Al the Nearly Loadable

I haven't been on my youtube account for ages, and I logged in this morning and was going through some of my old videos and came across this one of me playing with Al, and it brought back lots of memories, and brought up lots of emotions! This horse is an off the track thoroughbred who had severe float loading trauma, and had also bowed a tendon, so he was headed to the slaughterhouse. I asked the owners if, since he was probably going to be put down anyway, could I please have him. After some consideration they said if we could get him home we could have him...and there the fun began. He was 8 hours away from our place. The kids and I travelled to him and I spent a week playing with him every day to get him in a position where he would load on a horse truck to travel to our place.

The first time we went to see him, I led him past a float, and he hit the end of the 22 foot rope before I could even turn around to see what was happening. I mean this horse had MAJOR float issues. But he was a successful racehorse, how did they get him to the track? I heard later that they had parked the trailer and the end of a cattle loading ramp and chased him on with a stock whip until he ran up the race and fell in the trailer. Otherwise they conditioned him to get on one of their floats, it was a big, open, four horse angle load. He would run on to it full pelt, and then you snapped him in real quick. As soon it was time to unload you made sure you were out of the way, unsnapped him, and he would scramble out of there blindly. Absolutely terrified. But he had been beaten so many times he decided the fear of that trailer was the better of two evils. The first thing I made clear to him in the first few minutes of our time together away from that place was that that would never happen to him again.

Once I got him home we played with him for 18 months rehabilitating his injured leg, and his faith in the human race. He spent most of his time running in the bush with our herd, as he was well bred and 'valuable' and I doubt ever allowed to take the risk of being allowed to behave like a horse! It was not easy. This horse has been my greatest teacher yet. It was sooooo frustrating!!! But so valuable, and so rewarding and I am a better person for having had him in my life! Ask Chris Corbidge, one of my instructors, she got many an email along the lines of "Oh, my goodness, Chris, what on earth am I going to do!?! This horse is going to be the death of me!!" But I never gave up on him. I put him back in the paddock a few times when I was out of answers, but I never gave up.

When I look back at this video, which was somewhere along his journey, not the end product, I have a sense of pride at giving this guy a chance, and I also smile at the memories I have of our time together, it is a wry smile, he was a hard teacher, but a good one!

Al did eventually accept the float as a safe place, and his 'unhealable' bowed tendon healed beautifully. He now has the perfect relationship in a new home with a lady who loves him to bits, and has bought him a new car, a new float, and now a new farm! And he will never experience fear like that again, and he will never be forgotten around here either, as frustrating as he was for me, our whole family, as well as many others who become involved in his journey, completely fell in love with him. I don't think any animal should have to be put in the situations that this trusting, gentle, noble horse was exposed to. He was destined for the slaughterhouse, his 'usable' life was over, and he was only five years old when I got him.

Big Al, you're a legend!