The Trance, and What To Do About It.

Over the years I have learned to adapt my style of working to whatever horse I have in the moment. As a kid, I used to ride other people's horses and be a crash test dummy for the schoolies-in-training. High school and college was very much the same. Even though I didn't recognize it, I knew how to adapt even back then.

Now that I am older, I can realize those adaptations. I first started recognizing it with Faith. Then Frank. Then Cassie. Then Cabo. The woman of many faces-doing what the horse needs in that moment. And sometimes, missing the mark. By a long shot.

One thing I have not yet figured out how to solve is Cassie's sleeping quirk. I learned she had this the hard way. She's always been pretty good about giving to pressure- and there was relatively low drama when teaching her how to tie. Except when I experienced her Freak Out of 2008. Basically, it goes something like this: I tie horse, I groom and fiddle around with horse. I stop and chat with barn folk. Horse goes into trance like sleep. Some outside factor wakes horse up. Horse panics & pulls- breaking anything and everything in her path. Yikes.

I didn't see the situation properly the first time. I thought she woke up, found the end of the rope, and then panicked because she was trapped. But the second time I witnessed the same scenario I was paying more attention and found that the order of events were out of whack. She wakes from the trance, panics, moves around- forward and back- and then finds, in a panic, that she's tied. Then she breaks it.

The thing is, when I keep her mind engaged- which means I jiggle the halter every now and then to keep her awake, she's fine (this is something I have to do when I groom her- because grooming puts her to sleep). She finds the end of the rope, she gives. If she's awake and something scary pops up, she gives. She panics coming from out of her trance.

The more I get to know her, the more I see it even when she's not tied. If she's in her stall and she's snoozing- she wakes in a low grade panic- which usually involves her head flying up in the air- and if she's not careful, she'll bang it on something.

In the pasture- she does the same thing.

So what does that mean? Is the trance a medical condition?

Seeing as I haven't found a clue how to help her, I've made the concession to use the tie-blocker ring when I'm working with her for long periods of time. It is just safer, and less expensive in the long run as I really don't like having to replace hardware at other people's barns

But yesterday, I was explaining to a friend, who was with me, Cassie's issue. We got to talking for a good period of time with Cassie "tied" with the blocker ring. Cassie goes into trance mode. And sure enough, when I woke her- a gentle finger tip on her shoulder- she woke startled. She must not have been in a very deep trance because her level of panic was pretty low-grade, and she came to with less fear than I've seen in the past. But, at that point, my friend saw it with her own eyes.

Then it dawned on me- can I help her by allowing her to go into a semi-trance and then gentlty waking her up each time, like I unknowingly did yesterday...the idea to slowly condition her out of a panic response? Or is this just a quirk we have to live with?