Tag Archives: lillan roquet

Jan 28 2012

Shona and Joleena Find a Forever Home

Shona, day 1, two-month-old Ruben at foot

Well, this is big news.

Shona and Joleena are our longest-term residents, having been with us for two years, as our first rescues after the initial dogger yard rescue of four horses that began this charity. We rescued them from a slaughterhouse holding yard, along with their two-month-old colts at their side. They had come from an intensive breeding program and came with evidence of serious and prolonged trauma and an exceptional fear for humans.

Joleena, training with Kerryn Armstrong (pic by Jacinta Armstrong)

While their colts grew up beautifully, and we weaned them, gelded them and found them wonderful homes at six months of age, Shona and Joleena went on to become our most challenging behavioural cases. Physically, they healed well and proved to be robust horses. Emotionally and psychologically, these girls carried some very big scars.

Along the way they spent time with Kerryn Armstrong and Lillan Roquet, qualified Parelli instructors from Intuitive Connection, and while they did progress, their futures seemed to fall into one of two directions: find an exceptional, advanced Parelli home to go to in order to continue their development, or find a permanent retirement home where they could live their days as naturally roaming horses but still with the routine management and care (feet, teeth, worming etc.) that all horses need.

Shona and Joleena, best friends

We’d been offered several homes over their time, where they could run free as wild horses on huge properties, but we wanted more for them than that. At times it was very difficult to turn down these offers, as we tried to balance their needs and preferences (and their preferences were clearly that they’d prefer not to engage with people), with their potential, their lifespan, our ability as a charity to provide what they needed, and what we as humans considered ‘best’ for them.

This week, we received a remarkable offer. Gaye Harvey, from Horse Heaven, has been a supporter of Charlie’s Angels since we began. Her exceptional, professional agistment and training property near Stanthorpe includes a 500 acre retirement paddock. But she also continues to manage the welfare of those retired horses, ensuring their feet are regularly done, their teeth are done and they are wormed and vaccinated. The horses are carefully monitored daily and any injuries or weight loss corrected immediately.

In short, this is exactly what these girls need. It was also of top concern for us that Shona and Joleena were able to go to a forever home together. As they are such good friends and have obviously been through so much, we didn’t want to separate them if it was at all possible.

For these girls to find this forever home, of this quality, is one of those miraculous events that happen for us every now and then that affirm that we’re doing the right thing. Our emphasis is always on quality not quantity. We are not interested in ‘turning over’ horses just to make ourselves look good. We are prepared to hold onto each and every horse that comes our way for their entire life if necessary, rather than risk them going to the wrong home. We are not afraid to turn down an offer of a home if it just doesn’t feel right, and we’re proud to say this has given us a tremendously successful horse-placement record over the past two years.

Joleena

We are so very, very grateful to Gaye and her husband, John, for offering these girls a place to finally call home, knowing they will be safe and cared for for the rest of their days. What amazing Angels you are! We’re so proud to have you in our Angel team.

Nov 2 2011

October Horse of the Month: Grace

Grace, early days in care

Grace is a 7-year-old Thoroughbred mare, ex racehorse. She has recently spent a month with Parelli professionals, Lillan Roquet and Kerryn Armstrong from Intuitive Connection, to assist us to better understand Grace and where her strengths lie.

Grace is a very, very clever horse–Kerryn said she’s one of the cleverest she’s worked with in years, which is saying a lot because she sees hundreds of horses. Consequently, Grace gets bored easily and she needs strong mental stimulation in the form of activities and games. Grace absolutely LOVES Parelli games and could play them all day long :)

Grace, with Kerryn Armstrong

Grace has a history of windsucking, which is assisted by Parelli games and mental stimulation, but it is a condition that will require ongoing management, rather than it ever being ‘cured’. She is a ‘moderate doer’, so will need extra feed at various times of the year, depending on the amount of pasture available and the amount of work she’s doing.

We feel Grace could do many activities, given the right encouragement and leadership. She does need someone who can work through problem solving situations, who can commit to her for life and commit to continually nurturing her and developing her strengths. Grace is very special and is looking for a very special lifelong friend.

She would do best with perhaps just one other horse to share a paddock with as her stress levels increase with more horses that she feels she needs to compete with.

We have tried Grace with a windsucking collar, with which she has had some improvement. It gave her a chance to put on a lot of weight, for example, after she first arrived, which she badly needed, and helped improve her nutritional absorption, which improved her coat and feet. But it is not a ‘cure’ for her, and does not actually take away her craving for windsucking, and at times has caused more stress for her than the benefit it has provided. So it’s really important that her lifelong friend understands this and doesn’t try to ‘quick fix’ her with a collar.

Grace has a lot to offer the right person, and is still quite young so has a long life ahead. In the hands of the perfect partner, we believe Grace will shine like the star we know she is.

Grace is suitable for a Parelli home only (no exceptions) and is currently fostering on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.

If you’re interested in meeting Grace or finding out more about adopting her, please email us at charliesangels@live.com.au.

Sep 22 2011

Update on Grace

Grace with Kerryn Armstrong

(Jo S says): I’ve been to visit Grace at training camp :) She is doing really, really well! :) I’m very happy with her progress. She is a very clever horse (Kerryn says she’s one of the smartest she’s worked with, which is saying a lot) so is easily bored and she is just thriving on the Parelli games and mental stimulation. Lillan and Kerryn have also done a lot of work to help her become more tolerant/understanding and less reactive. I had a good play with her, which was really nice because I’d lost a lot of confidence with her after she kicked me. She’s also had a chiropractic session to relieve structural pain, been on double the Ulcerguard does to relieve possible stomach pain, and is visibly more relaxed and ‘soft’ in every way. Her windsucking has decreased and she’s put on some muscle. So, we’re very happy with all of that. Yay for Grace! Big thank you to Kerryn and Lillan for doing such a wonderful job :)

The next step for Grace is to move back into foster care, which she will do on the Sunshine Coast where she can continue to play with Kerryn and Lillan in Parelli lessons. Foster carers, Kathryn and Adam, are excited to begin a new journey, learning a whole new way of working with horses, and really embracing the values of wonderful foster carers. We’re really lucky to have them.

Jul 30 2011

Intuitive Connection Building Relationships

For several months now, Lillan Roquet and Kerryn Armstrong from Intuitive Connection have been working with two of our foster horses, Shona and Joleena. With a very troubled past, Shona and Joleena have shown us exactly what the life of a broodmare can entail, and it’s often not good. (We frequently see the end result of poor breeding programs.)

Kerryn and Lillan have been playing with the girls through the Seven Games of the Parelli system of horsemanship and we want to take this opportunity to say how incredibly grateful we are. We’ve had a few trainers come to work with the girls but no one has had the effect that Lillan and Kerryn have had. These are two very lucky rescue horses!

Shona playing with Lillan Roquet (pic by Jacinta Armstrong)

Joleena playing with Kerryn Armstrong (pic by Jacinta Armstrong)

Apr 3 2011

New Adventrues for our Rescue Horses

Kerryn Armstrong and Joleena, sharing brekky

A big new adventure has begun for our rescue horses, Shona and Joleena. The girls were rescued from slaughter in January 2010, along with their two-month-old foals, Ruben and Solomon.

The girls both showed signs of neglect, abuse and mishandling, and had learnt challenging behaviours in response. Although they had progressed significantly in our care (Joleena, in particular, who kicked and bit in defence to begin with, but who has moved past that), we have been waiting for the right people to come along to help develop them further and take them to a new place of healing and relationship building.

Kerryn Armstrong and Lillan Roquet, Parelli instructors from Intuitive Connection, will now be playing with the girls in their new foster home in Toowoomba, helping the girls to really flourish with their care, and the care of their dedicated foster mum, Alex.

We are so very grateful for the fantastic assistance of Lillan and Kerryn. We feel very honoured that they have chosen to volunteer with us and we cannot recommend them highly enough if you’re looking for Parelli professionals to guide you on your journey.

We look forward to bringing you more happy updates on these girls in the near future.

Shona having brekky in her new home in Toowoomba