Galan is the calmest horse on the finca, but it didn’t start this way
This lovely boy has an unusual story that shows the power of ignorance and false information rather than neglect. We actually bought Galan as a “riding horse”. We didn’t get him as an typical rescue, although it was obvious to us that he was. When we went to view him, he was all tacked up and bouncing around in the middle of the road. 3 men holding him still, big heavy bit in his mouth. Someone got on to show us his riding ability and he was like a coiled spring.
We were told that his food consisted of kilos of oats a day and he lived 100% of his time in a stable. The people who currently owned him were a lovely young couple but by being given bad advice they ended up with an uncontrollable horse they needed to get rid of as the situation was getting worse. He couldn’t be ridden as he was considered crazy, but he was getting crazy as he wasn’t moving.
The first night with us Galan had dug a huge hole from weaving and pacing so franticly, his knee was bleeding from continual stamping and kicking the fence, his teeth were gone and tongue blistered due to continual cribbing and his hair was matted with sweat. Night 2 he paced gently and cribbed, day 3 all vices were totally gone accept his cribbing. To this day he still does this as he can’t totally forget his stressful past.
Poor Galan also came with huge swollen painful muscles on the side of his neck from a forced outline whilst riding. This took 1 year for him to relax and drop this unnatural position. Even without any contact from a rider. This lovely boy has been through treatments for a rare parasite in his blood which caused extreme discomfort and weight loss, previous veterinary advice was to feed kilos and kilos of oats a day (common advice on this island, and we understand why his previous owners did this now) but fortunately another vet discovered his problem and nowadays he has no physical ailments but holds a lot of fear in his memories.
With a lot of time, patience, going back to basics and gaining his trust with target training and positive reinforcement methods Galan is now the calmest horse on the Finca and one of the few ridden horses. He thoroughly enjoys riding along the countryside. A total transformation and a happy ending for this beautiful boy.
