The tenth of our 15 combinations for the ULTRA-MOX STALLIONS AND PROFESSIONALS competition is MIMI EINFELDT and BALOO, although they have elected not to compete at Equidays … read below to find out why!
Standing at about 15hh, Baloo was covered in scars, quite underweight and had a massive dreadlock in his tail when he arrives. When he looked at Mimi with his kind, gentle eyes she knew without any doubt that he had the kindest soul but unfortunately he struggled a lot in captivity, mentally as well as physically.
He was very lame and in pain due to an abscess in one of his hind hoofs and his emotional stage was quiet worrying too, as he was very depressed and wouldn’t eat. After three weeks Mimi decided to turn him out into a big hill paddock (together with Phantom, her other stallion), to give them time to adjust to their new life. For the first week, he would stand in one corner of the field and stare into the distance. It was heartbreaking to see how sad and shut down he was even outside the yards.
At this stage his body condition, as well as his depression, lead Mimi to believe that he must be an older stallion, but once the abscess had finally healed he became a lot happier and acted a lot more like a young horse, not even showing any stallion behavior. He was still very insecure, worried and reactive and when brought back into the yards he would try to hide behind the other horses and make himself as invisible as possible or even try to jump the fence if he felt too much pressure (even from sounds and movements outside the yards). Nevertheless, whenever Mimi worked with the other horses he would always be interested and hang over the fence to watch.
He never showed any signs of aggressive or defensive behavior, no matter how worried he would get and even in the paddock he avoids any conflict with the other horses.
From the beginning it was clear that to much pressure would only make him shut down, therefore things were taken very slow. It was already after the first couple of weeks that Mimi decided not to compete with Baloo at Equidays as she believes that the whole atmosphere would be too stressful for him.
Since then she just spends time with him, not asking for anything and with the main focus on improving his overall condition. He seems to appreciate this and trustfully follows her around, rolls next to her in the paddock, touches her when he chooses too and calls out when he sees her.
Her (trainings) approach with Baloo is “good things take time, so either you wait or you settle for less” and she is excited to see what they can achieve together over time.
ABOUT MIMI (of Mimi’s Kaimanawas):
Coming from a non-horsey family no one knows where Mimi Einfeldt’s passion for horses came from but before she could even walk she got her mom to carry her up to any horse they came across.
Getting her first pony at the age of 10 was a dream come true (until she got on and got bucked off) but she persisted, developing a pretty good seat and over time turned him into a perfectly safe kids pony.
In 2017 she and her partner emigrated from Germany to New Zealand and since then they call Waitara in Taranaki their home. Being suddenly with no arena, stables, etc. it took some adjustment and was definitely a challenge but she loves to have huge paddocks for her horses to run around.
Mimi’s training methods are certainly not “one fits all” and she loves the challenge to find the best way for each individual horse.
While she has her own approach, she loves to learn from other horseman and woman around her as well as well known trainers.
Having dreamed of taming a wild stallion for most of her life, this became a reality when she took on her first stallion from the 2018 Muster.
Adopting Aragon started her passion for the Kaimanawas and since then she helped others with their Kaimanawa horses too. This year she also took peoples horses on, for the initial handling and loves how different they are all to work with. When Mimi isn’t busy with the Kaimanawas she is very passionate about helping owners with their horses (or horses with their owners) and takes on green horses for mileage, does float/truck training, initial handling, general groundwork and retraining horses with unwanted behavior.
The horse’s well-being has always the highest priority for her and everything takes as long as the horse needs.
While she feels honored to be invited to compete at the Challenge and sees it as a huge privilege she’s most thrilled that it gave her the chance to save 2 stallions.
For more information about our sponsor Ultra-Mox visit Bayer NZ Equine or http://www.bayeranimal.co.nz
