we were able to give it to him without even putting his halter on!
There are still several issues that Gabriel is working on- as noted, he will still nosedive for grass or hay while being walked. He still is a bit lazy in the arena when being exercised, and the exercise still has to be his idea. He is also very fearful of clippers, so that is our next hurdle to overcome. He used to run in fear from them- we are able to at least have the clippers on and next to him while we give him some treats, but he is not OK yet with the clippers touching him in any way. Still, there is progress and he does enjoy the treat part of the equation.
Gabriel reminds us of the old adage: Don’t fight a horse, because even when you win, you lose. Fighting never improves a relationship, and one fight inevitably leads to another. Playing, however, allows the relationship to develop in a way that encourages the horse to listen to the human, and for the human to listen to the horse.
Gabriel has not had a sponsor in several months. Would you like to change that? You can sponsor him for as little as $10 per month. Sign up here!
