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It wasn't long
before Tequila started misbehaving. Her new owner wasn't
used to hacking out on a young, hot-blooded thoroughbred.
She was more used to the ploddy type. Tequila made her
feel nervous. And within the first few weeks, the trouble
started.
By the time she was 7 years old, no-one
dared ride Tequila any more. As soon as anyone got on her
back, she reared up and fell over backwards. Three short
years is all it took to turn Tequila from a well-behaved
Thoroughbred into an unrideable horse.
When she came to us, she was scared out
of her wits by almost everything, except normal, every-day
handling - like catching, grooming and tacking up. Her
manners were impeccable, unless she found herself tied up, and
then all hell broke loose. Terrified by change of any
kind, she would revert to the wild beast that nobody could
ride. Like 5 seconds away from her friends and shut into a
stable, sent her careering madly round it, looking desperately
for a way out.
The strange thing was, she was a lovely
ride. Nicely forward going, but very controllable.
And absolutely bomb-proof in traffic. That was a
surprise. For a horse that was so nervous of everything
else, I did expect a few reactions to things like lorries and
motor-bikes. But not a bit of it. She wasn't even
bothered by road-works or plastic bags in the hedge. She
just obligingly followed the straight-line forward - and never
reared again!
I knew we had
an exceptional horse, but we had a long way to go. She had
so many fears and insecurities, every step of the way was a
compromise. A little bit of what she wanted, in return for
what we wanted. Eventually, we got her jumping.
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