Adventures With Horsemanship

KENNA: Born of Fire

Kenna: Born of Fire is about the journey of a horse who passes through a troubled past, where humans neglected and mistreated her, to the point where she was mistakenly labeled “dangerous” and “unwanted” to learning to trust again and become a valued and cherished Equine Partner. Kenna’s story is, sadly, not uncommon. So many horses are failed by their humans and end up in situations where, through little fault of their own, often lead to their lives coming to a sad and ignoble end. In the age of Covid, many people purchased horses without educating and preparing themselves for the changes to their lifestyle that horse ownership brings. These horses are tagged with all sorts of negative labels and lose all sense of consistency and leadership in their lives, which only leads to more heartbreak. Horse rescues and animal shelters all across the nation are filled beyond capacity due to the uneducated and unprepared humans who fail the noble spirit of the horse.

Thank you for joining Lucky Star Horsemanship as we share our adventure with Kenna to discover the horse she is meant to be. This journal will share very strong, unfiltered and heartfelt opinions along with the good and the bad aspect of Kenna’s experiences and retraining. “KENNA” is Gaelic for “born of fire” and given the history we know, it seemed to be a good fit for this horse (and the name spoke to Theresa’s spirit so she became KENNA when she came into our lives).

WHO IS KENNA?

· Kenna is a Quarter Horse/ Quarter Horse mix mare.

· 10-12 years old.

· Black with light roaning and a really small star on her head.

· About 15 hands high.

· Moderately stocky build.

HER HISTORY (be forewarned, it is a bit nuts)

· An ACO seizure, which occurred in December of 2021, is assisted by a regional horse rescue. What was reported was as follows: Poor living conditions. Horse was neglected. Substandard care.

· The regional horse rescue, which was at capacity at the time, facilitates a “fostering” of the horse with a private party to try and help the horse. The foster home runs into some behavior issues and thinks the horse is unsafe in its current state of training.

· The Rescue tries to facilitate some form of intervention training by someone willing to donate their time to help the horse, but for a variety of reasons the training doesn’t really get going as hoped.

· Said foster home, then sells the horse to new person who identifies themselves as a “novice horse person” who wants a younger horse than they have to achieve some unspecified goal with. This new owner invests in some 60 day hunter/jumper training program. It appears this training was not as successful as hoped and another 30 days is performed.

· The new owner then brings her to an “unnamed by request” boarding facility. The horse is at “unnamed by request” boarding facility for about two weeks. The facility owner reports that the horse is “unsafe and dangerous” because the new owner “cannot handle the horse safely” cannot get the horse out of the gate or even lunge her safely, Then when the farrier balks that the horse is difficult to work on (she did have issues with her rear feet at the time of our evaluation) and they want the horse gone because “no one has time to deal with this” as quoted from the facility owner.

· The regional horse rescue is contacted by someone (it is unclear to us who made the call), telling the Rescue to take the horse back for all the reasons noted above. The facility owner wants the horse gone yet sets up some hurdles to resolving the situation. The rescue is at capacity and really cannot take in another horse so begins to search for options.

· On September 30, 2022 the regional horse rescue sends Lucky Star Horsemanship a Facebook message asking us if we could help or had interest in the horse. We are really not in a position to take on a project/ rescue horse and put out some feelers to others in our network of professionals. During a rather long dialogue that offers up conflicting and alarming information such as “the horse had to be drugged and blindfolded to get on a trailer” and “we are not exactly sure where this horse is” and “you cannot evaluate the horse at the “unnamed upon request boarding facility” and so on, the regional rescue and Lucky Star Horsemanship come to understand that something needs to be done and quickly. It takes about a week to get things ironed out so that Lucky Star Horsemanship could go see the horse and, after an evaluation, determine what could be done.

· On October 9, 2022 we make the almost three hour drive (one way) out to the “unnamed upon request boarding facility” to meet the horse and perform an evaluation that lasted about two hours. Based on the evaluation and the dialogue with the unnamed facility owner, who informs us that she has someone coming later to take the horse if we don’t, we decide that we can give this horse a second chance and load the horse, with almost no fuss, on the trailer and head home.

And so her quest to become a really great Equine Partner begins…

10/09/2022 - DAY 0: The Evaluation

We head out from our “home base” at Hidden Hollow Farm with the owner and long time student of the horse of the facility. We are all curious to see what this mare is all about. We had questions and wondered if the mare could be part, with enough retraining/conditioning, to be part of the programs offered by Hidden Hollow or Lucky Star Horsemanship. Michael was in the 85-90% “NO” category before we even got in the truck. “Too many red flags” given the information we had. Michael was hoping the horse’s human would be at the evaluation so he could help them connect and stay together. The owner never showed up. We arrive after an almost three hour drive to then deal with the owner of the “unnamed by request” boarding facility and her many conditions and “rules.” We explain repeatedly that the evaluation will take as long as it takes and we need the round pen to perform the evaluation safely. If that is an issue we could leave right then and there. She backs off a bit and Michael gets to attempting to connect to the horse. Theresa and our friend run interference with the Facility Owner. We take pictures and some video of Michael and the horse together so we can have record of our efforts and the results of the evaluation, which is our standard practice.

In the paddock “Kenna” (who was called Kola/Cola before we met her) had little curiosity about the human in her space. She was signaling her annoyance at Michael being next to her. He acknowledged her opinion and gave her time to acknowledge his presence before he touched her. She shied away from the initial attempts to place the rope halter on her. Michael didn’t rush this process (despite the pressure from Facility Owner) and using “advance-pause-retreat” along with matching her footfall and energy “she” eventually caught “him”. No fuss, no drama. Even got the fly mask off without an issue. We were told that the owner could not get the horse out of the gate calmly. Michael simply asked the horse to pass through the gate at the walk and then turn to face him before they walked off together.

Then as they headed towards the round pen (the “arena” was just a rectangular sand box with no fences) Michael introduced the Leadership Exercise Stage 1. When he led, she followed. When he stopped, she stopped outside his personal space. Lots of rubbing and praise happened each time she tried. We were told that the horse had not been worked in about a week. Michael sends the horse through the round and got “two eyes” before he unhooked the lead rope and letting her explore and play a bit. When released she had great time showing us all her flair and personality. She pranced around, snorted, flagged her tail and let us know how flashy she is. We laughed. Michael then approached, rubbed on her and got connected. She followed him around. Then they got to work.

In the round pen, at liberty (no lead line) they worked on establishing all three basic gaits. We tried to push her “hot buttons” and we got some opinions. We made a connection and got two eyes. We built rapport. We outlined our leadership. We picked up her feet and discovered she has some fear based issues with her back feet so we worked on it a little. We then connected via a lead line. We did lateral flexion, vertical flexion, worked with the flag and basically tossed a bunch of Cooperative Groundwork exercises at her. We then saddled her up and did even more! This allowed us to determine if she was trainable and where her limitations were. It helps us to establish a baseline of who she is today. At the end of the session –and trying to ignore being “rushed” the whole time by Facility Owner – we really connected. Michael walked almost half way across the pen and then faced the horse. He indicated that he wanted her to move into his space. She did. They did this a few times. Then the big connection test. Michael walks in from about two strides for her jaw and indicates he wants her to follow. She does. He stops. She stops. He cues a back-up. She backs up. This is also repeated a few times. Well…dang.

So given everything we have seen, heard and experiences, we decide to load the horse up and head home. We really felt we were the only chance this horse had to reach her full potential.

Now we get to trailer loading. We heard about possibly difficulties and so on. We are ready for a challenging attempt. Well…she sniffed at the ramp and made an attempt. Decided not quite. So we backed up, did some groundwork to get her focused and tried again. Walked right on. Color us surprised! Almost three hours to get “home” and then she unloads like most horses who don’t travel much. She turned and walked out (another thing we’ll work on). We then walked around the property and got her settled in for the evening.

A long day. A surprising day. A good day.

10/10/2022 – Day 1: The Journey Begins

The facility was BUSY this morning! Lessons. Visitors. Several special needs groups and more. Lots of different energy floating around. So today was all about capitalizing on the good things we did yesterday. We reviewed everything. We worked on connection, communication, control and confidence. We worked on rapport. We goofed around. We groomed and pampered. We introduced the bridle. We played with desensitizing. We explored. We hung out. We existed together while she enjoyed a great turn out and got to graze in a big pasture. We took some of the exercises introduced during the evaluation and refined them a bit. We established boundaries, acceptable behavior and what Equine C.P.R (Clarity, Patience and Release) and the Pyramid of Pressure (Ask, Tell, Demand, Correct) means to her reality. There was a moment when Kenna was free grazing and hanging out enjoying the large hay pile in a big pasture where Michael walked in, just to be in Kenna’s orbit. Well, she saw him and walked right over! That earned a treat and some great rubbings! It is very clear that Kenna wants to have a person or persons. She is also pretty social. She met some other horses and never once postured or made noise. Kind of surprised really, given her history. When we departed to run errands Kenna was in her stall, having a little snack.

Fast forward to later in the day and we get a call the Kenna isn’t happy and worked herself up in her stall. So we stop what we are doing and hightail it to the barn. Well, it is determined that Kenna does not being the only one in the barn and in a stall. She thought she was abandoned again! We worked with her a bit and when the other horses were done and back in their stalls we got her situated again and everything was fine. Lesson learned.

Our initial impression is that, like so many horses we encounter, there are holes in Kenna's foundation. Add to this her lack of connection and consistency in her past makes her feel afraid. Horses are prey animals, whose first reaction to everything is "how do I survive this." Our goal for the next few months - we are heading into winter which always cuts into the timing of the program - is to rebuild the foundation, establish consistency, boundaries, mutual trust and respect. No matter where her trail leads, we want her to be valuable and cherished. We want to ensure she never ends up in the situation, through no fault of her, she was in when we met her.

Overall a pretty good day.

We even filmed a “Meet Kenna” video which can be seen at: https://fb.watch/g4CJhjg8_q/

trying the bridle on.