Garnet
It’s been just about six months since Garnet came to Hanaeleh. We realized very quickly that her breathing issues were serious, and discovered that her larynx was infected and she had almost no airway left to breathe through. We decided to go ahead with surgery to remove part of her larynx so she would have an adequate airway and would be able to live normally.
It took about a month of recovery, but since then, Garnet has enjoyed her time running around the arena! She is building up the muscles around her lungs that have atrophied for so long, and while she still wheezes when she runs around, she is healthy and happy, and her stamina is improving!
Now that Garnet is feeling better, she has started to challenge us a bit, and even reared multiple times! We decided that was Garnet’s way of telling us she was ready for more work, and since we have increased her exercise she has been much better behaved.
We also realized when she came to Hanaeleh that she pulled back when tied, so we have been working on that aspect of her training as well. She is slowly but surely improving.
We have not ridden Garnet yet, but we have started to longe her on a line, and she is doing well. We want to make sure that her muscles are adequate to comfortably support a person, and we are looking forward to being able to ride her soon.