Blind Ambition - May/June 2008

A LITTLE BRIBERY GETS YOU EVERYWHERE, WELL INSIDE A HORSE TRAILER AT LEAST...

Lesson-
Teaching Apollonia to load and unload on the trailer

We scheduled Apollonias surgery for May 30th at Myhre Equine Clinic in Rochester N.H. In anticipation of this we have been working with her on loading and loading onto the horse trailer. Our trailer is a 4-horse slant load. For people who are not familiar with this it means a horse trailer that fits 4 average sized horses. The horses are stalled in a slant position to allow for more room. Sort of kitty corner in a row.

Anyway the trailer has a step up not a ramp load. This means she would have to step up to load onto the trailer and step down to get off. Apollonia did ok but it was a little scary for her. Jim decided to make things easier and safer and built a nice ramp for her to get on and off.

With any horse training exercise you want to keep the experience a positive one. Horses have a good memory. For some reason it seems this really applies to getting on and off a horse trailer. A bad experience stays with them for a long time. Teaching to load and unload onto a trailer should be a positive one so we started the training with food. A little bribery gets you everywhere. Horses love to eat so a little green grass and grain make a possible scary experience into an enjoyable one. I placed some grass on the floor of the trailer just inside. It coaxed her over to the trailer and to feel it for the first time. We do not force, pull, yank hit, whip or use any other means that can quickly turn a pretty easy task into a nonproductive explosive one.

One must have patience and a positive attitude to keep the situation a calm, non hurried one. When she was comfortable with that we placed it in a little further and she would follow the treat in. She did it on her own time and when she was comfortable. Once she walked on all the way we fed her evening grain in the trailer. She began to relate the loading on to the trailer with her meal. Soon she was walking off and on like she had been doing it for years. There were times however that she did not want to go on or off. I found that using a butt rope worked real well with her. I just took a lounge line and looped it over her butt so it hung around the lower half of her buttocks I held the 2 ends up by her withers. Jim was at her head with the lead rope. When she refused to move forward I would apply forward pressure with the line to encourage her to move in a forward direction. As soon as she felt the pressure she would step forward. I immediately release the pressure to reward her for moving forward. It worked very well in loading on or off. We worked on this a couple of days a week for two weeks.

May 29 TIME TO GO

We decided to bring her the night before her surgery for a few reasons. If we brought her in the morning she would not be able to eat anything on the way. Bringing her the night before would allow her to munch hay on the way. It would also allow her to have some down time before surgery. It was worth the extra cost just so she did not have too much to deal with all at once.

We felt comfortable with her loading and unloading. We were nervous about the actual moving of the trailer with her in it. She was going to ride in the stallion stall. I mentioned earlier that there are 4 stalls in the trailer. One of them is a stallion stall. It has a solid wall on all sides. It would provide more comfort for her. She could lean or brace herself safely. She would feel more secure this way. I filled her hay bag and placed straw on the floor for bedding. I prefer to use straw due to the fact that shavings or sawdust tends to blow around when traveling. We had not actually shut her in the stall before now. It takes a little maneuvering to get her in the right spot and close the wall. She was understandably tense. She banged around some but I ran around to the outside and talked to her from the window. Once she heard my voice she calmed right down. Jim closed up the trailer and we were ready to go.
We drove about 5 miles and stopped to check on her. She was a little sweaty but eating from her hay bag. Whew, this told me she was ok.

It was about 1 3/4 hr ride. When we arrived she was a little nervous which is normal for any horse. Once again, she did much better then we expected.
When she felt the unfamiliar ground of gravel and cement under her feet she stepped high like she was walking in deep snow. She would walk a few steps and then want to put her nose to the ground to check it out. It took sometime to get her to her stall but we eventually got there. All of the other horses were calling to her so she had to answer back. There was a lot of neighing going on.
Once settled into her stall all the techs came to visit her. Most if not all knew her from when she was born there. They were all happy to see her. Dr Myhre was there and examined her hernia. He was very pleased with the way she looked. We talked about all of our adventures with her so far. Dr. Myhre explained the surgical procedure with us. It would take about an hour.

HORSE PERSON OF THE YEAR

Dr. Myhre was voted horse person of the year by the New Hampshire Horse Council. Read about it on his website: www.myhreequine.com
Dr. Myhre has different events at the equine complex and he invited Apollonia to attend one he has planned for the future.
He also offered to put our web site on his links page to help educate people on blind horses.
It was really Dr. Myhre who saved her life. When it was discovered that she was born blind and the topic of euthanasia came up, it was Dr, Myhre who said "why, blind horses lead very happy and productive lives, think about it". And her previous owner did. I can't begin to tell you how glad we are that she did because Apollonia has affected our lives in so many wonderful ways. She is completely happy, I can say that she is truly happy, I see it in her smile.

May 30, 2008
I called the hospital to see how Apollonia's night went. It went well. Surgery was scheduled for 8 am. At about 11 o’clock Amy called and said all went fine. She had recovered very well. She was standing and eating. Leave it to her to take all of this in stride. She is such a trooper. In 9 short months she was born blind and with a hernia. She had to adjust to her new world in darkness; her mom rejected her at 3 months of age, she was weaned early. Adjust again. Take all her training thus far like a champ, be stuck inside a lot of the time this winter due to the record snow and ice, learn to load on and off on a trailer, travel 80 miles one way, be in a strange place that she not familiar with, go thru surgery, recover and then stand and eat. And travel back home. That’s our girl!

Ill share this quote with you, it reminds me of Apollonia.
"The essential joy of being with horses is that it brings us in contact with the rare elements of grace, beauty, spirit, and fire." ~Sharon Ralls Lemon

Apollonia stayed until Saturday, we picked her up and brought her home. She was soooo happy to be home. She let out a great big neigh to all the other horses and was so relieved to be back in her own stall. She has to stay in her stall for 3 weeks, she can be hand walked only for this time. Her sutures are all dissolvable. After the 3-4 weeks she can go out to a small paddock and then after 2 months she can go back to her large paddock. Just when she got use to being outside all day she is back in for a while. She'll be ok. We will take turns leaving a horse in with her to keep her company during the day. This will set our training back a bit but she’ll catch up. It had to be done.



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