Equine Massage Stories, Pg 4.

4.) “SHENANIGANS”

by Ashleigh Sanderson

I have been riding for 18 years, teaching for 12, and until “Shenanigans” came along, was bumbling along, without really questioning the “proper” way of doing things, certainly never questioning what a vet told me. I had read about massage etc., but nothing had actually made me think “wow”.

I had been working in Ireland for a while, and returned to Zimbabwe with the intention of going back to teaching and schooling horses, and maybe starting a small yard where I could start young horses, which I have always loved doing. Hadn't been back long when the owner of a large, respected riding school phoned to ask if I wanted a mare of hers that she had bought for the school, but that hadn't worked out. She had paid very little for her, and would give her away because she had a new livery arriving, and needed the stable.

The first time I saw her, I wondered what was going on – this was not a give away type of horse. She was ready for me to see when I arrived, standing in a bridle with her groom to be trotted up and shown off. “Shenanigans” is a stunning mare, with good movement and very athletic. She wasn't to keen on being handled, but the owner told me that being an unusable school pony, she had been ignored for a while. When I asked if they was sure that they wanted to give her away, was told that she just had to go, and if I didn't take her, she would be put down.

I hired a professional transporter to move her, and she arrived three hours late, covered in blood. They said she was mad and kept rearing and deliberately flipping herself off the ramp. The worst injury was a big gash above the left eye, but she was so head shy that even trying to touch her face made her throw herself around the stable, so I left her to it.

Over the next week, she settled and let me move her to the paddock and catch her, but trying to do anything like touching her face or ears had her rearing and throwing herself around. I started to notice strange things about her. If approached from the right, she would prick her ears, and be happy to talk, but approach from the left and she would be lunging at you over the door with teeth flying. She also hated men with a passion and was very unpredictable when handled. Once bridled, she could be a wonderful ride, but wouldn't settle if other horses were working in the school, and just hacking her to the top of the road would have her in a muck sweat and shaking all over. She also refused totally to bend to the right.

It started to sink in that she couldn't see with her left eye, but I wasn't sure how to actually test it, so set up some poles in the school, covered her left eye and led her over them. She stepped carefully over each pole, and was very unconcerned about her “eye-patch”. As soon as I changed sides, she got uptight, aggressive and barge. She stepped over some poles perfectly, and tripped over others, which was even more confusing to us, trying to work her out. That was when I decided I needed a vet, who was more excited than anything else, to find that she had a detached retina, which he had only seen once before. He explained that at some stage she has had a heavy blow, (probably been hit with a fist,) to the side of the face, which affected the eye. One second she could see perfectly, the next second had partial vision, and the next was totally blind. The retina was floating around like a piece of seaweed under water, in front of the optic nerves and so she was getting around 30 flashes of vision every minute. That explained why she had so many problems, was so insecure and unpredictable. The vet's treatment was to put her down, so I asked him about reattaching the retina, or removing the eye, which he said he would look into.

Meanwhile I decided to make her more comfortable, so got an old racing blinker, and covered over the left eye hole so that when she had flashes, she still couldn't see. What a difference! At that time someone who knew a bit about TTeam showed me how to lower her head, and the Clouded Leopard TTouch, which helped a huge amount in getting her to relax. Another friend practices Reiki, and asked if I would let her try to help Shan. (Reiki is still totally beyond me, how it works, but it certainly does.) Within a week, she was more confident and relaxed. I started leading her out on walks like a dog, which suddenly she enjoyed, and when she hesitated and got tense, the TTeam along her crest got her relaxed and confident again. I also looked into her past, and found that among other things, she was ridden with two dressage sticks and belted with them is she spun when a horse came towards her. Someone stood in the gateway of the school with a lunge stick to hit her everytime she thought about going to the gate.

The vet E-mailed all over the world and was told by all the vets except one in California to put her down. The one on “our side” said that he had removed the eye in a similar case, which had worked, but the horse had not developed behaviour problems, so there could be mental damage.

A week later Shan went to hospital to have the eye removed. It took two hours to load her, but she traveled well. She was due to stay there for a week. The day after she arrived the eye was removed, and I was asked to take her away. She had taken an hour to walk 100m to the operating section of the hospital. She refused to go into the preparation box, took double doses of tranquilizer to settle, and then extra anaesthetic before she went under. The operation was successful, but the second she started to come round she tried to attack the groom. Later when they tried to clean the eye for the evening, she reared and went for the vet, got away from the groom, spun round and started lashing out with both back feet flying. When I went to collect her, the hospital groom refused to go into her stable, so I went in dreading a drama. She came and put her head against my shoulder, and just stood quietly. Her face was a mess, since it hadn't been cleaned since the op, but she let me put on the headcollar, walked straight up the ramp and stood quietly all the way home. I tried to clean her eye, with a headcollar on, and a groom holding her, and she went back to rearing and kicking. Time to re-think. Took off the headcollar, sent the groom away and started to do the TTeam I knew on her. Within ten minutes she let me clean and treat the eye, wash her face and cut the blood and gore out of her forelock. Everyday for the next month the eye had to be cleaned, and if I went in slowly, waited for her and did TTeam, she allowed it without a fuss.

Since then she hasn't looked back. The operation was a complete success, and she healed well, although looks a bit strange with a hollow space instead of an eye. Last year one of the older kids I teach competed her in dressage and show jumping, which she did, but was unsettled by the travelling around and was especially unsettled by long shows where she stayed away from home overnight. I decided that it was not worth stressing her out, so she stopped competing. During that time she raided a lunch box left to close to her stable, and developed a passion for peanut butter sandwiches, which are still used for the odd bit of bribery!

She is still very protective over her space, and you have to wait for her to let you in. I have now got a book on TTeam which Shan and I are working through, which is still helping all the time. I also did a Bowen course with Jock and Ivana when they came recently, which Shan loves. The other “problem” horses that I have been able to help, have been rehomed, but Shan will stay, because she is teaching me as we go along, and because she learnt that the way to look after herself in a difficult situation was to get aggressive. I still wouldn't completely trust her with other people, and my vet still refuses to treat her! But she still makes slow progress.

Shan taught me to think for myself when it came to “Problem” horses, not to just listen to the first opinion, even if it did come from a vet. Also, that generally horses are not “evil” unless they are physically unhappy, or have been made that way be being abused in the past.