Calm Healthy HorsesSabrina's Story
Sabrina was heading for the ‘can’ for the second time in her life if somebody didn’t take her.
When we went to check her out she was wearing a halter with the string dangling because she was so difficult to catch.
Her paddock was 100% sub-terranian clover, very short with no actual grass visible at all.
Her current owners had at one point tried to get her in foal but she didn’t cycle properly so they gave up and brought her home.
The last time she had her hooves trimmed was 6 months previously and she had to be sedated to get the job done.
She was a nightmare to lead, splaying her feet out sideways when she spooked at absolutely everything. Sometimes she would try to charge off and a person had to be careful not to let the rope go or she would have gone through fences with the rope trailing.
The Change...
She had ended up in the ‘too hard basket’ and consequently was going free. I agreed to take her on if we could get her on the float which didn’t turn out to be too difficult.
She would approach the ramp ok but then would snort and fly backwards. After doing this a half a dozen times she cautiously clonked on and stayed put while we put up the back bar and ramp.
The journey home was short and once there we let her go, separated from the other horses by a tape. Then we basically just left her alone to settle in and come back to normal on her new diet. No clover! She got some hay every day and her feed with the Premium Minerals and salt.
The Result...
Over the next few weeks she gradually came round. She would get closer to you when you went in to pick up her manure and then let us touch her and soon it was pretty easy to catch her.
Without having to put any hours of work into her she was now friendly, keen to be caught and easy to lead around.
Val did put some work into getting her good to have her hooves trimmed. This consisted of frequently picking up her feet, supporting rather than ‘holding’ them, rubbing her upper leg, and giving them back to her before she slammed them down again.
Gradually she gained confidence and trimming wasn’t an issue.
Sabrina lived with us for 2 years and then was given to a lovely lady down in Otago who was after a black mare to breed to her Clydesdale stallion.
We delivered her down there and soon got the message she was in foal from her first mating.
Here she is with her foal a few days old.
Lesson's learned
All of Sabrina’s issues were caused by her diet. A diet of 100% sub-clover is going to be severely minerally imbalanced and one of the consequences, besides the ‘behavioural’ issues is upsets to hormones and cycling.
A good diet transformed Sabrina from being dangerous, difficult and doomed to being amenable, happy and having a future as a broodmare.