Bon Voyage

 

Christmas card

I said goodbye to Dotty last weekend when Beverley from the IHWT came to collect her. She will spend two weeks at the new Equine Welfare Centre in Wicklow before making the journey to England. She has been given a place at Redwings Sanctuary where her rehabilitation will continue. This is a great end to my part of Dotty’s story as, although very sweet natured, she is not yet ready for conventional re-homing. I’ll be passing on all her likes and dislikes to her carers at Redwings and in the meantime, I’m designing a Christmas card featuring her on the front. These will be available to buy from the Irish Horse Welfare Trust.

Two steps forward… and one back

 

Dotty as she looks now, still a bit ribby but a lot less hair!

Dotty has been a bit neglected over the past week – not in a major way of course but there hasn’t been much time to do anything that hasn’t had to be done. A few things to report, not least a big thank you to Sarah Fisher (www.ttouchtteam.co.uk) for all her help.

For some reason she has become very difficult to catch in the field. Possibly it was the bangers and fireworks around Halloween that upset her, but whatever the reason she has been quite nervous and more headshy than usual. She still follows a bucket anywhere so it didn’t interrupt her routine at all. Once inside, I can catch her as normal even though I’m still leaving the noseband of the headcollar open until the other strap is fastened. 

And for the cute story – I went out to give her a late feed to find her lying down. She didn’t get up when I went into the stable and in fact even allowed me to stroke her ears and scratch her face. That was just lovely, and quite affecting in a quiet, simple way.

Yesterday we had a visit from the farrier. As soon as she saw him her whole demeanour changed. She became visibly tense, several inches taller and stood snorting from the far side of the pen. When I managed to catch her, her muscles were rock hard with tension. Despite our best efforts and the farrier’s great patience, she became so upset that we abandoned the job as I was afraid someone was going to get hurt. So her feet remain untrimmed for the moment but it’s not a disaster as the main reason for trying to do them was for the experience rather than through any dire necessity.

One more step

 

Dotty grazing

I took advantage yesterday of a lovely sunny day and washed 10 years of neglect out of Dotty’s tail. It’s not quite pure white yet but all the knots are gone, making her look less scruffy. She was so relaxed, just stood there with the lead rope looped over her neck. Of course, she got down and rolled in the mud as soon as I let her out!

Putting on the headcollar is no better but I’ve started ignoring the objections and carrying on with the ear work and other touches with it just fastened around her neck. After a few minutes work I can do up the noseband. It doesn’t seem worth making an issue out of, maybe she will always be initially wary of contact with her head.

Vaccinations done

Dotty had her first vaccinations done today which went quite well. She was suspicious of the vet as she has really only been in contact with me for the past 7 weeks. We all stayed calm and the vet was very patient so she was done at the second attempt with not much fuss at all. Edwina also did her markings for her passport – a long job on a wet Saturday morning, shading in all those black patches! We tried to look in her mouth and check her teeth which I’ve been able to do on my own but this time it wasn’t possible and we didn’t push it as she had done very well.

I let her out afterwards as she was quite tense so hopefully she will be more relaxed by this evening.

The Magic Bodywrap

After using the bodywrap since meeting Gina and Brin, the improvement in Dotty has been remarkable. I can now pick up all four feet and have even got as far as some very basic tail work – standing well to the side just in case! She seemed to enjoy the tail work straight away and visibly relaxes when it’s being done. I’ve also done some more leg circles and particularly with the front legs, these get rounder and easier every day. 

Putting the headcollar on at the start without opening the noseband is still problematic but once I’ve done some work with her I can do it with no objections so I don’t think this will be a long standing issue. She’s not head shy but hates anything touching her muzzle, related I think to a bad experience with a twitch. 

So it’s the farrier next week and also the vet to do her markings and her first vaccinations…

Progress!

Not just one but two breakthroughs last weekend. I had been using the body wrap on Dotty since my visit to Gina and it had an almost instant effect of making her much less sensitive around her hindquarters. On Friday I touched the top of her tail for the first time, on Saturday I cut about 5″ off the bottom so it no longer drags on the ground and yesterday I picked up both hind feet. So that’s really progress.
I’ve also been doing leg circles with her front feet which is getting easier every day and I’ve rocked her from the withers, again with more movement as time goes on. I used this too to get her out of ‘freeze’ when we got stuck in a gateway coming in from the field.
Before Dotty leaves me to go on to her new home, I’d like her to have her feet trimmed by the farrier, her teeth checked (still a bit of a way to go on this one) and for her to be leading properly. I’d also like her to be comfortable with getting the headcollar on and off. So she’s not going anywhere just yet but hopefully we’ll continue as we’re going for the moment.

IHWT Dotty

 

IHWT Dotty one week after arrival

IHWT Dotty arrived with me from the Irish Horse Welfare Trust on the 8th September. Considering she had been rescued almost starving, heavily in foal and with a massive lice infestation, physically she wasn’t in too bad shape. At the beginning, I thought that she had limited vision in her left eye as she was very nervous of any movement on that side and would turn her head to try and watch me out of her right eye whenever I was on near side. She was very sensitive to touch and her legs, belly and hindquarters were all no go areas.

One week on and we had made significant progress. I used the wand on all four legs and progressed to touching her front legs with my hand. Some basic earwork (I am a complete TTouch beginner) had already made a noticeable difference in how she holds her head – she’s no longer craning her neck to watch me. When she arrived, although she was relatively quiet to lead, it wasn’t possible to catch her without a bucket. I can now catch her in an enclosed space, using the wand on her chest before moving to her head.

Last week I reached the milestone of picking out both her front feet. She was quite relaxed after the earwork and took it in her stride. I can now catch her without the wand but need some help with getting closer to her back end which is still out of bounds. TTouch practitioner Gina, kindly offered to help, so last weekend I travelled to Clare to meet her and Brin (Lucinda) who was visiting from England. I learned so much and couldn’t wait to try out the new ideas.