Zeus - Rescued and Revitalized

In May, we rescued Zeus, a black 12-year old Mustang gelding. When we got him his coat was dull, he didn't have much energy, and he was about a 2 on the 1-9 body score chart that is used to measure horses' body conditions. The pictures below show how he looked when we first got him.

Over the past two months, Zeus' condition has greatly improved. Since he has gained weight, several clients have been working with him on desensitization, lungeing, and exercises to build up muscle.

In the above picture (taken at the beginning of June), Amy spent some time grooming Zeus in the round pen. On the same day she also worked on desensitization with a flag and getting him used to things touching his mouth.

In these two pictures, Mary held Zeus so the farrier could trim his hooves.

After a few weeks, Zeus had gained weight and we gradually started doing more work with him to help get him into shape. This series of pictures (from the middle of June) shows Zeus and Rachael working on a hill to help him start developing some muscle.

In this first picture, Zeus is working on standing tied to the trailer. Then, Amy worked with him with a saddle pad and, eventually, the saddle. It took Zeus some time to let the pad be placed on his back, but once he did, Amy put it on several times before moving on to the saddle.
Zeus was more worried about the saddle than he was the pad, so we moved him away from the trailer to give him more space. Amy pulled up some grass and placed it on the saddle to encourage Zeus to touch it. Eventually, he let her approach him with the saddle from both sides and she was able to place it on his back. They also took a walk around the yard with the saddle on before calling it a day. While he's not ready to be ridden, it's good for Zeus to start getting used to a saddle again.

These pictures show Zeus once again standing at the trailer, this time while Ramona picked his hooves.

This last set of pictures shows Zeus learning to ground drive with two of our Marines. First we started with just putting the surcingle (the strap around his belly) on and then having Jon walk him around the yard. Then we attached long lines to his halter and ran them through the sides of the surcingle to introduce him to ground driving. Zeus was unsure about what was expected of him at first, but after a few minutes, Keith and Jon drove him around the yard in each direction. This is a good introduction for Zeus to moving with something around his belly, as well as to responding to side pressure on his head; this is one step closer in preparing him to be ridden. This was also a good exercise for Jon and Keith as they had to work on team work, communication, and redefining success.

We are pleased with how well Zeus has progressed over the past few months. He's looking much better than he did in May (you can see his coat is glossy and he has filled out some), and his personality is starting to come out now that he is feeling better and has more energy. We look forward to continuing our work with him, watching him come further out of his shell, and seeing how he lives up to his name.