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From Rescue to Rehabilitation... From Rescue to Rehabilitation... Horse Handling...
Our first and sometimes most challenging task is to work with a horse until it is comfortable being handled. Some horses who have been neglected or abused in the past are understandably very nervous around people when they arrive at the Sanctuary.
Many of the horses we rescue have had very little contact with people and so are not used to being handled. At Hillside they will generally live in a herd situation and stay with the friends they came in with. However, it is important that they trust us enough so we can work with them to administer veterinary treatment such as de-worming and vaccinations and also to be able to trim their hooves...
Stanley (below) came to Hillside from a stray horse pound and was extremely nervous. You may request a DVD showing Liton, one of our horse handlers, working with Stanley on the back page.
Our horse handlers, calm and kind, use their knowledge and patience to teach a horse that it has no need to fear people any longer. It is often surprising how quickly a horse will begin to trust in the hands of a skilled handler, whose aim will be to gently bring the horse around to the point where our staff can put on a head collar and perform basic veterinary treatments such as vaccinations and de-worming, and a farrier can trim the hooves...
Foot Trimming...
Also De-worming and Vaccinations
On arrival, all horses, ponies and foals undergo a basic health check. Any with long feet are visited by our farriers or foot trimmers who ensure they can walk comfortably. They will also be dewormed and vaccinated against ‘Flu and Tetanus. All stallions are castrated before being turned out with other horses to ensure there is no unnecessary clip-clopping of tiny hooves in the coming months! Because so many of our rescued mares come from unknown backgrounds, mostly via stray horse pounds, they are all scanned to find out if they are pregnant. Every year we now have around 50 foals born to recently rescued mares!!
