Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry for that accident! That’s terrifying. I hope nothing went wrong with this new trainer, as I’ve had my share of bad ones. Please continue your story!
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Your poor girl. That looks like a nasty wound.
I am hoping the time with trainer was uneventful, but it is not sounding that way.
Love hearing your story. I keep coming back for more.
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Poor baby. It seems like she’s really trying to be good for you but has a few issues that need to be worked through.
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I am hooked on your story. I’m so sorry you went through all this, but waiting for updates to see where it goes.
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I have exams next week, so I will only give you a small next piece. 
I brought my mare to the trainer at 1st December 2014. She said, she would be lunging her the first week, just to get her used to her new environment. The lunging went good. I at least had done a good job on teaching her to be lunged 
The trainer made additional holes in my bridle. I wasn’t very happy about this, because I’m not a friend of thight nosebands. But I wasn’t brave enough to say anything. At least someone was helping me.
So after a week of lunging her with saddle and bridle and side reins, she tried to mount her for the first time. This went… bad. According to the trainer, she tried to mount, but my horse got all tensed up, ready to burst into fast galopp like a racehorse would leave the start box. So she got down immediately, because she thought of the situation as unsafe. She tried it one or two other times and then told me, she was kinda clueless, because my horse wouldn’t relax, even when lead a few steps (or round, I can’t remember) and she would ask her own trainer, who had trained her and she would talk to her vet as well. I agreed, because I wanted the best possible expierience for my mare.
She came back with the following plan: She explained, she had come to the conclusion, that she would like to sedate my mare by Sedalin (might be known as Ace here). This is something, which is absolutely uncommon over here and riding horses under Ace is something, most riders would consider as unethical. At least, if it isn’t for health purposes (after a tendon injury).
I disgareed on this, because I was - and AM - of the opinion, that a fearful, panicked horse won’t loose his fear and tension, when sedated. It will be unable to express their fear, but I will not be unable to expierence it. I told the trainer, that I disagree and we talked and she agreed on trying it without sedating and I told her, I would be okay, if it took longer, because my mare was already 10, becoming eleven in 2015. There was nothing to reach within a certain time.
So 1 or 2 weeks went by, it was January 2015 and the trainer had tried further but without much success. Previously she would update me on what she’d done with my mare every day. She usually trained her in the morning, I was at the barn every evening to clean her paddock and just pet her and to let her out of her stable on Sundays. After me turning down the Ace-Idea she stopped giving me daily updates and I had to ask every day about what they’d done. This really annoyed me and I was under the impression, that she was very unhappy about me disagreeing. I felt, that she had reservations on working with my mare, but was to… I don’t know… maybe proud, to talk to me. In addtion my mare had begun to flee from her stable onto her paddock, when she saw somebody coming close to her stable door. She started to not wanting to be caught or touched and avoiding humans as much as possible.
I started to second guess the whole idea of her being at this trainer. But I had signed a 3 months contract and I had - quite frankly - not the money to board elsewhere and still pay the rest of the signed months of training + boarding fee. I was really stuck in a bad place at this moment.
I had a vet appointment in January for teeth. They hadn’t been checked since. Few days before the appointment, I decided to add a back exam (x-rays) to this appointment. Why? Because I had noticed, that my mare wouldn’t relax her head position at all when lunged. She trotted and cantered like a giraffe. I had done a PPE, but without back x-rays. So I thought: Let’s add this to the vet appointment, just to be sure, she is sound.
Her teeth were okay, just a few things to fix. Her back x-rays… we’re not.
Yeah. Sh*t. This wasn’t what I had hoped for. The only good thing was: I was out of the trainers contract immeditaly and without any fuss with her. She was kinda nice, because… yeah.
What do y’all think? How did this story continue? What did the vet say as a prognosis? What was the exact diagnose?
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Ugh, looks like kissing spines. You must have been heartbroken! What a stressful experience so far.
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