What a dramatic read! Thanks for sharing that with us as a cautionary tale. Sometimes s**t happens despite our best efforts. I have a feeling Qati will recoup nicely in time. You will too!
Thanks for sharing your experience – it is a hard lesson to learn from mistakes but your experience may just prevent the same thing from happening to someone else and it certainly won’t happen to you again!
I had a horse I started from scratch and she never took a wrong step through all the training right up to and including hitched to the vehicle. I took her to her first activity where there were other horses and carriages, hitched her up and started to move away from my trailer when she just quietly keeled over and hit the ground (bending the shaft underneath her). There was no discernible pulse or respiration! I quickly got her released from the carriage (I always use quick release shackles in strategic locations) but there was no motion from her – I thought she had died! Her eyes were rolled up in her head! All of a sudden she took a mighty breath, opened her eyes and raised her head. Consensus was she had fainted from internalizing all the stress of the experience! She got to her feet, a friend straightened the bent metal shaft, we ground drove then hitched her up again and had a very nice, quiet drive (although nobody wanted to drive with me!). I then started monitoring her pulse and respiration every time I hitched her – heart rate was racing and breathing was marginally higher but shallow. Poor thing was highly stressed and not having a good time. She never settled in to the driving thing so she moved on to be a ridden dressage horse (full size horse – not a mini!).
What a dramatic read! Thanks for sharing that with us as a cautionary tale. Sometimes s**t happens despite our best efforts. I have a feeling Qati will recoup nicely in time. You will too!
Thanks for sharing your experience – it is a hard lesson to learn from mistakes but your experience may just prevent the same thing from happening to someone else and it certainly won’t happen to you again!
I had a horse I started from scratch and she never took a wrong step through all the training right up to and including hitched to the vehicle. I took her to her first activity where there were other horses and carriages, hitched her up and started to move away from my trailer when she just quietly keeled over and hit the ground (bending the shaft underneath her). There was no discernible pulse or respiration! I quickly got her released from the carriage (I always use quick release shackles in strategic locations) but there was no motion from her – I thought she had died! Her eyes were rolled up in her head! All of a sudden she took a mighty breath, opened her eyes and raised her head. Consensus was she had fainted from internalizing all the stress of the experience! She got to her feet, a friend straightened the bent metal shaft, we ground drove then hitched her up again and had a very nice, quiet drive (although nobody wanted to drive with me!). I then started monitoring her pulse and respiration every time I hitched her – heart rate was racing and breathing was marginally higher but shallow. Poor thing was highly stressed and not having a good time. She never settled in to the driving thing so she moved on to be a ridden dressage horse (full size horse – not a mini!).