A Big Day for Topsy

Today was a big day for Topsy as she has been headcollared for the first time!  Looking back at the video, I should make it clear that we take her headcollar off before the end of the day - in the video, it sounds as if the pony will take it off by the end of the day, and obviously that is not the idea at all!

Topsy needed much more time to get accustomed to people and particular techniques before she could be headcollared.  It takes much time and experience to learn, progress and perfect these techniques - ponies with these sorts of mutilations can have strong trauma, and triggers, that can cause them to remember/re-live past scary/painful events in their past.  This trauma is a huge setback for ponies and, as in the case of Topsy and Tufty, has caused them to be unhandleable for a very long period of time.  Topsy has taken a huge step forward today in her beginnings to start trusting people for the first time.

Paul says that it has been noticeable with Topsy how she finds groups of people quite stressful - she is also very wary of men, which is fairly common with traumatised ponies as it tends to be men who inflict the mutilations upon them.