Risada
I was the first horse to join Karen’s family and I am a Lusitano. I was born in May 2005 in a field to my 23 year old mother. When I was four I was moved to a breeding stud farm on livery until Karen met me in 2011, when I was six.
I was on my own for about 3 weeks when I moved to Karen’s and that was very stressful and I ended up getting a bit of colic which she treated me for.
A companion then arrived that Karen loaned from the livery where she found me, and then Chocolate the pony joined the family. All the changes were a bit difficult and stressful but we settled down eventually, and then the family increased over time.
I was pretty fit up until 2015 when I got sore feet one spring and had a couple of abscesses. Then the following spring it came back and got a bit worse. Luckily Karen realised I was starting to get laminitis and countered it by reducing my diet of grass and starting on our journey with this thing.
I also decided though, as my feet got more tender, that I didn’t like my saddle anymore, or being ridden come to that, and slowly I started to win the arguments about being ridden and she stopped trying to ride me.
In 2018 Karen changed and started to learn about connecting with us animals through feelings, and we have, over the years since, had many conversations about laminitis, food, tools and equipment, and how she needs to manage her feelings around me as I am very sensitive to how she feels. I stopped wanting to be ridden because I felt she wasn’t connecting to me when she rode me. I just felt she was riding because she thought she had to. Maybe we will do the riding thing again but it will be from a very different place, with a very different focus.