‘She ripped my shoulder to shreds’
When Amy Powell started a new job managing a yard, her first task was to sort out a horse that was naughty to turn out.
“Mademoiselle was a 16-year-old Dutch Warmblood x Thoroughbred mare with hormonal issues. She was dangerous to turn out; rearing, lungeing and taking off.
“When I witnessed her galloping down the drive with the lunge line still attached to her chifney, I decided enough was enough. You couldn’t reprimand her bad behaviour, so it required a lot of patience, ignoring the bad behaviour and rewarding the good.
“We got closer and closer to the gate without her playing up. After a few months, we could get into the gate and keep her head down so I could get the chifney off and give her a carrot. I then got her into a Dually halter and it was all fab. I even ended up taking her on as no one else wanted her.
“Two years later, we moved yards. I had her on part-livery, and gradually she slipped back into her old ways.
“It took me three days to get her safe to turn out again: the first day, I realised how bad she’d become; the second day, she reared up and ripped my shoulder apart, tearing the muscles, cartilage and ligament and putting me in hospital; the third day I turned her out from the wrong side with my shoulder in a sling and miraculously, she was an angel. She either knew she’d hurt me or decided to give up.
“Mademoiselle stayed with me until she died in her twenties. She was a talented dressage horse and taught me so much, mostly about patience.”
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