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Tammy a 12-year-old Irish sports horse mare by Edward de Beaukalaer, UK
I am called because of ongoing low-grade laminitis and lameness, in the front feet. The owner rescued Tammy though a charity. She is barefoot managed. The feet look reasonably good but are slight turned inward and have too high heels, which are slight contracted. There are some metabolic disease fat deposits on the neck and the buttocks. She comes over as uncertain. I am told that the very large abdomen I notice is always there.
She is tense but quiet on being examined. Away from the other horses she goes up and down in the box calling. Once handled she is better. When we put her in the paddock, she keeps walking around, because she wants to get back to the other horses. The owner being present does not settle her.
Out on a walk she is fine, ridden in a school (closed environment) she tends to rear and buck. There have likely been many issues of poor handling and saddling in the past. She was stressed for 2-3 days, when she arrived and then put her head down and ate. In the lorry on the way here she ate all the way.
She can be chilled out and she can overreact.
‘I do not think she expresses her full character’. The physio, who treated her, commented how good progress she made from being in a state of shut down, when she arrived, but she did not progress fully. ‘She does not fully trust us, she is quiet: it is not her real character. She rather gives in than expresses herself. She would try to be as quiet as possible trying to be invisible.
She is OK with the other horses but she will really lash out
at them, when they do not move out of the way quickly enough. She is the greediest of the three horses. She will share to eat out of a bucket with one of the horses.
She is a bit switched off, she still does not look around being interested. She comes along and suddenly ‘wow’. Nothing flies out, she suddenly thinks ‘wow’, more a startle than a spook. She sticks her head up and snatches at the rope suddenly: she will protest on the walk out, tries a few things and then she is off again. She prefers to go back home.
If I enter the field she will look up but not come. The other horse comes up to me. She seems quiet, timid maybe. Quiet comes to mind, very quiet. She has extreme reactions and is startled but she is quite disinterested almost.
She has suffered with episodes of loose droppings a few times. She passes much wind most of the time. She puts her tail upside down on her back to pass wind. She comes in season but it makes no difference to her.
She would be better if she could trust us completely. She goes in the field and the two other horses come up and follow her, but it looks as if they are not there, she does not acknowledge them.’
During the homeopathic anamnesis, we sat in the paddock where she was left loose. It did strike me that she was almost scared of us. She never stopped walking/rushing around looking as if she wanted to be somewhere else (the field). The owner then added: she has had 9 homes in 10 years.