Educating Indi
Angela Tiede, July 2024. Image: Indi as a young foal at Darraweit Guim.
Indi was born on 28 October 2019, just five months after her dam Topsy was captured on Todd River Downs and trucked to Victoria. It was a race to domesticate Topsy and Bess to the point of safely housing them in a large paddock, catching them each day to bring into a yard for handling and a bucket of feed, Indi arrived just one week after I turned them out into that paddock!
I could see that Topsy was in foal, but her due date was unknown, so it was an anxious time. Such a relief the day little Indi arrived safe and sound. From that first day she was keen to establish relationships with humans, starting with me. Topsy was completely at ease with her tiny foal coming up to me whenever she saw me, and as she got older, remaining with me in the yard after Topsy had walked back out to the paddock. Curious and bold, and full of beans. As she is to this day, approaching her fifth birthday.
Regretfully I made the decision to sell Indi as a yearling, not long after her first birthday, as I had my hands full with Topsy and Bess and my other horses. She moved to a property just down the road from me so I could stay in touch with her progress and visit her from time to time, which seemed like a good outcome. I was also familiar with the property and her new owners as they were with me and my Walers.
Unfortunately, events would prove otherwise as she was sent to be started under saddle at just two years and three months much to my dismay. Initially her report card was outstanding, she was deemed to be amazing and so trainable and smart, much to the delight of everyone involved. Then came the crunch when the news arrived that after a short break at home then back with the trainer for more education, she was now inexplicably dangerous, bucking everyone off very successfully and for no apparent reason.
I offered to buy her back immediately and if that option was not available then to at least have her returned from the trainer for a six-month spell at her home until after she was over three, and then I would pay for her to be assessed by my trainer so we could all understand what was going on. As it turned out she left the trainer but not for home. She spent months in a large back paddock at another property with no other horse for company before the agreed assessment with my trainer in December 2022. Much to my relief I was able to buy her back at this point, many thanks to her owner for agreeing that this was the best solution for all involved.
The reason for her behaviour became clear to me from the moment she was back in familiar hands. Overwhelmed and shut down, unresponsive and defeated was her demeanor. Her only defense it seemed to me was to withdraw her co-operation under saddle whatever it took. Her smarts and trainability had been used against her through lack of common sense and just plain ignorance, and when her attempts to communicate were constantly blocked she resorted to fighting as that is all a flight or fight animal has left once the flight response is closed down.
So how did I recognise this immediately I saw her again? Her tail had been cut off. Why? She was so anxious when first put in the roundyard to begin her training that those handling her did not know how to manage her so sought advice on how to fix that: tie her head to her tail. Apparently, that fixes most anxious horses. In what century I wonder. End result a rope so tightly wrapped from her attempts to get away that it had to be cut out of her tail. Unforgiveable.
Image: Indi with Drew, December 2022
Incredibly, Indi had submitted to this bullying and become the amazing riding horse reported back to me. Until she had the opportunity for a break away from the situation and when asked to return to that school environment, she said no. ‘Not negotiable, I am not enduring being in the one-sided conversation I know from the last time.’
Not one person involved with her during that initial ‘training’ advocated for her, not her owner, the trainer, the main rider, all of whom had every reason to listen to her and in the process recognise that she was too young and obviously overwhelmed by what they were doing with her. Not the onlookers, nor even the bloke bought in to fix her bucking (who pronounced her to be feral after she also bucked him off). Unbelievable to me. Indi’s communication skills are first-rate, but apparently of no interest or significance to those taking on her education. And those ‘educators’ deemed her behaviour to be inexplicable! To this day. Their main goal had been to eliminate her reactions to stimulus, to close down any opinion she may have tried to express, in order to make her quiet and safe to ride. And at the same time recognising she was super intelligent and so trainable, one of a kind. No. No. Just No!
Indi had ten days with my trainer (Drew at Roseneath) to assess her and try to restore her confidence a little then came home to me for a twelve-month break to just be a pony amongst friends. She was so grateful to be able to relax and be herself again in a safe, familiar environment, and I was so happy to have her back in my care.
In February 2024, when she was just over four, Indi was re-started under saddle by Drew and what a wonderful, beautiful and precious thing to see her building her trust again and giving it her all with every ride. We had fun at an Obstacle Day run by Drew and I rode Indi there before she came home again to me for further fun and adventures with her horse and human friends at Clarkefield.
Now she is home for good. Gradually the light is coming back into her eyes and she is enjoying new adventures under saddle, riding out around my local roads, just loving sticky-beaking around the neighbourhood. Her riding companion is my stallion Ezekiel, much to the envy of the mares she lives with…especially her cheeky little half-sister Mollie who thinks she is the most important one of all.
