Cobiau Cymreig Wyllt
Well-Known Member
A self-congratulatory ramble follows but first some background: my just-2-yr old sec d is a young horse with issues (double joy!) - in his 1st 18mths he: - got badly snared in barbed wire and was yanked off by unsympathetic farmer, forcibly weaned from mother and sire by refusing to get in trailer, left on his own then given to someone who later abandoned him for apparently balding his shetland comanion..so ended up left to fend for himself with only visits from unhorsey passers-by who fed him carrots when he turned his bum to them. By the time I heard about him, he would allegedly wait until you were in the middle of the field and attack you when your back was turned with teeth, rearing and kicking. Nice reputation! 
His original breeder took him back and I received a phonecall to take a look..by the time I looked in the back of the trailer I saw him head down, legs trembling..whatever he may have been before he was now a traumatised young animal..he came off the trailer and sniffed me...he was gelded and kept in for a couple of weeks during which time he tended to leer over his stable door like a loony goat (he has two blue eyes
) and generally display awful manners all round. BUT, he showed signs of being work-able..so bit by bit, got him to show a bit of respect. My conclusion, being an outsider to the situation, was that he'd had no opportunity to learn either horse skills or people skills and needed a chance before being totally written off.
Owner then turned him into herd of youngsters where he was duly kicked and bitten to bits and chased from the field..whereupon I found him trapped in a wooded ravine and myself and OH rescued said very humbled sad frightened neddy by patiently coaxing him out of the area and giving him a crash-course in leadrope skills...At this point we resigned ourselves to the inevitable of being his lucky chosen ones!
Congrats for reading this far, award yourself cuppa and biscuit.
Fast-forward to today and during the 2 and a half months he has been under my direct ownership, he has learned: to have horse friends and know that roughhousing can be fun, to be catchable by humans and it doesn't always mean trauma, to be generally handled and led, is starting to yield bargy hindquarters and shoulders, will tie up and stand,has had farrier and awful hooves trimmed (admit to sedation on 3rd attempt, despite plenty of practice and desensitisation because hoof was bad so couldn't be left and wanted to avoid a major stress for him), can be brushed, including legs and tail, have cream applied to big pink sunburn-prone nose and today took his first excursion out of his field. He temporarily forgot how to walk once he hit tarmac, was totally goggle-eyed over the whole thing but had a short walk down the road, under control to the other field gate, walked very high-steppedly over the spooky mud patch by the gate and looked visibly relieved to have survived the whole ordeal.
When I took him on I decided that these catching up on basics would be the small goals I would set us and I am so proud of Merlin, myself and OH for having achieved them inside 3 months. Not bad for a head-shy, hand-shy, bum-turning, rearing biter of a young horse that was seriously being considered for a bullet by previous handlers!!!!
Thanks for reading my pat on the back!!
His original breeder took him back and I received a phonecall to take a look..by the time I looked in the back of the trailer I saw him head down, legs trembling..whatever he may have been before he was now a traumatised young animal..he came off the trailer and sniffed me...he was gelded and kept in for a couple of weeks during which time he tended to leer over his stable door like a loony goat (he has two blue eyes
) and generally display awful manners all round. BUT, he showed signs of being work-able..so bit by bit, got him to show a bit of respect. My conclusion, being an outsider to the situation, was that he'd had no opportunity to learn either horse skills or people skills and needed a chance before being totally written off. Owner then turned him into herd of youngsters where he was duly kicked and bitten to bits and chased from the field..whereupon I found him trapped in a wooded ravine and myself and OH rescued said very humbled sad frightened neddy by patiently coaxing him out of the area and giving him a crash-course in leadrope skills...At this point we resigned ourselves to the inevitable of being his lucky chosen ones!
Congrats for reading this far, award yourself cuppa and biscuit.
Fast-forward to today and during the 2 and a half months he has been under my direct ownership, he has learned: to have horse friends and know that roughhousing can be fun, to be catchable by humans and it doesn't always mean trauma, to be generally handled and led, is starting to yield bargy hindquarters and shoulders, will tie up and stand,has had farrier and awful hooves trimmed (admit to sedation on 3rd attempt, despite plenty of practice and desensitisation because hoof was bad so couldn't be left and wanted to avoid a major stress for him), can be brushed, including legs and tail, have cream applied to big pink sunburn-prone nose and today took his first excursion out of his field. He temporarily forgot how to walk once he hit tarmac, was totally goggle-eyed over the whole thing but had a short walk down the road, under control to the other field gate, walked very high-steppedly over the spooky mud patch by the gate and looked visibly relieved to have survived the whole ordeal.
When I took him on I decided that these catching up on basics would be the small goals I would set us and I am so proud of Merlin, myself and OH for having achieved them inside 3 months. Not bad for a head-shy, hand-shy, bum-turning, rearing biter of a young horse that was seriously being considered for a bullet by previous handlers!!!!
Thanks for reading my pat on the back!!
