saidso, when I talk about navigational being one very important thing with both humans and animals, so necessary for our survival? Here is something that I dealt with that a lot of people would never think about as being a big problem for me when my entire way of life suddenly was invaded and damaged badly.

I find and train ponies and horses and I have my own small farm. I really work hard at this and each animal I train takes a lot of time for me to train too. I also make sure my ponies and horses each have their own paddock so they are safe, don't get picked on by any other horse or pony and so they don't form strong attachments so when I work with them they are not all worried about some other pony or horse they are attached to as they are herd animals. So, put a lot of effort into making sure each pony or horse is in a safe paddock of their own. Each of these animals learn to navigate that paddock and learn how to feel safe in it too.

When my neighbor's containment system they kept their dog in failed, they got lazy and failed to fix it. They already knew I did not want their dog on my property and I had thought they would continue to respect that. I was so very wrong. What they ended up doing is they would let their dog out when they saw me leave my farm or late at night when I could not see it on my property. That dog decided to target my horses and ponies and chase around them WANTING them to get all upset and run around. The more upset they all got the faster this dog ran around them. It turned out this particular kind of dog likes to do this and actually gets a high off of engaging this way and they don't even bark.

As I mentioned, this resulted in my ponies and horses being so frightened that they ran around so panicked that they ended up with all kinds of injuries. For example one pony fell down while he was running around in a panic and that resulted in his pelvis being fractured, his hip joint being damaged and torn ligaments all down his leg. And so many had so many bad injuries of all kinds including choking, colicing, and tworn suspensories, ligaments and sprains. However, the other problem I faced with this is how all my ponies and horses developed a fear of being safe in their paddocks too. And because this dog was let out at night, none of my ponies and horses felt safe to be out at night either. And even seeing my neighbor's dog would make them panick and get extremely upset. None of my ponies and horses were ever afraid of dogs before, that changed too. I had to move them all around HOPING that if I moved them they might feel safer and be calm when outside. I had to put them all in just before dark too, because they would get upset if they were out when it was dark, no longer feeling safe to be out in the dark. Then I had to figure out a way to put up something so they could not see my neighbor's dog. One horse, in just seeing my neighbor's dog got so frightened he panicked and tried to jump out of his paddock and he did not make it and instead landed on top of a tube gate I had that had plywood attached to it. He bent it in half and was stuck on this bent gate and I was all alone cleaning stalls and heard the noise only to rush out and see this big beautiful very expensive show horse literally stuck on this bent gate. I was lucky he had his blanket on, otherwise he would have suffered severe lacerations on his body. All that just because this horse saw my neighbor's dog and this horse was NEVER afraid of dogs, did not care about dogs at all before experiencing this dog chasing him the way it did. Also this same horse suffered torn suspensories and was not supposed to run around as it was important in our effort to see if he could even heal. I also had to hand walk him every day in increasing amount of time. I did that in my riding ring and the entire time I literally PRAYED he would not see this neighbor's dog because if he did he would rear up and try to take off and he was way too big for me to hold him back if he reared up and panicked like that. He did do this a few times and I ended up suffering from plantars fasciitis in both my feet. That got so bad I could hardly walk and had to have injections in my feet and special orthotics made for me so I could walk.

So, even horses can develop a kind of ptsd too, a condition where what was safe for them can completely change where they genuinely do not know how to feel safe under certain circumstances. So, my entire way of life changed drastically and suddenly I had all these animals with new fears and sensitivities they never had before. I could not relax like I used to on my own farm and I was very overwhelmed not only by the physical injuries all my ponies and horses sustained, but also how they all struggled to actually feel safe and I had to stop leaving them all out at night which created a lot more work for me, and added expense of buying more bedding for their stalls too. All of them developed new and very challenging FEARS and WORRIES and became STRESSED and ANXIOUS. Two very loved and important ones ended up dying. And I collapsed from the stress I was suddenly put under from being overwhelmed with so many big challenges that really did affect me physically, mentally and emotionally.

My point is, that it isn't JUST humans that can suffer when the way they navigate their worlds can change by experiencing a major unexpected change and sudden threat. It took YEARS to slowly get all these animals to a point where they could feel safe again. Yet I will never change the sensitivity they all have when it comes to things they hear at my neighbors. Something bad came from over there, they will never forget. I am also changed in that I too have a feeling of not feeling safe from what came from my neighbor's either and knowing these people really don't care either. They did not care to respect my world and how much I put into it that was my life and how I navigated my life. If it's not important to THEM, it's not important or worthy of respect.

I just shared something about "my world" with you, and perhaps you never realized what can happen in my world that can be something extremely hard to deal with. Truth is, a lot of people don't have any clue about how the way I navigate my own world can be so badly damaged that it caused me to break down. A lot of people would have comments of "JUST don't let it get to you, Just don't allow it to get you down, Just forget it and move on, Just learn to DEAL with it, it's not THAT BIG OF A DEAL." None of my horses an ponies JUST got over it, AND neither did I.