Observations placeholder

Adam Shereston - Alignment

With some horses, it can take time and parience to find out exactly what is wrong with them; however, with Oddly Dodd, it was quite the opposite. I could hear him shouting at me as soon as I entered the stable.

The first thing that he showed me was the discomfort he was in by sending me the feeling of severe pain in one of my right-hand ribs. The pain was so intense that I had to adjust my breathing; as my diaphragm expanded with each breath, it would hurt even more.

I didn't have to ask Oddly Dodd if this was one of the reasons behind his poor performance on the circuit. However, I did ask him what was causing his pain, and his answer was quite disconcerting. I was expecting him to tell me that an injury had been caused by another horse kicking him, as the physical damage was in a typical place for this.

Imagine my shock when I saw a vision of a person striking a horse with a shovel in exactly the same region where I had picked up the problem. It replayed over and over in my mind. I knew that it was Oddly Dodd showing me that this was how he had sustained his injury. As a result, it was causing him pain and making it difficult for him to run. And as an added consequence, I could see that he slightly mistrusted humans. It was hardly surprising, given the abusive treatment he had obviously been subjected to.

Thomas [his owner] seemed to be slightly taken aback when I told him. He went on to explain that a trainer at the yard where he had acquired Oddly Dodd had recently been fined for striking a horse with a shovel. I said that I would apply healing to the injured area and talk to Oddly Dodd to reassure him that he would not be treated that way here.

With a new awareness, Thomas was now able to make the appropriate adjustments to his horse's handling, which would prevent any bad memories from resurfacing. On leaving the yard, I advised him that if there were no improvements in his horse's performance, he should take him to the vet to check his ribcage for injury. I didn't hear back, so I assumed that the healing had been successful. In fact, I was able to check up on Oddly Dodds racing performance via the normal media channels shortly afterwards. And a marked improvement was most definitely indicated.