Phase 1: First Impression

After being successful in the previous year’s makeover event, I decided to sign up again. It was amazing to be able to help Copper, the horse I had been assigned last year, overcome her fears and give her a new chance at a happy life with me so I wanted to try and help another horse through their own journey. Many of these troubled and neglected horses would end up in absolutely terrible situations or worse if it wasn’t for this project so I am a big supporter.

I didn’t really know what to expect with the horse I had been assigned. The only info I was given was that she was a younger mare that had been rescued, along with two others, from an abandoned property after her owner had passed away. The horses were out there for a couple years in a wet, muddy, flooded field with no human contact nor care…

After arriving at the rescue facility with my truck and trailer, one of the volunteers kindly led me to one of the back barns. She told me that since my mare came to the facility they’ve really struggled with her behavior but that her hooves were doing much better with consistent care but still had flare ups. The mare has been very pushy and is difficult to pull from her stall. They usually throw her in the side pasture to clean her stall because they cannot clean it with her in there because she’s so unpredictable and pushy. None of the volunteers even want to groom the poor mare because she is always on edge and pawing and just “obnoxious”. The volunteer I was talking to did say she’s absolutely perfect for the farrier and vet though, almost like she knows they’re helping her. 

As we walked down the stalls we saw another volunteer mucking out my mare’s stall so we turned back around to go check the side pasture. You could hear this poor horse before you even rounded the corner. High-pitched whinnying and frantic pawing, hooves slamming hard on the fence gate. She was not a happy horse… Looking at her, she was covered in dried mud but I could tell she had the potential to be a very beautiful horse and she was very well-built, she just needed some TLC. She was pawing and pacing furiously along the fence in front of the gate, tail swishing, a deep path had been dug into the ground from her repeatedly doing this… 

She greeted me with a small nicker but then looked past me, she didn’t want anything to really do with me but I haltered her anyways and led her to my trailer. She was a bit pushy as the volunteers had warned me but nothing too crazy and was able to load her with little issue. She seemed to want to be in the trailer, anywhere but outside it seemed. 

Then we were off! I did call my farrier on the way home and asked him to meet me at my property later. I’ve trusted him for years and would love his opinion on this mare’s hooves before I start working with her… I’m not sure where I’m going to start but I just hope I can help this horse too.