PHASE 1 - Valorant Farms's Makeover Project

Valorant farms was excited as a whole to welcome the newest edition to the herd, a lovely Loshenka mare from the sponsored Makeover event! Being picked for the prestigious event is a high praise, meaning Gabrielle needed to make sure her training was on the top of her game. She squealed with excitement as she pulled her trailer into the cobblestone farm gates. The other workers waved as she parked. Loshenkas from the fields neighing a welcome to the trailer’s inhabitant. The horse in the trailer neglected to respond to her welcomes.

“This is going to be amazing!” Said the young woman, looking at the trailer in the rearview, the flaxen chestnut mare peacefully eating from a haynet, without a care in the world. “She's a beauty, tad overweight, but aren’t we all…” She chuckled, walking to the trailer’s doors and opening them wide. The mare looked over blankly, before returning to the net. “I was expecting a mustang, or some wild horse, but we have the most tame mare ever to set foot on this farm!” Grabbing the lead, and net of course, Gabrielle took the mare to the quarantine pasture, 2 acres of hard ground, perfect for a horse with a strict diet and a lovely shedrow stall with run-in. The cobblestone walls always add a nice touch against the greenery. This will be where the newest edition will be keeping herself entertained. Since there were no other horses to interact with the Loshenka, Gabrielle made herself the mare’s best friend, and kept beside her most hours of the day, whether it was feeding, managing finances, or just relaxing.

“It's weird not having the other horses around, I bet you’re not used to it either, are you?” Gabrielle spoke softly, leaned up against the mare’s hay trough, brown hair blowing slightly in the wind as she watched the chestnut mare eat the few flakes given to her. Being overweight, the first act of making over the beautiful horse was to slim her down, the easiest way by limiting grass intake and giving small, frequent meals. She received one flake of timothy every 3 hours, just enough to keep her system going, but not enough to truly munch on. The mare’s mane laid against her neck as she slowly reached up to sniff the woman’s pockets, where she hoped treats were. She snorted as she noticed the lack of goods before returning back to her meal.

Taking herself out of the pasture and looking from outside the fence, Gabrielle watched as the mare stumbled around, unmotivated, unhappy, and overall a mess. That’s when she realized the severity of the time she had. Two months to get this horse in a better condition. A condition where she wasn’t overweight, was motivated undersaddle, and overall a happier horse. The videos of this mare were lackluster, as even the makeover staff had a hard time urging this horse to move past a walk. Being out at pasture for a year sure mellowed out this mare! Thankfully, the videos did show the mare had a history of being a lesson horse who knew the basics of riding, which would make that easier down the road.

However, the chestnut mare could move; especially when she wanted to, but that was a rare occasion. Gabrielle watched as the mare abruptly jumped up, kicking out her hooves and galloping to one end of the pasture and the other, whinnying to the horses that she couldn’t interact with. For the first week, while the mare wasn’t being worked, this was her routine: whinny and run, eat, sleep, whinny and run and so on.  This gradually conditioned her body at a slow rate, so there was another trick under Gabrielle’s sleeve to help prepare the mare for ridden work; Lunging and positive reinforcement! 

Starting positive reinforcement might seem backwards, as you’re feeding the horse to lose weight, but Gabrielle would set a daily limit on feed for her and use low calorie treats to manage the caloric intake! She started off slow with the chestnut mare, now nicknamed “Westside”, teaching her that anytime she said “Good” the mare was doing something right and would be rewarded. This was the bridge of the behavior! Only two sessions had the mare understanding that she would be rewarded, so the pace was quickened by teaching her “Touch”. This was by putting out a fist near the mare’s muzzle, then saying “Touch”. This was easy to teach, as the mare naturally tried to go for the hands of the handler, and was rewarded after a quick “Good!”

This was the first two weeks, gradually teaching the mare new behaviors after a few sessions each, first touch, then touch with the knee, then hold, where the mare was rewarded for standing still. This led into lunge work, which was done in between sessions, starting on the second week.  Gabrielle used a setup with an inverse roundpen formation to help keep Westside out of her personal space, and give the horse less pressure. The chestnut mare had already known lunging, and wasn’t eager to try some more, but starting off by asking for “touch” from a walking distance slowly gained the mare’s trust to walk on the circle. This was a great improvement to start working the mare’s body, which was naturally slimming down by this point, into a more muscled shape. Eventually, poles were added to help set up basic conditioning work, strengthening the back muscles. This would be beneficial when the ridden work started up again, as there would be less strain on the body. A well muscled horse works out better than one that’s under muscled, afterall!

“This is great!” Gabrielle exclaimed, petting Westside next to her head as she ate her flake of hay. Today was the first day of week three. “I’m glad you trust me, you’re looking better already!’ The mare had dropped down from an eight on the body scale score to a low seven, showing some improvement in her exercises as well as her enthusiasm to work. Each time Gabrielle would walk up to the quarantine barn the mare would whinny, nickering as her flake of hay was made. There had been a connection starting between the two, one that would be beneficial at the later times of the project. The progress that had been made in just two weeks was astounding. She was already leagues more motivated to do basic groundwork, as well as much slimmer and more muscled. This was a great start to the competition, and Gabrielle was excited to show how well Westside had grown, even if the time had been so short. 

This was the perfect time to plan out the next phases, where riding work would start, sprinkled in with the usual lunging and positive reinforcement. The mare had enough muscle to comfortably carry a rider by this time, and Gabrielle wanted to start that phase as soon as possible to set up the mare for a well-paced reintroduction to work. She took the time to write down a basic training plan for the next month and so, where she idealized what exercises she could possibly use to help  the mare. Hopefully her and Westside would become best partners, and she would get to live her life at Valorant Farms!