Testimonial
I recieved the below email this week regarding Madge, a 5yr old Highland we worked with last year. We wanted to share her story in order to perhaps help another.
Miriam of Combebank’s Story-her survival is testimony to Learning to Listen Education.
I bought Miriam of Combebank(Madge) in Sept 08. She was 5yo but had lived a very natural life on a stud deep in the North Yorkshire Moors. She did not know how to be groomed, have her feet picked up, be led wearing a halter, let alone be ridden. She is a Highland Pony & they are usually a very laid back breed. She had had some handling when she was weaned & her breeder got her used to a trailer by having her food & water in it whilst she was living in a fold yard. This is why she was happy to go in the trailer to get to Learning to Listen.
I wanted her to get an all round education whilst she was there. She learnt how to walk wearing a halter. She learnt about grooming & had her feet trimmed by a farrier for the first time. She learnt about flapping plastic bags, walking over poles, up onto a platform & off again prior to how to load properly into a trailer. She walked over rustly tarpaulins & had them draped over her back. She was going so well she had tack on & at the end of the second week she was carrying a person on her back & walking up the lane. I was very pleased with her rapid progress and she came closer to home to complete her education. It was then she became poorly with colic. Thanks to her education she coped extremely well with the injections, rectals & stomach tubings needed to treat the impaction. By the end of the third day she was no better so referral to an Equine Veterinary Clinic was arranged. She loaded into a trailer for only the third time in her life in the dark, across a puddle & not feeling at all well. She did it without hesitation. I was so proud of her. After an hour or so we arrived at the clinic. There were bright lights & she led out of the trailer into the clinic, straight into the padded stocks for yet more examinations without a murmur. The Vets were very impressed. Her impaction sorted medically & she was allowed home the next day, again she walked into the trailer just fine.
She seemed fine for a few days then she deteriorated & Chronic Equine Grass Sickness was diagnosed. This is a horrible disease requiring intensive nursing for any hope of survival. Thanks to her Learning to Listen education she was no problem to get a rug on, very necessary to keep her warm whist she could not eat enough to generate her own body heat & keep weight on. Even rugged up she lost a lot of weight & at her worst she looked like an emaciated greyhound. Happily 7 months later she is thriving. She has regained all the weight she lost & she has not forgotten her basic education. We hope to start riding her again in the next month or so. I am firmly convinced that without her Learning to Listen education she would not have survived.
Laura-Jane Macolch
