Describe your horse when you first got it.
4 month old Thoroughbred filly, starved to 165 lbs. and full of worms. Her mother hadn't been kept in with her much at first and had been put down due to colic the day before we moved them to the SPCA.
Describe your horse now.
3 years later Widget is a 15 hand tall beauty who thinks I am her mother!
About my rescued horse
I work at the SPCA that seized her due to lack of proper care and vet treatment. I am the Assistant Farm Manager and was involved with her from the day she arrived. She spent the first month being very colicky as we slowly removed the huge internal parasite load and improved from there. She became very attached to me and I had been hoping to get another horse so I ended up adopting her!
How I Did It:
I spent a lot of time working with her to get her used to all kinds of handling at first. Because she had so many colic episodes initially, my boss and I took turns making sure she was okay and getting better. She developed either separation anxiety or claustrophobia as her health improved and would work herself into a sweat if left in her stall. We solved it by roping off a section of the barn and letting her walk in and out of her stall at will so she could see the other horses and visit with the public. This worked like a charm and got her social at the same time! I spent a huge amount of time working with her and the 3 other horses in the case and she just stole my heart. The biggest difficulty I have had with her is that she has better relationships with people than with other horses because I don't think she got to learn enough of that from her dam. We couldn't turn her out with any of the other horses at first because she was too small and weak. Once she was a little stronger we found out that the two we could turn her out with (the third was her dad) didn't like her much as they were older and didn't want to play or deal with her youthful energy. She became attached enough to me that I had to adopt her. Now she is turning into a fine young filly who is just starting her in-hand lessons with a classical dressage instructor I take lessons from.
Advice
- Sometimes you have to be creative and persistent to figure out what will reduce the stress on a horse when you aren't sure of the exact cause. We weren't sure what caused her stress in the stall, but after trying a variety of things that didn't help we found she was completely happy if we just opened the door and let her have that section of the barn aisle as her "at-will turnout" space. She could walk around and see the other horses and come up to visit with the general public and get attention that way, too. She is still happiest when she has a stall with a door that is always open to the pasture.
