A Series by Michelle Grimmer
If you've been around Freedom Farm much, you have probably seen my big gray horse Niko. He came to me extremely unsound, mentally and physically. He was very crooked in his body and when I rode him he felt like two different horses depending on which direction we'd be tracking in the arena. To the left, he felt somewhat ok, but to the right he was crippled. No matter what direction we went, he was extremely worried in his mouth and curled away from the bit while constantly gnashing his teeth. He had to wear boots on all four legs because he bloodied himself by whacking them together if there was no protection. His feet were completely out of balance, due to well-meaning farriers attempting to work with the way his body wanted to travel. Crooked body, crooked feet, crooked legs.
I kept him in Port Townsend at a client's 70-acre farm, and my first step in his rehab was to work on getting his feet back in shape (he was barefoot, but not being trimmed by a barefoot trimmer). His feet were like pancakes, very long, with flares. His heels were very bruised. Because he was so footsore, and this is what I have always learned to do, I put shoes on him to protect his feet (all you barefoot people are cringing right now!). Now he could run all over the place whacking himself with his crappy feet with no limping! Next, I got his teeth done by an Equine Veterinary Dentist, got him properly fitted for a saddle, and involved a Structural Integration (S.I.) therapist who began addressing the problems in his body.
The S.I. therapist worked through Niko's body little by little and soon he was feeling and moving better. The farrier was getting his feet in better shape, and he was whacking himself much less. I felt like I was on the right track, but there was something missing. He was still stressed when I rode him and he still had difficulty tracking to the right. The S.I. therapist really wanted him to have his shoes off. Mary Gallagher also recommended that the shoes come off. But I resisted both of them, and they humored me. Eventually I realized that they were right, and, that I needed to go deeper with his rehab, back to square one, which of course happens from the ground up. Literally!
On December 17th, 2013 I called Mary. "Niko needs to come to Freedom Farm!" The rehab I had done thus far took him a few steps forward, but his progress was halted due to problems in three key areas: Feet, teeth and human connection. While his feet were better, in order to become truly healthy, the shoes had to come off. While his teeth had been done by a dentist and he didn't have sharp points cutting his mouth anymore, his jaw was locking up because his teeth were not balanced properly. While he could be ridden and handled, he was often disconnected from his rider or handler and would become very nervous and aggressive, rearing or striking out. An extensive amount of groundwork was required, and I couldn't think of a better place for him to get it.
Niko's life was about to get a whole lot better.
To be continued.....
(Originally published September 2014)
