Caitlinr27
Member
Hi All.
I have posted on here a couple of times regarding my beautiful mare and foal, but today I have come to talk about my other horse, Belle. Also, apologies in advance for how long this post may turn out to be.
we bought Belle in October 21 and she is an 8yr old ex racer. When we bought her, she had just been weaned off foal and was ‘ready’ to start reschooling.
During this time, she had the first 2 months off, just adjusting to life, then we starting work with her very slowly after the vet confirmed she was sound and had no concerns about her starting work (just lunging, in hand work etc at first) while we were getting to know her and coming into winter when she’s being stabled,we started suspecting ulcers and decided to have her scoped. Our suspicions were correct and it was confirmed she had quite bad ulcers, started peptizole and sucralfate etc, even started renting our own yard, built stables and moved our girls to the yard where they had all day turn out with incredible grazing. Fast forward another month, we think the medication and change of lifestyle has made a positive impact on her and decide to restart work. All is well, get her fitted for a saddle during the next month and start ridden work (just walk and trot with on road hacking also) along with continuing lunge/long rein. We start to think the saddle we got, while fitted, was not working all to well so opt to swap for an over budget saddle for us which seemed to settle her again and fits her very well. All the while we are continuing paying for ulcer medication. Next month, we Reduce dosage of peptizole and comes off sucralfate, then eventually stop. Within a week we saw her old ulcer symptoms so we stop work, order more peptizole along with the ‘exagus’ supplement only available for vets. We have since restarted and settled her, restarted work (again) and now seems to be settled with only the exagus supplement. We finally think we have found a bit that settled her (ended up being a ported Mullen sweet iron egg but) and then what do you know, today I have the worst ride I think I’ve ever had, she was not very happy about me putting a saddle on and was tense, nappy and out right just stopped towards the end. She never bucked or reared, she just planted her feet as of to say ‘now I’m telling you mum, I need you to get off’ so I got off. I would never try and push her through something if I thought she was in pain. We have not noticed anything different In her behaviour otherwise and she is continuing to be our loving girl in any other way. My partner thinks she may just have been having an off day. But I think I must be missing something here. I would be unsure what I am even searching for at this point. Teeth, saddle, feet, appetite etc are all good so I just don’t know where to start, is it possible I’m just not the rider for her? I bought a second horse as my other mare was coming out of work due to being in foal and I really wanted to advance my riding skills and gain more experience with another horse (I have owned Lady for 8 years now and apart from equine college when I was younger (first 3 years I’ve had Lady) I’ve not really ridden many other horses since. Now I constantly feel stalled and that we’re just not making progress at all. I really miss riding. I love my girls more than anything I do, but we give everything to them and I guess I am just really sad that Belle and I keep getting knocked back.
Does anyone have any advise for me on how I should tackle this situation? I am feeling pretty down in the dumps this evening and unsure where to go next. Thank you so much.
I have posted on here a couple of times regarding my beautiful mare and foal, but today I have come to talk about my other horse, Belle. Also, apologies in advance for how long this post may turn out to be.
we bought Belle in October 21 and she is an 8yr old ex racer. When we bought her, she had just been weaned off foal and was ‘ready’ to start reschooling.
During this time, she had the first 2 months off, just adjusting to life, then we starting work with her very slowly after the vet confirmed she was sound and had no concerns about her starting work (just lunging, in hand work etc at first) while we were getting to know her and coming into winter when she’s being stabled,we started suspecting ulcers and decided to have her scoped. Our suspicions were correct and it was confirmed she had quite bad ulcers, started peptizole and sucralfate etc, even started renting our own yard, built stables and moved our girls to the yard where they had all day turn out with incredible grazing. Fast forward another month, we think the medication and change of lifestyle has made a positive impact on her and decide to restart work. All is well, get her fitted for a saddle during the next month and start ridden work (just walk and trot with on road hacking also) along with continuing lunge/long rein. We start to think the saddle we got, while fitted, was not working all to well so opt to swap for an over budget saddle for us which seemed to settle her again and fits her very well. All the while we are continuing paying for ulcer medication. Next month, we Reduce dosage of peptizole and comes off sucralfate, then eventually stop. Within a week we saw her old ulcer symptoms so we stop work, order more peptizole along with the ‘exagus’ supplement only available for vets. We have since restarted and settled her, restarted work (again) and now seems to be settled with only the exagus supplement. We finally think we have found a bit that settled her (ended up being a ported Mullen sweet iron egg but) and then what do you know, today I have the worst ride I think I’ve ever had, she was not very happy about me putting a saddle on and was tense, nappy and out right just stopped towards the end. She never bucked or reared, she just planted her feet as of to say ‘now I’m telling you mum, I need you to get off’ so I got off. I would never try and push her through something if I thought she was in pain. We have not noticed anything different In her behaviour otherwise and she is continuing to be our loving girl in any other way. My partner thinks she may just have been having an off day. But I think I must be missing something here. I would be unsure what I am even searching for at this point. Teeth, saddle, feet, appetite etc are all good so I just don’t know where to start, is it possible I’m just not the rider for her? I bought a second horse as my other mare was coming out of work due to being in foal and I really wanted to advance my riding skills and gain more experience with another horse (I have owned Lady for 8 years now and apart from equine college when I was younger (first 3 years I’ve had Lady) I’ve not really ridden many other horses since. Now I constantly feel stalled and that we’re just not making progress at all. I really miss riding. I love my girls more than anything I do, but we give everything to them and I guess I am just really sad that Belle and I keep getting knocked back.
Does anyone have any advise for me on how I should tackle this situation? I am feeling pretty down in the dumps this evening and unsure where to go next. Thank you so much.
