equine park stables.

*I edited this post over a period of time from Thursday to Sunday*

This is a summary of my entire voluntary work placement at some stables at Equine Park, Akademi Ekuestrian Diraja Selangor. And thankfully all the horses I've worked with are all good tempered and haven't kicked me in the face, although they're bitten my clothes and nudged me really hard once in a while. :)

I went into the stables with one major goal, to learn how to handle horses. I began work at about 9.30 am each morning. My job? To take care of all the vet cases. Minor problems that have already been diagnosed by the vet, but I handle the ongoing treatments. *Makes me sound so important. :P*

On my first day, my supervisor who allowed me to volunteer here, Ms. Gerry, showed me the basics, from the cleaning of stalls, to the leading and cleaning of horses, to tips and tricks to handling them. This is her showing me how to lead out Cricket, one of the bad tempered ponies at the stable. She's amazing with horses, there's never a horse I've seen she can't handle. :D

She owns her own gray horse there as well, completely well-behaved all the time. Before I left on my last day there, she had the opportunity to show me some bursting cancerous cells on her horse's tail. Almost 99% of gray horses develop a skin cancer called melanoma, either under the tail, or inside the sheath. The tumours are the bumps at the bottom of the tail.

And this, is some face cream she applied to the bottom of his softening hoof. No, its not because its hoof has the same texture as human skin. Its high in zinc oxide, a pretty good drying agent - just the common remedy to dry up and harden the hoof.

***

Anyway, the first thing I did every morning was to go to Danny's stall. A really good tempered, easy to handle pony. :) It's sad he's a little unkept because of the hot and humid Malaysian weather.

Of course, being me, I couldn't leave a little pony neglected. I think I spent half an hour brushing, shampooing, combing, applying oil and removing dandruff from his mane everyday. His mane is very much like my hair, super thick, dry and frizzy, except, I don't have dandruff. :P And here's his cleaned/oiled mane. :)

And then came the cleaning of his sheath and the application of iodine based antiseptic. His sheath was so terribly injured and inflamed. That probably came from biting or kicking it; thanks to the houseflies that settled there, irritating him. I repeated the same procedure with 3 other horses with the same problem. The stablemen were really nice, thank goodness I can speak a bit of Bahasa Melayu.

Working with horses can be summed up into one word: challenging. Being alert is a mandatory precautionary attribute because its dangerous - its easy for them to step on you, or whip you with their tail, or kick you. But its extremely fun too, and the little things that they do to acknowledge you are just so adorable. Of course not all horses are the same, but the thought of relieving them of their misery and pain makes the job all the better!

Until then,
Izzie. :)