Our sweet mare Dyna came to SAFE right before the big move to our new facility. By no fault of her own we failed to post about her story and properly introduce her. We hope to rectify that now! A woman who had owned her for just a year surrendered Dyna to SAFE due to life changes that made her unable to continue to care for her. She told us that Dyna was 15 years old but as soon as Dr. Fleck came to do her much needed dental float, her teeth revealed that she was actually over 25 years old. We love her all the same and only changed our adoption strategies and finding someone who will understand her senior status.
Dyna is a very gentle girl that has no behavior issues or troubles. She seems to have been treated well by humans in the past and does not have any fear or anxieties. She can be trusted with volunteers with little horses experience and with children. We have been working on her groundwork and to see what she may or may not know. It seems like she has been ridden and she easily accepts what we ask of her.
We have no current health concerns for her. As horses age and their teeth wear down, it is harder for their bodies to break down the forage and get all of the nutrients they need from just dry hay. Senior feed is an easy way to supplement them and Dyna loves her mash of senior! She is also getting a bit of psyllium added to her diet as a bulk-forming fiber. The fiber absorbs liquid and helps keep her stool well formed. It is an inexpensive supplement and one of the joys of aging. As the vet explained, it is like Metamucil for horses.
One of SAFE’s wonderful volunteers, Jane, has taken Dyna on as her special friend. She has been grooming her and getting her into riding shape. This week, Jane and I will begin riding Dyna and hope to have her out on the trails later this month. Jane took Dyna in the last Joel Conner clinic for the ground working sessions. Here is what she had to say about her experience with Dyna:
I had the pleasure of working with Dyna, a senior mare of unknown quantity, for two mornings in Joel’s recent clinic at SHS. Not knowing what sort of background she has and that I’m a relative novice when it comes to groundwork; she and I spent two mornings learning a lot about each other. I worked with Dyna on unified circles, yielding her hindquarters and backing. We also worked side-by-side at a walk varying speed, halting, backing, trotting off, halting, etc., etc. Overall, this sweet mare does a good job at all these exercises but is hesitant to back except when I’m alongside her. She’s also resistant to yielding her front quarters, and her resistance could largely be because I’m not really clear how to ask her to do that. Even with my lack of experience, she never wavered from being a girl with a lovely disposition. She never became upset with my efforts to get a certain action from her. She didn’t mind at all being in the arena with a dozen other horses and handlers. She’s quite unfazed by activity, for the most part. She only slightly flinches with flag work and, since the clinic, that’s improving. She stands tied beautifully. Dyna will make someone a lovely companion.
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- Jane and Dyna
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- Volunteers help Dyna shed out her winter coat.
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- Such a good mare!
