In amongst all this wonderful Comfort Zone work, we come across things in our horses’ lives that are very difficult to get into their Comfort Zone – like the dentist for example or dressing a painful wound, or a needle from the vet. There’s a list of articles about preparing a horse for the dentist (real live footage from preparing Oliver) and a real life needling of a needle shy horse (Rapunzel) – I’ve put those lessons in Extra Lessons from Jenny on the forum so we can have a discussion around them. 🙂
Here is a great tip if your horse has to have an injection – ask your vet to warm the contents up to blood temperature and the darned thing won’t hurt at all. Tucking the injection (minus the sharp needle!!!) into your armpit for a few minutes works well to warm it up.
What we CAN do though, is help our horse to relax and minimise their discomfort – and we can do that naturally with the endorphin release techniques that we show you here.
Click here for an alternate recording of the introduction to this lesson
This is also an excellent technique to help you deal with the pain of a colic attack. I strongly suggest that you practise this technique BEFORE you have an emergency.
Important note – use either your thumb or two fingers to work the acupressure point for endorphin release. Your thumb has a neutral polarity and two fingers together create a neutral polarity for working the point most effectively. From a practical point of view, I personally find it easiest to use my thumb and tuck my other fingers underneath the mouth.
Written Version of the Introduction Audio
Oh yeah and by the way – please don’t say it’s not going to hurt when it will or when it often does – the relaxation technique means that you don’t have to go there…
Don’t start this when the dentist or vet arrives – it’s too late and often there is already some anxiety to overcome. Ditto for the place that you are going to do the job. Have that PLACE comfortable before the day that the dentist is coming. Because if they are already in the Not Too Sure Zone, then it is way too easy for them to flip out into the “Oh Shit” Zone and more difficult (although still possible) to get the endorphins running.
You cannot stop the rasping of the dentist being uncomfortable – but you CAN insist that the dentist release the gag and let the horse stretch their mouth during the procedure and that will give you some time to do some more endorphin release work.
You CAN show the vet how to reach out and say hello to your horse and stop and wait there for a while, even retreat a little to help your horse settle.
One of my greatest regrets is wringing my hands about the way that a dentist was treating Bobby instead of asking him to stop. Unfortunately I went into my “Oh Shit” Zone at the thought of a possible confrontation and Bobby was so generous that the dentist got away with it.
…Never again…