Advice needed

Holliehope

Holliehope

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Hello I'm Hollie I would bore you with all about me but I'm really looking for advice with my horse so I will indroduce her
Her names hope (hope it will be ok )
I reascued her about 2 months ago now
She's a believed 5 year old Dutch warmblood mare
Who is wild ! Completely Unhandled i do believe that she has been badly handled some where along the line as has huge trust issues
She has a kind heart although doesn't know how to show it but I know it's there
She was due to be pts as she was wild and dangerous and I don't know she gave me.a look I guess and this wild dangerous horse came up to me with a kind eye but teeth armed the moment I tried to touch
After saying for years I won't ever have another one ( not normally a soft touch ) I decided I was going to bring her home !
After an eventful 14 hours she was finally home and I thought what the hell have I done !
2 months down the line and she making huge progress she now can be touched by me only ! Groomed and leads and our biggest achievement to date is she now does go in and out of her stable
We have had a few set backs as expected
But I'm mainly looking for advice on silly things like
She excessively yawns when I'm working with her ? Any ideas?
Also she is not happy at all about me touching her legs I can get to knee then she panics only tried front legs any ideas on a safe way of getting her used to it ?
She doesn't eat any form of hay , wet dry steamed or hayledge ! It's like she doesn't get that it's food !
She has an excessively dry mouth all the time and doesn't drink a lot ?
She does eat cool fibre with a gut balancer as she had very up set stomach when I got her
She needs her teeth doing I'm assuming that she has never had them done but is impossible at the moment to get them done believe me vets are a no go !
Also any tips on training her little exercises to do to gain trust ?
sorry for the long winded post 😊
 
Hello, welcome and well done for getting this far with your mare. Have you put a stuffed glove on a stick to get her used to having her legs touched? That way she gets used to the sensation without danger of you getting kicked initially.

If she doesn't eat hay etc then it could be that she is uncomfortable in her mouth, fast fibre would be a good replacement until she trusts you enough to get the necessary treatment. Is she stabled? What are her droppings like? If she is out then how do you monitor her water intake?
 
Peregrine Falcon said:
Hello, welcome and well done for getting this far with your mare. Have you put a stuffed glove on a stick to get her used to having her legs touched? That way she gets used to the sensation without danger of you getting kicked initially.

If she doesn't eat hay etc then it could be that she is uncomfortable in her mouth, fast fibre would be a good replacement until she trusts you enough to get the necessary treatment. Is she stabled? What are her droppings like? If she is out then how do you monitor her water intake?[/QU

No I haven't yet but was thinking of doing that but what kind of stick to use 😂 Was thinking bamboo may be but didn't want to scare her more

She eats her chaff fine no problems I do have the others on fast fibre so could try but doesn't last them long cause they love it so much

She is stabled now at night with a huge bucket of chaff and hayledge that she won't even try
Since being on the gut balancer her dropping are good and much more constant
She has buckets in the field when she's out and when she's in but doesn't ever really drink much ! I do wonder if it's cause I have very good grass as its been rested all year and there's a lot of moisture in. The grass but her mouth is always dry and it even sounds dry when she licks and chews
Didn't know if to add electro lights as well or am I just worrying over nothing as she is nervous and I get a dry mouth when nervous 😂😂
Click to expand...
 
Bamboo is a bit light if its long. We use a shortened broom handle. Is she happy being in? Could you leave her out at all with access to shelter? How much do you estimate she drinks in a normal day then?
 
Oh that's a good idea I'm guessing a wooden one ? Do you stuff the glove with any thing ?
She's getting used to being in and is settling to the idea she has stopped box walking now
I could leave her out had done up untill the past two weeks but I felt she needed to get into a routine and start becoming a normal horse
If she stays out she's on her own
I would say she is drinking one normal bucket a day
 
Yep, wooden one and we just stuffed it with paper towel still rigid. If she's been box walking then if stressed she may not have wanted to eat. For me a "normal" horse is our 24/7 but if it means she's on her own then I guess it would be best if she needs company for her to be in. I couldn't tell how much mine drink a day as they are all out but if she's not showing signs of dehydration (pinch skin on neck test) and has normal droppings I wouldn't be too concerned, you could contact your vet just to clarify this though if you are worried.
 
Well normal in the sense that she can be lead in and stay in a stable like the rest of the yard �� She has lived out only all her life so wanted to try get her used to the stable and she is getting happier in there if I'm not quick enough to go catch her I'll go make her feed and find her waiting in her stable for me looking all proud of her self lol
She will drink from the muddy puddle happily may be I should fill her buckets up with that hahaha
Thank you
 
LOL about the puddle. I clean out my old boys trough so he throws clumps of earth in it as it's too sparkly! It's good that's she's comfortable putting herself to "bed".

I hope that you make progress with her. Let us know how she does, have you got any pics of her?
 
Hahaha it's so annoying I give her buckets of clean water in every field ( she has the free run of 3) and she makes a be line for the one puddle buy the gate lol
Yeah think she tries to beat me to the stable so she gets away with being lead lol not her fav thing in the world lol
Yes I have lots of photos although not sure how to post them on here ?
 
Bless her. I use photobucket to put pics on here. Create an account with photobucket then upload your pics. Click on image to get the codes for sharing, copy the one with "IMG" and then paste into your post. Easy eh? When you know how it's simple and if I can do it anyone can. LOL

The leading will come, from the sounds of it she sounds like kindness and patience will reaps you rewards in time.
 
Aww thank you
I'm a little bias lol I think she's beautiful not when she has her ear back tho lol
She has a resting bitch face she can't help it lol
 
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