In the Saddle with Anita Marsh: Meet Suzie

After popping Troy, our dog, into kennels we never dreamed that we'd be walking out of with two dogs, but that is exactly what happened.

Caroline, who runs Croft House also runs a rescue place alongside her kennels and has so far re-homed numerous cats and dogs, giving them a new start in their lives.

After recently suffering the loss of my beautiful cat, William, after 15 years our home felt very quiet.

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However, our dog Troy has become aggressive since he turned blind, and feels the need to protect his family even more.

Caroline brought a little mild-mannered Belgian Shepherd cross Corgi (called Suzie) out to show us the type of temperament we needed to match up with Troy being an alpha-male . After hearing Suzie’s sad start to life we immediately took her on trial.

Suzie had clearly had never been introduced to horses. Neither of our mares have ever been bothered by dogs.

April in particular will not be herded and is a very dominant lead mare.

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Introducing a new nervous dog to the horses was interesting.

She is crossed with two herding breeds and naturally wanted to chase the horses. That’s fine with our pony, she is easygoing but for our lead mare horse, April, that was always going to be an issue.

We started by having Suzie on a lead and feeding her bits of ham or chicken the closer we were able to walk her to the horses.

Our horses were tied up by the stables, chilling as they were eating hay.

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It’s taken some time, but by taking Suzie walking while we hack the horses out we have now settled her down.

Suzie has made a huge difference to our lives.

Thank you Caroline.

If you’d like to donate or think you can give a dog or cat a new home please call Isle Rescue on 01427 728705.