Nadia APHA mare

It was a gloomy December day when I met Nadia. A friend at our barn had seen her ad on CraigsList and called the owner.
"Catch her and you can have her".
Of course, I volunteered to help. We drove out to a local performance barn. It was clean and all of the horses looked nice. "She's in the back" was the only help her owners offered. Nadia's pasture was the manure pile.

She was standing almost knee deep in filth, eating on filth, with a halter partially embedded in her face, and two lead ropes trailing in the mud. She stood on alert as we approached. I was given the usual warnings: She was "CRAZY" "un-trainable" and "dangerous". Sounds like fun! She was very fearful and flighty and she watched my every move as I trudged out through the mud. I immediately began a 'conversation' with her, and to my surprise she was eager to talk. Reportedly it always took a group of people and several hours to catch her. But nobody told her that, because she allowed me to walk up to her and take the lead rope after a mere thirty minutes of debate. Trembling, she cautiously followed me out of the pasture. At this point her owner had appeared, which was just the motivation she needed to RUN into the open trailer.

I had to cut the halter off of her, and carefully removed the embedded pieces. The next day, it took me about an hour to get her to relax and just let me pet her. By the end of the second day I could stand in the stall without her trembling, and touch her without her throwing herself into the wall. What happened to this mare?

My friends did some sleuthing and we found out that Nadia had been started as bucking stock, and when she didn't want to buck, they reportedly used her for roping practice. She had the scars to prove it. It was no wonder she was terrified of people. I worked the next week on haltering, leading, catching, and letting me touch her. The first roundpen session we had some major breakthroughs. She wanted so badly to have contact, but every instinct, memory and experience in her told her I was going to hurt her, and she needed to flee.

By week two she was haltering, leading, and allowing me to catch her out of the roundpen without any major drama . She would let me walk up to her and stroke her neck without shaking.

Now, a brush was a different story. Nadia was incredibly sensitive - the wrong body language would send her into a tizzy, and brushes were foreign instruments of torture. But she was a hairy, dirty, and very skinny yak, and I could not stand the 'goat hair'. She eventually endured having her mane cut, brushed out, and her hooves picked, but even though she stood like a pro for the torture she sweated profusely. We worked hard through the following months to get through major trauma.

Slowly she became a much more relaxed and well adjusted horse. We could at least handle her like a normal horse. I began saddle work, which is where the bucking stock came out. I got to where you could tack her up, lunge etc. without an issue. But the sound of the whip would trigger blind bucking. I mean BLIND. She would crash into walls, gates, and through or over whatever happened to be in her way. After being dragged across the arena, thrown into a wall, and several third degree rope burns I gave up trying to hold onto her and let her work it out. She would snap out of it as if she had been in a total trance, and then trembling she would come back to me exhausted. I was able to successfully work through this trigger and de-sensitize her to ropes, whips, and tarps etc. At this point Nadia was adopted by a knowledgeable person, who was willing and able to continue her training. Although I have always wished I could have finished her training, Nadia is fat and happy in her forever home, and I am thankful that I had the opportunity to be a part of her journey.