How do you know when something is 'off' with your horse?
I asked this question to a group of horse women at a one day workshop a few weeks ago. When it came right down to it, everyone had the same answer. They have a feeling that something was off. That inner, gut reaction of simply knowing that something isn't right. The next question I asked was:
What do you usually do when you think there's something 'off'?
Each person had their own way to verify their feeling the next time they saw their horse. This might have been putting hands on, watching them move, palpating or a visual once over.
Very often when we have that initial gut feeling that something is 'off' we won't find anything obvious to support that feeling. So what now? Most of these women agreed that in the absence of any hard evidence they would disregard that initial feeling and continue on as though nothing was wrong.
So if we can't find any obvious issue, does this mean that our initial feeling was invalid or inaccurate?
I don't think so. I believe that because all mammals are hardwired to feel and mirror what those around them are experiencing, that that initial gut feeling is always accurate. The trick is to learn to honor our feelings and learn tools that allow us to unravel the mystery of where this subtle 'offness' might be originating.
Learning to honor our feelings, our instincts and our intuition is an important part of being an advocate for our horse. Those feelings can keep us safe, keep our horses from being ridden when they're in pain and often prevent the development of more serious issues down the road.
Rehab Tales and Glimpses of Life with Horses on Restoration Ranch
