Name: Garuda
Gender: Gelding
Breed: Arabian
Birth: 2012
Status: With Blue Rider since: 2017
We say that every horse (and donkey, and human) who comes into the Blue Rider herd has a job, but sometimes it’s not the job we expect. Garuda has been with us since he was five; he came with some previous injuries that we thought were healed, and we expected that he would be able to work in our lesson and therapy programs.
However, his job since he came in 2017 seems to be teaching patience and perseverance, in figuring out how to help him heal and learn to trust his body again. This has involved our chiropractor, farrier, several vets, and lots of rehabilitation work and therapies. We’re really happy to have started working with Dr. Ferraro of Millbrook Equine, who has helped us unpeel the next layer of the onion that is his past, and we’re really pleased and impressed with the work our Barn Manager, Caitlyn, has been doing with him. He is moving and looking better than ever, and we are cautiously hopeful that he will continue to improve.
Garuda was bred by a friend of Blue Rider, and carefully trained to be an endurance horse, but sometimes even the best cared-for and loved horses get injured and can’t work in the career they were meant for, and sometimes even when the horse’s whole history is known, we still have to guess why they feel and react the way they do. Caring for Garuda has taught us a huge amount, and we continue to learn from him. Seeing him as happy and comfortable as he is now is wonderful.
