[ Phase 2 ] Incremental Changes

— Tuesday, 4th of June, 2024 - 10:38 am —

Thanks for taking my call this morning, Jack. I know you've got your hands full at the rescue so I really appreciate the help! 10:38 am

Of course, anything for one of ours. 11:31 am

I'm just waiting on a response from her breeder, but it's an interesting theory.
It could certainly explain the sudden onset of her anxious behaviours. 11:36 am

It may be a dead end, but it'd be satisfying to know what's going on between her ears. 11:41 am
Thanks again, and have a good one!! 11:41 am

You too, Reilly. 11:45 am

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Untitled  Yara Routine

Enter text here. . .  Gonna stick to this the way I cannot stick to a sleep schedule~

Goal:  establish familiar, safe routine, identify people as herd mates

Reward: any sign of engagement with me rather than with distractions, seeking me out

AFTER morning feed and exercise rides

— halter on, tie
— groom
— mane and tail, too
— hoof handling
— ground work, spec. leading behaviours, yield to pressure, underst. space n moving her body from fore and hind
— finish session w halter off (dev. work, not-work associations)

Ideally I wanna come hang out with her after work, even when we're not actively working through a session. See if she starts to associate a more regular human presence with being safe and Together. Shouldn't get too attached since I'm not there 24/7, but an increased amount might help. Guess I'll pack a book.

Note Saved Automatically   |  Last Edited: 21:20, June 3rd, 2024

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Call History

Professional Wolf Stalker <3
Wednesday June 5th, 14:39 pm — Duration: 46 min

Jack Leeds (Canavan Equine Rescue)
Wednesday June 5th, 09:17 am — Duration: 18 min

Mum 
Tuesday June 4th, 19:12 pm — Duration: 8 min

Mum 
Tuesday June 4th, 19:09 pm — Duration: 2 min

Jack Leeds (Canavan Equine Rescue)
Tuesday June 4th, 10:04 am — Duration: 16 min

Keegan the Tool
Tuesday June 4th, 04:51 am — Duration: 1 min

[ MISSED CALL ] Keegan the Tool
Tuesday June 4th, 04:50 am — Duration: -----

[ MISSED CALL ] Keegan the Tool
Tuesday June 4th, 04:50 am — Duration: -----

[ MISSED CALL ] Keegan the Tool
Tuesday June 4th, 04:49 am — Duration: -----

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Wednesday, 5th of June, 2024

I was RIGHT!!!!!!!

I think I'm actually the world's worst daily journal-er. I wasn't even gonna write anything tonight, but Jack called me this morning just as I was taking Flint back out to her paddock and I was SO RIGHT. I'm a GENU GENIUS.

I can't say for sure whether it's really the root cause of things, but her breeder was kind enough to tell us about her history on the property and about her original buyer's situation. Apparently she was kept with largely the same group of horses for most of her life. She was weaned, obviously, but then she ran with the same group of young horses and a couple babysitter geldings for years. Which, fair enough, can't always mix things up when you run an operation like that, and it's good for horses to have strong social connections. She's certainly not lacking in an understanding of herd dynamics, I don't think we'll need to worry too much when we do integrate her into a turnout group here.

The problem, I think, was that Yara was used to having other horses around, all the time, and knowing that she'd be coming back to those same horses. She's done some off-property work, though not much, but her breeder's trainer takes all the young horses out to school together, so even that had a strong group element.

Her original buyer didn't have any other horses at the time. She competes a couple of the breeder's horses, apparently - they're evidently pretty good friends - but her personal horse died the year prior. Broken neck. Freak accident, apparently? I don't know, Jack didn't get into it and I can't remember overhearing anything at any of the local rallies, must not have happened at any comps. Tragic stuff. Anyway, the breeder set her up with Yara as a hopfu hopeful replacement. But the most important takeaway here is that Yara was being kept on that property alone.

I don't think she knows how to be alone. It'd explain her "shutdown" response, and I'm definitely speculating too hard and assigning emotions to animals and Kilby would tell me I've gotta be objective here, the hypocrite that she is, but I think it might also explain why her behaviours didn't disappear and in fact, got worse upon being returned to familiar pastures. She was given her old group back, and now she hard associates any sort of removal with Being Alone, and she doesn't like that, so she escalates. And when she doesn't have her old friends, she clings to any other horse she can identify as a potential buddy.

Now that I have an idea of the why, I might be able to tackle this a little more effectively.

Ok it is so so so late and I have to be up so so so early tomorrow morning. No, today. Fuck. I'll gloat more when I'm not giving myself eyebags. Or maybe when I've actually managed to help this poor mare.

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To: jack.leeds@canavan.equinerescue  
From: reilly.otoole@canavancreek.pc 
CC: team@canavan.equinerescue
Subject: Yara Propaganda*** (Prettiest Girl Ever!!)

Friday, June 7th, 4:36 pm

Hey hey!
I come bearing pics of our lovely girl; I'm terrible at taking nice photos so I asked June to give me a hand. She hopes they're up to scratch for the Instagram!!
She doesn't seem to have lost any weight despite the move, and she's starting to anticipate the routine here at the facility. We're spending a lot of time together, and there's definitely a personality hidden under all that stress. I'm hopeful for her progress!

Reilly O’Toole

Juniors Coach
Canavan Creek Polocrosse

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To: reilly.otoole@canavancreek.pc  
From: jack.leeds@canavan.equinerescue
CC: team@canavan.equinerescue
Subject: REPLY ALL; Yara Propaganda (Prettiest Girl Ever)

Friday, June 7th, 7:24 pm

Are we sure June doesn't moonlight as a professional photographer? These photos are lovely, Yara is looking great!
Thank you for the "propaganda", I'm sure folks following the Makeover will love to see her. Feel free to share the photos once we post them.

Jack Leeds

Co-Founder
Canavan Equine Rescue

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Friday, June 7th, 2024

I have a good feeling about Yara.

I've been hanging out with her after work pretty much every day this week. I stole one of Keegan's little camp stol stools and I've just been sitting in a corner on the far side of the yard. It means she has to actually go out of her way to acknowledge my presence. First day she didn't really pay me any mind, she was too busy keeping an eye on Twist in case he evaporated  while her back was turned, which is fine, but I decided I'd stay while she had her evening feed, too, and I actually got a hello! Did scooch to sit on the railing by her feed, but hey! Progress!!

I'm trying to keep it pretty routine. Sit away during the afternoon, sit close while she eats, and I think it's working? She's started to come over to investigate, not just glance at me occasionally, and today she even hung around for scratches, though she did trot off in a huff as soon as Twist ducked into his shelter for a drink.

There's a slobber stain and some dirt on my poor copy of Harrow now, but I suppose I haven't really been doing much reading anyway.

Gonna try something this weekend, since quarantine'll be up in a couple days. I dunno what, exactly, yet. But something. Fingers crossed.

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Sunday, June 9th, 2024

Ok, could have been better. Could have been a lot worse, too, I guess.

I was gonna shut Yara in her shelter for dinner, but I decided against that since I didn't want her to potentially associate the confinement with the anxiety and potentially cause myself or any of her future people further problems, and also cause I didn't wanna be crushed against a wall if she got panicky and tried to pace. I'm still not confident that she's got enough of a handle on her immediate reaction to remember that she's 700 kg of potentially people-squashing muscle.

So we locked Twist up instead.

He didn't care, obviously, he was too busy forgetting to breathe between mouthfuls of his hard feed, but Yara was pretty upset.

She was not, however, too upset to eat. She paced and fretted and was generally not pleased about the whole situation, but once I settled in at my spot on the rails, she came over to me. Only briefly, but she actually came over, and eventually settled between pacing, checking in with me, and nibbling on her dinner. Took us a while longer than usual, and man is watching a horse walk herself in circles tiring, but we got through the whole of dinner and we didn't completely lose our marbles.

It feels tiny, but I know that has to be a big thing for her. She made the choice to leave Twist to seek me out, for comfort, and she did it multiple times. It feels strange to try to help a horse when the approach is mostly reliant on them figuring things out, rather than showing them, but it's?? I don't know, it's rewarding, in it's own way, watching the gears turn in her head.

She was stressed and uncertain and she sought me out about it. Like. Wow.

If we can stick this out, I'm hoping we can keep some of this momentum as we move toward actual group turnout. That'll be the real test.

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To: june.nicholls@canavancreek.es  
From: management@canavancreek.es   
CC: peter.keene@canavancreek.es; hafiza.abadi@canavancreek.es; logan.reynolds@canavancreek.es; lena.yarrows@canavancreek.es; colt.connelly@canavancreek.es; tiernan.canavan@canavancreek.es; teaghan.canavan@canavancreek.es; roan.canavan@canavancreek.es; keegan.otoole@canavancreek.pc; reilly.otoole@canavancreek.pc; harlow.dineen@canavancreek.pc  
Subject: Turnout Changes

Monday, June 10th, 3:51 pm

Staff and volunteers, 
There will be a few small changes to our turnout routines this week.
The retirement group will be rotated out early. We will move them to the top paddock tomorrow.
The polo group will also be split tomorrow to accommodate the integration of Yara (see previous emails) and Twist into turnout. Yara and Twist with be placed in the run alongside the dam paddock for over-the-fence integration. Flint, Follow and Mayday will be in the dam paddock. The others will remain in their current paddocks.
Feed charts will be adjusted accordingly.
Thank you for your continued efforts,

Cillian Canavan

Site Manager
Canavan Creek Equestrian