Xavi
This is exactly what happened with our rescue horse Xavi. Such a big strong powerful horse with an amazing nature and a “happy” back story. He was at least well loved, well fed and given medical treatments. However due to ignorance and common practice of keeping horses he lived alone and had formed a very strong attachment to an old dog. As cute as this was to see, it had underlying problems for horse and handler. You can read the back story of Xavi, his accident and why he came to us on his profile.
When Xavi arrived he was scared of all of the horses. It did not matter that he is bigger and stronger than every other horse we have here. He was scared and was subsequently the bottom of every paddock. We played tetris over and over again trying to fit him in somewhere where he was comfortable enough to eat. Due to his nervous nature as a thoroughbred he over thinks and struggled to stand his ground even to the bottom of the packs. This only spurred them on more to fight for their place as “not the bottom.” In the end we moved them around so much that he ended up in a small paddock alone, separated from the others by a bar. He has safety but still contact. This was our only solution for now. Here at Tenerife Horse Rescue we try to create as natural as possible environments with what we have available (hopefully soon our paradise paddock) so this was not an ideal choice but for him it was a necessity.
Horse Friendships
Horses have herd mentality and need this connection to thrive. You can read more about this on many other blogs and websites such as here. Most of these places explain much better than me and my writing anyway. I can concentrate on telling you about our horses and how they are now.
Billy O’Shea (jolly roger remix) — this is the name of our lovely new horse but named after our charity single. In case you did not already know this, read our previous blog post. It is out now on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube. Please have a listen—it will take you 2 minutes, you will enjoy it (we promise), and you will help us help the animals.
Listen for free to help the animals… it’s that easy!
