Ok, I will tell you more about Tachat. But then I need to tell you about Wodan first.
Warning: it will be a long story...
For the pictures I just realised that I put some on another horse site before (which I left because of the constant nagging of people
- contrary to this site
).
I hope it works what I've done:
http://www.paardnatuurlijk.nl/cgi-bin/f ... cgi?id=876Wodan is the small bay horse, Tachat is the giant bay horse, Billy is the whitish (roan?).
Gauda was not on the scene yet when I put these pictures there, so for her you still need to wait a little.
Here's the story.
It happened 8yrs ago. I finally decided that I wanted to learn horse riding, since I had told myself at my 15 already that one day I would have my own horse.
I was 43 in the meantime...
So I went to a riding school where I did not find what I was looking for, at least concerning the 'handling' of horses. It was the classical way there with a lot of dominance, hurt and so on. We all know the picture, not good.
What I did find there was this young colt, Wodan, 2yrs old, who had been in a little stable standing for more that 1yr already.
Somebody had deposited him there the year before with the message: it is a present for person X, they will come and fetch him later.
But nobody every came... Finally he was not 'worth' the money to come and pick him up again!
(You can already see the kind of people he came from...)
So for the rest of the summer he was put on a prairie with another foal and his mum. By fall they put him in the smallest stable they had and that was where he had been since. But I fell in love with his beautiful eyes (always beware to look in a horse's eyes!) and rescued him from there. Just in time because he had to go to the market for slaughter otherwise because 'he was only taking space and was only a cost - did not make any money'.
So here I was with one colt of 2yrs old, me knowing nothing about horses but willing to learn it all - but only in a good way.
I knew what I did not want, but did not know where I had to be for what I wanted. Luckily I met someone who did, so had lots of courses afterwards.
I very quickly moved Wodan to a farm near my house where he could be out in the pasture with lots of other horses to grow up.
The farmer knew I wanted to learn riding and I could not do that on such a young horse, so a few weeks later he took me to a horse seller, where Tachat stood, for sale at slaughter price. I thought he went there for a horse for him, silly me...
The guy said he was no good anymore for the jumping, but for walks he was 'allright'.
He was 5yrs old and had been badly injured, had lots of scars on his hind. He had a 'hanetred', I think they call it 'haltspring' if I remember in English.
It makes him move his leg far too high up because he does not sense how far he is. Than he puts it down with a big smack.
So when he walks it goes : trip, trip, trip, ... bang!
In trot you could hardly see anything, galopping he did perfectly.
I just only made a small walk on him in the wood nearby, while the guy was leading him (I could hardly ride), and tried a little trot in the ring.
He jumped me out of the saddle with each step... to me this was 100.000 volts under my behind! He was really not the kind of horse I had in mind...
When I came off him, I brought him back to his very low stable, he could not even keep his head up in there.
And I talked to him (I have this bad habit), asking him if HE thought it was a good idea to become my horse and come home with me?
You know what? He nodded
I just stood there, did not know what to say next. You can't tell a horse it was only a joke, can you?
So that is how Tachat chose me. Ever since then I am allowed to take care of him
But I did not want to ride him as long as he had this problem, it was very bad on the left hind leg. The right side was better but still...
Sometimes he lifted his leg soo high that I thought he would fall over. It brought tears to my eyes each time!
I called a few vets to check on him - they said there is no known cure for his problem. And from the scars it looked like they operated him already on both sides.
This got confirmed by my cousin in Canada who is a vet, specialised in acupuncture for horses. He said this problem can be put in one word: frustrating.
It can get a bit better but the chances that it would go away were almost zero. Anyone saying the opposite is telling lies... He proved right.
So I had just made a very good purchase there
a young injured horse that could not be cured!
I tried everything anyway: he stayed for 6 months in a place where he was treated with some herbal product which takes the acidity out of the body. He had to be sprayed first with 1:50 and had warm showers twice a day afterwards. Then after some time 1:20, 1:10 and so on untill they could use the pure product one day.
With always the warm showers to wash off whatever sweat he poured out.
He looked a lot better afterwards, his eyes looked softer, his body had become soft (he was all stiff when I got him) and he walked just a little bit better.
So later on we tried osteo, bach blossoms, homeopathy, acupuncture, ordinary massage, shiatsu, Reiki, Buchi (another energy technique), Ttouch, you name it.
Everything I found out about, I tried.
He is the most expensive horse I could ever buy!
He now walks better than ever before, but it is still 'trip, trip, trip, ... and a lighter bang!'
On even ground, like on the street, he walks better.
Cold and wet waether makes him walk worse again (enjoy Belgium!), as well as when he is unsure about the ground.
My personal feeling is that now we have done everything physically which can be done. Maybe if I could become his personal shrink, we might still get a bit further. But he is 13 now and I have come to terms with how he is. As he has. My biggest problem with him now is to keep his hoves well... I want to do that the natural way also, and want to do it myself, but my God, it is killing my back!
It is not extremely fun to ride him as you feel almost on a camel when he walks...
But he is the leader of the gang and no horse takes offence to his funny step!
So he has mostly been 'horse', almost never having to work (I did that instead, till my burnout...), he just could have fun on the prairie.
You bet that now I take care what to say to animals...