Tonight, Foxy whispered to me and said no.

After returning Chance to the paddock from his medication application, Foxy indicated that she wanted one-on-one time. So I pulled her out of the paddock and she led me right to our trailer.

This wasn’t surprising because we’ve been working hard on our trailer loading. Foxy has gotten fantastic about hopping onto the trailer and just chilling while I put up the ramp and we practice standing quietly.

But, tonight, after taking her first step onto the ramp, and accepting her first reward, I could tell that something was wrong. Foxy’s face went from relaxed and happy to concerned.

Foxy still tried for me and put all 4 feet on the ramp, without any pressure, but that concerned look didn’t leave her face. She dropped her second reward and refused to accept any more.

So, we backed off the trailer and spent some time just hanging around the hay while she ate. While others may have asked her to suck it up and continue onto the trailer because the belief is the horse can’t think they’ve won, I decided to call it a day with training. To me, it wasn’t worth making a withdrawal from our trust bank.

Foxy’s EOTRH has gotten significantly worse and her dental today must have caused some residual pain resulting in the dropped treats and worried expression. Every time she attempted to accept one of our usual training treats, she would drop it and not even attempt to find it. This behavior is extremely out of the ordinary for Fox who LOVES her SmartCookies.

Sometimes horses whisper to you that something is wrong. It’s your job as a horseman to listen to them and stop before that whisper becomes a scream. Foxy whispered to me and I listened. I know without a doubt that another coin has been added to our trust bank because I did not pressure her into screaming that something was wrong. To me adding to that bank means more than getting her onto that trailer ever could.

“Take A Chance”

That’s the name I was told he showed under but around the barn, he’s known as Chance. It was explained to me that he obtained the name “Chance” after a severe illness as a foal. After this weekend I can say with confidence that “Take A Chance” fits him and our journey together thus far. 

Chance was owned by the last barn I boarded at and he was barely on my radar. He was a lesson pony who existed, looked cute, and was always sweet towards the kids. An inquisitive guy who was getting up there in age and ready to retire. That was the extent of my knowledge of him. 

Chance’s first picture that got sent to the family explaining what I had done

During a conversation with the barn owner, it came up that after the current show season Chance would be retiring and need a new home to enjoy himself in. His arthritis was acting up and he no longer seemed to enjoy teaching or jumping. 

That was the first time I said I would “Take A Chance”. 

Chance at his previous home with one of his first abscesses

A few months after coming to my property, Chance developed a large summer sore on his sheath. Despite my best efforts along with the vets, we ended up having to do extensive debridement along with medication application 5 times a day. It was hard work, and I am forever grateful for the training we had put in together to develop a relationship where he trusted me to debride him daily. 

That was the second time I said I would “Take A Chance”.

Chance just hanging out with me

Last year, a jaw abscess developed and created a second summer sore. This resulted in several months of 3-5 times daily ointment application, antibiotics, several vet visits, and a pathology report to reveal that we had to change our whole approach to this sore. Chance and I spent hours together, cleaning, debriding, treating, and rewrapping his sore. 

That was the first time I was asked if I wanted to let him go. Because of his liveliness and enthusiasm for life that was the third time I said I would “Take A Chance”. 

Chance during one of our many vet visits for the jaw abscess

This brings us to this weekend. One thing a horse owner never wants is for their horse to come up to them with blood on them and a visible injury. When Chance was fed dinner the night before, he was fine. He squealed like a pig when he saw his dinner bucket, ran up, accepted his full 360, hands-on check, and dove into his dinner bucket. When he came up to me the next morning there was blood, swelling, and a flap of skin barely hanging on above the corner of his eye. Chance had torn his upper eyelid almost completely off. 

One emergency vet call later, and I found myself standing in my garage, with a very sedated Chance in hand, talking options with the vet. The outcome didn’t seem to be in favor of his eye but I was presented with 3 things. Remove the eyelid entirely and understand that losing his eye would be almost certain down the line. Attempted to reattach the eyelid in hopes of preventing further injury to his eye globe with the understanding that we might need to remove the eyelid and possibly the eye down the line. Finally, I could choose to not spend any more money on this old retired pony and let him go. 

This was the second time I looked him in the eye, saw his enthusiasm for life, and refused to let him go. This was my fourth time saying I would “Take A Chance”. 

Chance after his eye injury wearing his fly mask to protect the eye from further damage

The eyelid stitched up beautifully producing blood flow to the detached part, and the injury did not seem to extend beyond the skin. We’re not out of the woods yet, but with consistent antibiotics, pain killer, and eye drops, I am extremely hopeful that we have managed to save his eyelid and subsequently his eye. 

Chance and I are in this journey, together, for the long haul, and watching him play with his mares this morning has helped to reaffirm all my decisions to “Take A Chance” on Chance.

Chance after his eye injury without his fly mask.

It’s been a considerable amount of time since I’ve written anything of substance.

Sure I’ve been posting on various social media outlets, but I haven’t exactly maintained the blog. Lately, the horses and I have been drifting, just enjoying our time together through basic flatwork, trail riding, and excessive amounts of groundwork.

While none of this is helping achieve any of our goals, it has served as a bonding experience. I’ve developed better relationships with both horses and we’ve been able to overcome a multitude of groundwork and trust issues that existed from a simple lack of truly understanding them.

Yesterday, Cupid and I went on a field trip to our trainer’s facility, as I finally have the time to start back up with consistent lessons. I was an absolute nervous wreck about what could possibly go wrong and what kind of horse I would have on my hands.

A year ago, Cupid was extremely reluctant to load. She would load but it never failed to be a production that took an embarrassing amount of time and resulted in an unhappy horse. She would balk and eventually drop her shoulder to try and run. If you ask anyone who has ever trailered with us about loading her you would be met with a laugh and description of a terrible loader.

Yesterday, Cupid impressed me both ways by self-loading and standing quietly while I fumbled with the butt bars and ramp on our trailer. There were no dramatics, no bolting, and no fussing once loaded. Just a horse who understood the assignment popped onto the trailer and settled in for a ride with her hay net.

A year ago, I would have had a fire-breathing dragon on my hands at a new facility. There would have been snorting, lots of head raising, and “fruit bat” moments of not listening or respecting me. While she was never dangerous on new properties. she was looky and trying to take control of the new situation. Almost as if she was the one wearing the pants in our partnership.

Yesterday, Cupid calmly stepped off the trailer, looked around, and then looked to me for direction. We did have some reluctance towards walking into the dark barn and then walking into the wash rack after our lesson, but both of these were drama-free. Just a pony hesitating, evaluating my body language, and then deciding that she still trusted me enough to follow.

To think that taking time off from being serious about my riding, and instead deciding to focus on our relationship has created this level of change still amazes me 24 hours later. While I have always loved having Cupid as my partner until yesterday I never felt like our partnership had the level of trust it deserves. Yesterday, truly proved to me that the last year was worth every minute we spent together. We may not have progressed in our riding but we developed into a partnership that I am extremely proud of.

It takes time to develop the level of trust that Cupid and I now have in each other and I am so excited to see where we go from here!