At Liberty
Here’s a neat video of trick horse trainer, Tommie Turvey, and his two horses Joker and Ace, performing a liberty act.
I don’t believe in everything Tommie Turvey does in his training, but I do think he generally cares about his horses and their well-being. I also think we can learn something from every type of horse trainer out there – adapting it to your views and ways of teaching.
Chincoteague Minnow
This video made me long to do a liberty act with the trick ponies. Alas, Chincoteague Minnow will probably never be able to do a truly noteworthy liberty performance due to his arthritis. Perhaps someday Blitz and Boomer will be advanced enough to perform at liberty with me – but we are a long way from that. Minnow certainly could do it now, but watching him limp around isn’t exactly beautiful – it mostly looks cruel. I always struggle with asking Minnow to perform (which he absolutely loves) and having him look uncomfortable as he limps even at the walk. But the fact is Minnow lives with this pain everyday, if I never asked him to move I would be faced with an even bigger blimp of a pony that would undoubtedly face even more health problems due to his weight. But to an onlooker it can look as if I am “forcing” (which if anyone knows me they know I would NEVER force my horses to do anything) this limping pony to perform. The truth is he performs because he wants to not because he has to.
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Poor Minnow. I’ve never had any experience with ringbone. What can be done for it? Pain relievers? Glucosamine supplement or anything? I feel for you having to watch him limp around. It must be agonizing knowing you can’t make him better.
I haven’t watched the video yet but I will. 🙂
When I first found out about his diagnosis I had him injected at the recommendation from New Bolton Center (the big horse hospital in my area). They thought he might be rideable after that.
He spent months on stall rest (it hurt me to see him so isolated and I immediately regretted ever getting him injected). But he was a trooper and the injection gave me some wonderful last trail rides with him, but in the end his pain was too great.
He gets nothing for his pain right now. If I plan to take him somewhere to perform I give him a little bit of bute to make him more comfortable but it rarely makes much of a visible difference. I prefer not to “med him up” – I think its overkill since he’s just “being a pony” right now.
People live with arthritis everyday, if Minnow was in AGONIZING pain I certainly would look for more ways to alleviate his pain, but right now he seems quite content. I see him running in the pasture with his pals, if he was THAT painful I’m sure he wouldn’t be doing it.
I still long to ride him again, but I know that it would just be cruel to him.
I have read that the balanced 84 mineral composition of Himalayan Salt has been noted to dissolve build ups in joints (that are thought to cause arthritis).
I am not sure if that could help or not, but it is one holistic option to try.
Thanks for the suggestion on the Himalayan Salt…I will look into that.
Minnow’s “limp” is really barely noticeable in the summer, but as the cold weather sets in he definitely gets stiffer. It might be nice to find something for him if he’s having a bad day pain wise.
Anyone else out there in blog land have suggestions? I’d be more than happy to take them!!