When we take a seat back and think about why we make the decision to ride, retrain, or even own horses the answer always seems to come back to reasons around ourselves. We own them for happiness, companionship, fitness, engaging in a hobby, or even as a profession to support our livelihood. When we spend time with our horses, most of us, myself included, see it more as a “me” day or even just that piece of time that we can treat ourselves to what we love the most.

Pulse PEMF session. (Courtesy of Morgan Hayden)

When I am riding Goldie I really just feel this sense of freedom. He has brought so much joy and happiness to my life through this retraining process. He has tested my confidence as we continue to jump different jumps and learn new tasks, but equally I have tested his confidence when we hack out to walk through creeks and over bridges. He really has never told me no to anything, well at least not with a serious no. Throughout this entire retraining process he has given me so many “me” days that he certainly deserves them in return so he can feel his best as well.

Throughout Goldie’s retraining process he has received so many sessions for his own “me” days. Some of them he was a little hesitant about in the beginning, but now it is obvious he loves them so much. He does not get ridden every day so he does typically get two days off each week just to do whatever he wants to do as a horse. In addition to that, he also gets chiropractic sessions every four to six weeks and he gets three to four Pulse PEMF sessions.

We dedicate the beginning of every ride to him stretching and also the end of our ride as well. As he is growing both height- and strength-wise he really deserves to feel his best. We even recently had a moment where he was starting to feel sore in his left hind with a large knot in his right hind. So once he received his chiropractic session we also called our farrier. We saw that he really was stepping far underneath himself as he has recently gotten much taller. Our farrier hooked him up with better support with his hind shoes and truly has helped him feel his best.

“Me” days can look and feel different to our horses each time, but what is most important is that we give them the chance to have them. Apart of preparing for the Thoroughbred Makeover is not being perfect or cramming in as many training sessions or experiences as possible, but rather it is about helping our horses really figure out who they are and how they feel on their own.