Sweetness
I started working on Sweetness about three months ago. For many years Sweetness had behavioural issues in that she was perceived as "mare-ish" and dangerous. Contrary to her name she was the exact opposite, aggressive and highly explosive.
She had a tendency to attack the other horses in her herd, farm dogs and at times any person she saw without any reason.
If you were fortunate enough to get close to her it was just a matter of seconds before the aggressiveness came into play. She was a very unpredictable and unsafe horse to be around. Sweetness had no problem standing on her hind legs and striking at a person if she did not like your touch.
My first session with her was very limited in time due to her abhorrent behaviour, regardless of how soft I worked with her. In my experience 99% of the times when a horse displays aggressive behaviour it can be linked to pain related issues. When palpating her body it was clear that she had poll, wither, thoracic spine, sacrum, hind end as well as hind limb soreness/sensitivity.
As time went on she had her good and bad days. At times 10 minutes were enough for her before the explosive energy came into play.
Yesterday was a remarkable breakthrough, for the first time I could do hind end releases with her in the limb area without putting too much pressure on the hind muscle area.
The astounding revelation was that I could put light pressure on her wither and spinal area without her displaying explosive behaviour.
It is now evident that she was in grave pain that caused her abhorrent behaviour.
In the words of her owner: So it is possible to work on all kinds of horses and get great results.
I know now that if our paths did not cross, Sweetness would still have been classified as being mare-ish, difficult and dangerous. For now it is the exception if she shows teeth at people, the dogs are a non-issue and the other horses, well they will be horses. I must add, that her behaviour towards the other horses are not remotely as they were before I started the treatments with her.
I am convinced we will still have difficult days yet I know, they will never be similar to the days when I started working with her.
She had a tendency to attack the other horses in her herd, farm dogs and at times any person she saw without any reason.
If you were fortunate enough to get close to her it was just a matter of seconds before the aggressiveness came into play. She was a very unpredictable and unsafe horse to be around. Sweetness had no problem standing on her hind legs and striking at a person if she did not like your touch.
My first session with her was very limited in time due to her abhorrent behaviour, regardless of how soft I worked with her. In my experience 99% of the times when a horse displays aggressive behaviour it can be linked to pain related issues. When palpating her body it was clear that she had poll, wither, thoracic spine, sacrum, hind end as well as hind limb soreness/sensitivity.
As time went on she had her good and bad days. At times 10 minutes were enough for her before the explosive energy came into play.
Yesterday was a remarkable breakthrough, for the first time I could do hind end releases with her in the limb area without putting too much pressure on the hind muscle area.
The astounding revelation was that I could put light pressure on her wither and spinal area without her displaying explosive behaviour.
It is now evident that she was in grave pain that caused her abhorrent behaviour.
In the words of her owner: So it is possible to work on all kinds of horses and get great results.
I know now that if our paths did not cross, Sweetness would still have been classified as being mare-ish, difficult and dangerous. For now it is the exception if she shows teeth at people, the dogs are a non-issue and the other horses, well they will be horses. I must add, that her behaviour towards the other horses are not remotely as they were before I started the treatments with her.
I am convinced we will still have difficult days yet I know, they will never be similar to the days when I started working with her.