We have two vet students from Finland and their two supervisors here at the vet clinic for a few weeks. This morning we all watched the ‘big’ horses being worked.
Each horse receives just ten to fifteen minutes of work, morning and evening, and it’s amazing how quickly they are coming along. Orphan foals are known to be very difficult to work with because they haven’t had the advantage of growing up in a natural social environment. Many of the horses here were orphaned and I’ll be discussing their histories in coming blogs.
It was wonderful to have my first ride since arriving in India. I rode the beautiful Rea, a black and white Marwari horse about 16.1 hh. Thankfully, she won’t fit in my suitcase for the journey home in a few weeks, as tempting as that might be! Rea was a carnival horse of some description so possibly a ‘dancing’ horse and we are working on moving forward freely with relaxation.
It’s interesting that, even after only three short work sessions, we are already working on the same things we would be doing at home with horses that have come from very privileged backgrounds by comparison. At the end of the day it’s about relaxation and safety for horse and rider no matter the history or the future of the horse.
