Galiano came into his clinic with a brooding sense of menace as a confirmed and dangerous biter.
They said they had kept him because he was excellent under saddle, but it was getting more and more difficult to justify the risk.
I can only imagine what it’s like to have a horse who is reacting like Galiano was. It makes breeding budgies look very attractive, as a friend of mine said once. (A budgie is a small Australian parrot.)
And I can only imagine how desperate Galiano must have felt to be behaving like that.
And I see way too many Galiano’s…
He was brought to the clinic by young Kayla, a non rider from a very horsey family. Kayla was at the clinic because she wanted to join in the family hobby and feel more competent around the horses.
My daughter, Melissa taught the first day of this clinic as I was volunteering with the State Rescue Service in the huge bushfires of 2005/6. I had been blocked in by the fire and couldn’t get home in time for the start of the clinic.
Melissa did an awesome job of helping Kayla help Galiano and turn him around in one day. Melissa tells me that it was very disturbing to work with a horse so dangerous – and very satisfying to see him turn around so quickly.
By the time I got to the clinic on Day 2, Kayla had a pussy cat walking beside her at liberty – no ropes and no halter. Not bad for a dangerous horse who was famous for tearing the shirt off her father’s back! Later on in the clinic she was even playing with him with balls at liberty in a two acre paddock.
My work has developed heaps since the days of Galiano’s clinic. These days it is even more gentle and even easier to understand.
If you have a horse who bites, then talk to me by email, tell me what’s happening and get a plan to change what is often a dangerous situation. We’ve got some fabulous and every effective ways to keep yourself safe while you change what’s happening. If it’s bad, you can even stay out of the paddock until you’ve established some communication and made yourself safe.
The thing to remember is that a biting horse IS NOT a bad horse – it’s a desperate horse, a scared horse or a very confused and miserable horse, but I PROMISE YOU, it is not a bad horse. It’s not hard to fix this sort of thing, with understanding and gentleness.
Follow up reports about Kayla and Galiano had both of them continuing to grow and enjoy being together more and more. Even Dad who’d had his shirt ripped off previously, improved his relationship too.
There’s another story about a dangerously biting horse here.
