Timmy is a thoroughbred gelding, the only male in my herd, and he was born on a racing stud in France. He is 16 years old now, and came to me when he was 9 years old.
We went through some health issues initially. He is a cribber and wind sucker. He lost a lot of weight suddenly but blood tests didn’t show up anything specific ; so we just worked with it and slowly, with dietary changes, he started to gain weight.
He also had rain scald when he arrived, but the dietary changes also helped this, as well as not rugging him (something I believe exacerbates rain scald as it creates a humid environment). For some reason we seem to think that Thoroughbreds are sensitive to cold and rain and like to dress them up in clothes. The first winter of not being rugged, Timmy’s coat was long and shaggy and not very nice, but it did the job and he got through with good hay and a shelter he could use from the wind and rain when he wanted .Now he has a beautifully thick winter coat and if I go anywhere near him with a rug he runs off.
Timmy also came to me as a very rideable and gentle, easy, bombproof horse. This was great for my riding confidence and he was very easy to take out alone. But then two years ago I just got this sense that there was another horse under the façade, a personality that he wasn’t showing.
We have done a lot, Timmy and I, over the last two years, learning to be ourselves and not cardboard copies, both awakening our energetic awareness and learning to communicate at a non-verbal level. We have both released a number of defences that have allowed us to crawl out of our cardboard boxes and slowly start to realise that we can be our true selves. Over time I believe Timmy’s cribbing will reduce, but we will love him just as he is and move forward at his pace.
He is showing a lot more confidence within the herd, and looks after his mares as a man should. He is also communicating with me at a different level. The first time he spooked at a log in a ditch I was overjoyed. He is now looking at his surroundings and communicating to me how he feels about things. Before he would have walked past without a flicker, but also he was quite happy to walk into a busy road without any cognisance of the danger of traffic. That is how shut down he was. Now as he wakes up, it is my job not to shut him down again. It is my job to listen to him and show him he can have confidence in our relationship.
Together we will start to look at this amazing world of ours with open eyes and a connected awareness.