11-25-2019, 10:45 PM
One limit folks don't think about who don't have physical disabilities is the noise, sight, smell and feel of your equipment to the animals. This alone can have them keeping their distance from you. Non-human senses are much more sensitive to these things than humans are. Today for me a huge step was made I'd like to share, and my process getting there may help others in their struggle with adaptive equipment.
I train horses for a living, as many of you know. These days, because of my disabilities (in particular since a mare dragged me through wood and ravine to her death) I do so at a distance with help from an employee or two, and must take time initially to have the horse get used to the sound of my brace in the ring. Without the brace I cannot walk, something I haven't discussed here before. Even in the barn I must take time to familiarize them, as with any new equipment. My first two horses, having come to me as foals, are very comfortable with the sound and smell of it by now.
I can ride, and do, but have to use a special set of railed steps to mount. I do not presume to subject my customers horses to this, but have used them successfully with a gelding belonging to my old employer after weeks of getting him comfortable with them. That involved penning him daily in the ring with the steps, placing his hay & water near the steps. Next, I moved the steps to center ring, letting him get used to them being there a few days. We began going in the ring with him ( I needed an assist even with the steps at that time) and hanging around near the steps, as he began doing the same I'd sit on the steps. We moved on to saddling him and turning him loose, following the same routine. Each day I moved up the steps.
The girl began holding him at the steps, and I sat on the top step talking to him, rubbing his neck and ears. I moved on to standing, then to mounting the horse. For two days that's as far as we went, mounting and getting off. The third day I took the reins and rode him around the ring. After that, he was an easy mount with the steps.
I did the same with my Buckskin and Bay mares, though I've modified the steps since then. I no longer need help in the ring, as the reins are held loosely but where I can reach them. They took less time than the gelding to train. I do have someone nearby though.
The 2nd rescue mare though (Yes, I took in another, an emergency case and not a foal this time)... She doesn't like the brace let alone the steps. When I do the most basic things with her, grooming, feeding, hoof-trimming, anything, if the brace touches her I can feel her muscles tense and see her ears drop. I talk soft and don't let myself tense in return till she calms. Still, it needed correcting. I began well before the fire happened. It's taken a long time getting her more comfortable with the brace. I decided to start by giving her access to just the brace.
Mistake #1. I put it in the corner of the paddock attached to the barn and turned her out there. She's a wild one. She nearly kicked it to pieces before my employee rescued it. I nearly got myself confined to my chair!
Try #2. She got to see, smell and just barely lip the brace outside her stall door in the evenings. Initially, I remained in the barn, talking soothingly to her. She avoided her door at first, then gradually hung her head in the aisle. It took a bit, but she did begin to sniff the brace, then taste it as much as she could reach.
Try #3. As the above progressed, during the day I carefully increased moments of contact between her and the brace on my body, easing off when and if she showed fear or nervousness. She began to ignore the brace at her stall in the evenings, so I stopped that slowly by doing it odd days. The fire interrupted my caring for the horses for a bit...
Mistake #2. When the horses came home I forgot what I was doing and pressed tight against the mare with my right side briefly (A nano-second). Full-on fear response! I almost blew it and panicked too, even with a lifetime of training. I kept a calm voice and manner, and firm hand on the lead, and walked her around the ring till she calmed. Not back to square one, but close.
Try #3 cont. and so it has gone. All the while, the mare has been worked in the ring with the steps in it, after having been turned loose in there with them to investigate them. My employee has ridden her regularly, and mounts her on occasion from them. Her doing it able-bodied and silent and me doing it with a noisy brace are two different things though.
Try #4. Contact with the brace therefor has been close to the steps, and has gradually increased. The big step was today. SHE MADE CONTACT!
Today, in the ring and near the steps, the mare nosed me from my right ankle to my back with a soft puffing nicker. She pushed her neck gently against the brace she just smelled, then lay her head heavily on my shoulder. This wasn't a planned brace training either. I'd gone in the ring to give my employee a pointer on working the mare and she had just turned the mare loose in the ring. The horse trotted right up to me, rubbed my chest with her forehead, and dropped right down to the brace.
Promising. I may ride her yet. It's the most emotion she's shown me too...
sw
