Page 4 - Hillside 2018 Web Newsletter

From Rescue to Many of the horses we rescue have had very little contact with people
Rehabilitation... 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...

Horse Handling... Stanley (below) came to Hillside
from a stray horse pound and was
Our first and sometimes extremely nervous. You may
most challenging task request a DVD showing Liton, one
is to work with a of our horse handlers, working with
horse until it is Stanley on the back page.
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.

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 de-
wormed 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!!

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