After Petey and Chance came home from their winter housing, we decided to work on Petey's separation anxiety. Warwick tells you more about it in this introduction.
Boy was I off when I thought Callie (my 2008 TB mare) loved me. She’d come to me when called, but once haltered and led out of her paddock, she lost interest in me, and walks all over me. I was looking for ways to get her attention on me (vs walking over me) when Separation Anxiety kept popping up. She doesn’t show any other signs when away from her pasture mates while at home, but take her off the property and she’s Petey. I can only ride her in the arena because trail riding 99% of the time she’s a basket case and has thrown me many times.
I took a foaling job across the country, and they gave her to me as an almost 3yo with no training. She was in a large pen at the TB racing/breeding/foaling farm. They moved to her a large pasture with a couple other horses and I’d spend my free time doing ground work but also exposed her to things that spooked the living daylights out of her. So she was overexposed from day one. Once I got her home she settled and was was easy to train under saddle. The one thing I was able to do was load her into a trailer, which I knew would have been a big problem when it was time to travel back home. She’ll load into a stock trailer now but FORGET trying to load into a 2 horse.
A couple years ago my childhood PTSD came to a head in a big way and I found a wonderful therapist who’s helping me recover. My Trainer (and barn owner) loves to read and was telling me about a book she was reading called The Body Keeps The Score. She knew I had PTSD and she asked all the right questions about what I was going through. I felt so validated for the first time in my life and between her my therapist and my horse, I started looking into how horses help people in my situation. I stopped riding a year and a half ago knowing that my anxiety was felt by Callie and knew it wasn’t safe to ride. But I continued to spend time with her daily which has been my safe place. I’ve always felt that horses could feel and sense more than what most people think they are capable of.
I know this is getting long so will conclude my story. The coincidences were occurring too much to be coincidences and I realized this is the road GOD had intended for me. Then I found your theory and joined. Everything makes sense, I started in Jan ’22 and my history has been skipping steps to get to the answer. In doing so the answer wasn’t there. I realized that last night when I followed each step and got a big release from Callie. I’m hoping to get back on her when the weather warms up in a couple months, but will wait until we’re both ready. Thank You Warwick for seeing what you see from the horses’ point of view.
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Boy was I off when I thought Callie (my 2008 TB mare) loved me. She’d come to me when called, but once haltered and led out of her paddock, she lost interest in me, and walks all over me. I was looking for ways to get her attention on me (vs walking over me) when Separation Anxiety kept popping up. She doesn’t show any other signs when away from her pasture mates while at home, but take her off the property and she’s Petey. I can only ride her in the arena because trail riding 99% of the time she’s a basket case and has thrown me many times.
I took a foaling job across the country, and they gave her to me as an almost 3yo with no training. She was in a large pen at the TB racing/breeding/foaling farm. They moved to her a large pasture with a couple other horses and I’d spend my free time doing ground work but also exposed her to things that spooked the living daylights out of her. So she was overexposed from day one. Once I got her home she settled and was was easy to train under saddle. The one thing I was able to do was load her into a trailer, which I knew would have been a big problem when it was time to travel back home. She’ll load into a stock trailer now but FORGET trying to load into a 2 horse.
A couple years ago my childhood PTSD came to a head in a big way and I found a wonderful therapist who’s helping me recover. My Trainer (and barn owner) loves to read and was telling me about a book she was reading called The Body Keeps The Score. She knew I had PTSD and she asked all the right questions about what I was going through. I felt so validated for the first time in my life and between her my therapist and my horse, I started looking into how horses help people in my situation. I stopped riding a year and a half ago knowing that my anxiety was felt by Callie and knew it wasn’t safe to ride. But I continued to spend time with her daily which has been my safe place. I’ve always felt that horses could feel and sense more than what most people think they are capable of.
I know this is getting long so will conclude my story. The coincidences were occurring too much to be coincidences and I realized this is the road GOD had intended for me. Then I found your theory and joined. Everything makes sense, I started in Jan ’22 and my history has been skipping steps to get to the answer. In doing so the answer wasn’t there. I realized that last night when I followed each step and got a big release from Callie. I’m hoping to get back on her when the weather warms up in a couple months, but will wait until we’re both ready. Thank You Warwick for seeing what you see from the horses’ point of view.
Im humbled to be a part of your journey