In working with another OTTB (who I will call B) who did the RRP last year, I have been running into some strong behaviors of self express. I wrote a facebook post about it:
In my work with several OTTB's I've been stunned to see a crazy variety of odd behaviors that I have never seen in any other breed of horses. In our Between the Ears class on Friday we were discussing "man made" behaviors in horses that are reactions to ill treatment. The horse B that I have been working with had been obviously whipped, but has another layer of twitching and striking behaviors that I couldn't make sense of. One of the participants who worked in the racing industry for 20 years commented that the horse had most likely been zapped by electric shock! The "machine" she said! I asked her to explain as I had never heard of this. I was in shock (no pun intended!) Electrocuting a horse to make him run was a horrifying thought! And now to see this article on my fb feed!!!
This horse I am working with is truly traumatized! He has been a challenge to help through his struggles and reactivity but he is slowly coming around. It's crazy the parallels between helping the veterans with PTSD and helping the OTTBs with the same! Trauma leaves wounds! Wounds need careful attention. Some wounds are very deep and need extra special care! My intern commented how sad she was for this horse we are working with. I said it's more sad to allow him to carry these wounds for the rest of his life for he is only 6!! We will use our energy and our love to help this horse shed his troubles and find confidence, joy and love in working with humans. This is my wish for him for the rest of his life!!
I am grateful that Party Barn has not displayed any of these behaviors and I believe he came through a training program that believes in conditioning and training horses without resorting to medieval tactics of force and coercion!!
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