I arrived at the beautiful facility a little early for my client’s appointment with her horse. A friendly cat was the only greeter as I got out of my car. I said “hello” to the cat, and then, as I often do when I am early to an appointment, I walked around saying hello to the horses I found sticking their necks out over fences and stall doors.
I found several horses out beyond the barn. Each in their own small paddock. One was a fetching mare. She was long and lean, and she swirled her head when she saw me approaching, then stood with pricked ears and a friendly expression that invited me to offer her a little scratch, which she accepted. I noticed that her halter was crooked on her face, so as I stroked her, I straightened out her halter. The noseband was low on the right, and the cheek strap was high on the left.
I then walked on to say hello to two more horses that were asking to be greeted. When I got back to the beautiful mare, her halter was crooked again in the same way, and I noticed she was swirling her head some more, as if it were a tic of hers.
I heard a truck approaching and some doors slamming. My client had arrived. I shook hands and asked how I could help. She had a young mare that she wanted to eventually make into a dressage partner. She was in no hurry. She wanted to build connection first, and that was why she had called me. She also mentioned that this young horse seemed super smart, a little sassy and a bit too marish at times. She wanted to do things differently with her and really form a strong bond. She wanted to develop a safe confidant partner. She then led me to the gate of the beautiful mare I had just introduced myself to.
We took the mare out of the paddock and brought her down to an indoor arena. The client said the mare was used to the arena, but I could tell that this young mare was not at ease. She was new to it all, not just the arena. Nowhere felt like home to her yet. She had been bought and transported from another state just over a month ago.
People so easily forget how strange and unsettling it must be for horses to be taken away from everything they know. It takes a lot longer than we give them credit for to reestablish a feeling of safety, familiarity and comfort. It takes time to make companions whom they can trust to help them feel safe and regulated.
In my work, I stand with a horse at the end of a very loose rope and offer them a sense of peace through my presence and the regulation of my own nervous system. Horses that are settled, healthy and well-regulated get sleepy pretty quickly when I do this. The ones who don’t usually show me their issues, such as where they might be sore or what is on their mind that is keeping them from being able to relax.
The beautiful mare would not settle. First, she walked around me on the end of the rope. Then she started to lower, stretch out her head all the way at about a 45-degree angle from her withers to the ground, and tilt her head all the way to the right so that her left eyeball was pointed at the ceiling. I now realized this was why she had the crooked halter when I met her.
She then started grinding her teeth on the right side while doing this. She also would walk around, swirling her head like I had seen her do earlier in the pasture. She started sniffing the ground and pawing with one foreleg, then the other, as if she wanted to roll but could not seem to find her coordination.
She would not bring the first leg back under her body before pawing with the second leg. Then her front legs would be out in front of her too far, and she would do an awkward hop with the back legs. It looked very strange. She did not do this once or twice but over and over again, as well as repeating the outstretched neck and complete head tilt to the right side. When horses make the same gesture over and over again there is usually an important reason why.
I felt there might be some compression around the AO joint, so I offered the mare a craniosacral occiput hold. This was the most the horse ever relaxed during my work with her. She definitely liked that feel and stood still to receive it. As I did it, I felt a click or a pop on the right side, right at the occiput. I also did a frontal hold and a sphinoid hold.
I had the feeling the mare’s behavior and dysregulation were coming from some pain first, but no doubt there was also stress from being new and just having been recently shipped from another state.
She was a nice mare who I felt wanted to connect, if she were not so disturbed by pain and stress. I guessed she might have some sort of head and neck pain from compression, nerves or possibly teeth. I am not an equine PT, although I do a little bit of craniosacral work on horses most of the work I do is nervous system regulation.
The owner then told me that she suspected the mare might have an ulcer, as she had seen some signs. The mare’s behavior could have been due to the ulcer, but I guessed that, if there was an ulcer, it was probably secondary to some other pain in the head and neck.
I recommended that the client work with her vet and the horse’s bodyworker to identify the source of her horse’s pain first. It’s hard for anyone to connect when they are in pain.
I also suggested starting really slowly after that by helping the mare get used to and comfortable in her environment. Things like walking her around while she takes things in. Meditating with her in the comfort of her paddock or stall. Giving her good, consistent pasture mates and lots of turnout, and feeding her at ground level were all things that could help her adjust better to her new life and thus help her to be more well regulated.
Once out of pain and more comfortable in her surroundings it will be much easier for the mare to build connection with her new owner.
When the vet came, she found a cracked and embedded cap stuck in her right cheek. The owner reported to me that the horse has already become sweeter and calmer due to the vet fixing the teeth.
It all comes back to the issue of “seeing the being”. Even just having a respectable goal of building connection with a horse can potentially be a point of blindness if we forget to “see the being”. Who is looking out at us? What is their story? What are they trying to communicate to us? Once we know the answers to these questions we start building true and caring connection.
