Echo

I want to tell you about Echo, I don't have a picture of her, but she was a fairly typical backyard Arab mare. About 13.2 hands, fleabitten gray, no withers to speak of and a cute face. She was purchased by some friends for their kids to do 4-H on. Echo was a basket case. She was a sweet mare, not mean, just scared and green. Apparently the previous owner had left her in a stall or small pen with her foal until said foal was 2 or 3 years old, so she was fairly unsocialized. They fed and watered them but little else. She was "broke" but not trained, she would not canter, only trot-trot-trot, faster and faster. You could NOT touch her head or ears, I was informed that she had at one time been beaten in the head with a water hose when she did not behave. She had never been bitted, they were given a big ol' mechanical hack to use on her. She went everywhere with her head in the air. She bucked when she did not get her way, she fidgeted constantly when tied. She hated to have her feet messed with.
They tried several times to show her, but in 4-H, unless you are doing speed events, they require you to use a bit. They also like the horse to canter. The kids were taking lessons with me, and when the parents saw what I had been able to accomplish with Darlin, they asked if I would be interested in working with Echo. I said, sure, bring her over and I will see what I can do. I also cautioned them that it may take awhile.
Echo arrived, I put her in one of our runs with an open shed so she would not feel too confined. I gave her a couple of days to settle in and get used to things before we started working. The first thing we had to overcome was the head-shyness. I marched out to her pen with a bucket and a smiple headstall with a loose ring snaffle. I sat the bucket on the ground and myself on the bucket. Echo watched this production from the corner of the pen. After about 10 minutes she inched her way over to me and started nosing around. I grasped her halter and slowly stood up. She snorted and pulled back but stopped when she realized I was not going to hurt her. I talked gently to her as I slid my hand up her neck, placing my hand on her poll between her ears. She exploded, dragging me around the pen like a ragdoll, but my hand never moved. After a few laps around the pen, she stopped, panting and shaking. Huh, someone was touching her head and it didn't hurt! I stood with her and rubbed her head and ears for a good half hour, getting her used to the sensation. I then introduced the headstall, after a prefunctionary sniff, she allowed me to slip it over her head and the bit in her mouth. She chomped madly on it for hours. I let her wear it for a little while each day, spending a lot of time practicing taking it off and on to get her used to the whole process. As time went on, she objected less and less to the bit. I got the impression that rather than trying to overcome this issue, the people who had "trained" her just avoided it by using a mechanical hackamore and disassembling the headstall and putting it back together on her head while she thrashed around, thereby allowing the behavior to continue.
The first few rides were interesting, it involved taking her out on the trails and learining to GO. She was at first very resisitant to the idea of cantering, but after a few rides began to enjoy cantering down the trails. She had boundless endurance and was very non-reactive when it came to "scary things" like trash cans and paper bags. We did a lot of work in the arena on bending and giving to pressure. I taught her the basics she would need in order to compete in the local 4-H shows in both English and Western events. She learned very quickly and seemed to enjoy the work. I got her started over some low jumps and was pleased with her willingness to try new things. We also worked on ground manners like picking up our feet and standing for the farrier. She also had issues with water hoses (gosh, I wonder why) and had to learn that a bath was a pleasant thing, especially after a long workout. It took a great deal of patience to bring her back, but she went home a usable, showable animal. Her people were delighted with the results and I was happy to have had the chance to work with her. A great deal of her issues, like with so many abused horses, seemed to stem from a lack of trust in humans.