On May 19, 2025, EQUUS Magazine published “3 Skills Every Adopted Horse Needs,” written by Stacie. Once a newly adopted rescue horse’s pressing physical problems are addressed, she writes, three foundational skills set him up for the rest of his life: leading willingly, having his hooves handled, and tolerating injections.
3 Skills Every Adopted Horse Needs
By Stacie G. Boswell, DVM, DACVS-LA — EQUUS Magazine, May 19, 2025
On patience, from the section on leading:
Remember, you don’t know his whole story or what previous bad experiences he has had. Be patient—incredibly patient—and be prepared for him to advance on his own schedule. If, during the thinking process of going forward into the stocks, trailer or building, a horse is pushed too hard or too fast to go forward, it may accidently “justify” his fears, making it about 1,000 times less likely that he will respond positively to you.
On hoof handling, and the horizon that matters:
Remember that this training is for a lifetime. It is more important to go slow and achieve consistency than to achieve a lot in one training session.
And on why she treats injection tolerance as a training issue at all:
I intend to give that horse vaccines and draw blood for Coggins’ testing annually for the rest of his life. I am setting him up for 20 more years of either success or stress and fear. A long-term thought process is important for everything that is done with horses.
Read the full article — including her step-by-step method for teaching a wary horse to have his hind feet handled — at EQUUS Magazine. For much more on caring for and training horses from neglect, Stacie’s book, The Ultimate Guide for Horses in Need, is available directly from Stacie or from Trafalgar Square Books.