Henry, who arrived wide-eyed and nervous (it was his first time on a trailer, coupled with the uncertainty of a new place), has really begun to settle in at SAFE. He spends his days in a turnout with appaloosa mares Zelly and Evie on either side, and the three go to the big arena together on the daily to stretch their legs and take communal naps. Despite his initial look of uncertainty, Henry is a real sweetie who stands well for being groomed and having his feet handled. Because of his difficulty to catch, we had him in a breakaway halter his first few weeks at SAFE, but we have begun to phase the need for it out – he has made huge progress in being more trusting of us humans and therefore ‘catchable.’
Henry is up to date on vet and farrier care. He has had a dental float, his sheath cleaned, and is up to date on his vaccines. He was also dewormed upon arrival, as he arrived with a positive worm load. He has been trimmed twice since arriving at SAFE, with a 6 week trim schedule set going forward. He gets daily thrush treatments to help combat the thrush all the Graham horses arrived with.
Henry has a slight issue with locking stifles, which we had our vet evaluate. She feels that with exercise and conditioning, we will see improvement, so we will start Henry on various things to help, like sending him over trot poles and doing some hill work.
Henry is a soft and sensitive guy, and is very responsive. So many of the Graham horses are on the duller side of the spectrum, but Henry leans in the opposite direction. We have spent a little time with him in the round pen, assessing him, and running through the first few pages of the Red Book with him. He is very responsive to the flag, but still needs to learn the difference between it meaning something and it meaning nothing. We are working on trying to get him to just walk out on the rail (he is very good at trotting), and find relaxation there. Because he is so sensitive, we feel he will do extremely well in our training program, and quickly progress.
