I remember getting a call from Alana nine or 10 years ago when she was about 17 years old. Alana was excited at the prospect of getting her very first horse, a black and white paint gelding, and she asked me if I would be willing to go and check out the horse before she bought him.
Thinking back on the excitement I felt when I got my first horse, for my 14th birthday, I was eager to share in her happy news and wanted to be helpful in deciding if the horse would be a good choice for her.
Arriving at the stable and meeting up with Alana, I found the horse was not at all what I had hoped for. He was very tall (about 16 hands, 2 inches) and very skinny – and due to his size and lack of weight, rather unusual looking. He had the longest eyelashes I had ever seen on a horse.
I checked his feet and picked up his hooves, which didn’t look all that great, and found his overall condition to be not very promising. He had been shipped around to at least three different homes and was a horse that no one really wanted. He was somewhat middle-aged, between eight and 12, but was definitely not a horse I would recommend buying.
However, I looked at Alana and could see that she was smitten. She and this horse had already established a connection. And so, despite my doubts that this would be a good horse, Alana made arrangements to bring him home.
Indigo (or Indy, as she calls him) seemed to bond with Alana as well. Through the years they worked through health issues, abscesses, changing feeds and constantly trying to keep weight on. When Alana went off to college, we brought Indigo along to be with her, and after classes each night she would spend time with him, always learning and teaching him new things to do.
They started with Western trail riding, and riding with obstacles and other fun events. After college, a couple of years ago, she moved Indigo to Moonstone Farm in Pine Bush, NY, and continued to work with him, checking into new feeds and supplements. It was a constant challenge keeping weight on and supplementing his feed, as Indigo is insulin-resistant and can’t tolerate sugar. She started feeding low-sugar/low-starch feed, flax seed, Cool Stance (a high energy/low-sugar feed made from 100% pure coconut meal) and has him on 24-hour forage.
Alana riding Indigo, now sleek, shiny and in good condition, in their very first horse show. Photo by Judy Van Put
At Moonstone, she started to ride English – flatted him for two years with no jumping, mainly just walk-trot-canter and practicing transitions. Last year she began working with a trainer to teach Indigo to trot over a small rail jump just to become accustomed to it.
At first, she said, it wasn’t easy; he didn’t know how to jump and would make mistakes, but both horse and rider began to learn together. This June Alana began cantering over the jump and found that Indigo liked it more than trotting. He became excited to jump. Having had a history of always being the last in the herd of wherever he was stabled, she noticed that since he started jumping, he has shown more confidence and is starting to “move up” in the herd.
Another big plus was that Indigo began to build muscle from the jumping work and improved in cognition. She found that the more course work they do, the more he likes it and seems to want to know what they’re going to do next.
Alana was encouraged to enter her first show earlier this month, and although she was a bit nervous, she had a good first experience. The night before the show Indigo was shampooed and brushed and prepared for his big day. She got him horse ear plugs that helped keep him calm for the show. She said he did well.
They entered an 18-inch Crossrail Hunter Class, two Jumping Flat Classes and a Walk/Trot/Canter Hunter’s Division. And at the end of the day, Indigo won four ribbons and came home with a very proud Alana as Reserve Champion.
by Judy Van Put
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