Can anyone help me please!

tusculum10

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I have had my TB since December. I let him have a couple of months off as he was so poor I had to hold him up from the side of his bum when the farrier came out. He is an Ex-racehorse and believe he finished racing 2011-2012. Even though i let him have time off, i still rode him every couple of days around the yard lightly. Now we have started work in the arena and i have notice his anxiety without my cob being in sight of him, which makes him nervous and he as started to rear and buck, can anyone help me and give me advice on how to settle his anxiety. Thanks..
Sophieee x
 

be positive

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If he has not been retrained since finishing his racing career he will have never done any schooling, probably never been anywhere on his own and is finding his new life stressful so expressing this the only way he can, it is a true anxiety of being alone, he is taking confidence from seeing the other horse.

You need to go back to complete basics as if starting an unbroken horse but with learned behaviour which will bring up more challenges than an unbroken horse usually will.
Start with groundwork, build up his confidence in himself and in you, take each step slowly and be prepared to go back if he struggles to cope, if you have no experience with starting a horse get some help before his issues become even more established and you lose trust in him completely.

A lot of racehorses suffer from ulcers, stress can bring them on or make them worse, make sure he is healthy and not in pain, which if he was neglected he may be as he could have been retired due to injury and left without proper treatment.
 

tusculum10

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If he has not been retrained since finishing his racing career he will have never done any schooling, probably never been anywhere on his own and is finding his new life stressful so expressing this the only way he can, it is a true anxiety of being alone, he is taking confidence from seeing the other horse.

You need to go back to complete basics as if starting an unbroken horse but with learned behaviour which will bring up more challenges than an unbroken horse usually will.
Start with groundwork, build up his confidence in himself and in you, take each step slowly and be prepared to go back if he struggles to cope, if you have no experience with starting a horse get some help before his issues become even more established and you lose trust in him completely.

A lot of racehorses suffer from ulcers, stress can bring them on or make them worse, make sure he is healthy and not in pain, which if he was neglected he may be as he could have been retired due to injury and left without proper treatment.

Hi,
Thankyou for your advice and support. A few weeks into purchasing him I had the vet out to check health, the dentist out for his teeth and a back therapist and all was fine. I have been doing some join up with him and some bombproofing so he learns to trust me, although i'm not giving up on this with him, he still looks around and uses his very loud voice to neigh, trying to find another horse, i'm very patient with him and I'm stuck on whether i should just keep doing join up and stuff with him on his own out of sight of horses which sends him crazy or to do it with another horse in sight.
 

be positive

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I would go on and start doing some longreining/ lunging something where he has contact with you to help his confidence, join up does not always help with insecure horses, if he is still thinking about the other horse it is not really working for him, it can make them more needy, he may find having lines on easier and you can get out and about this way, gradually weaning him off his friend.

Pleased you have had all the checks done so you know there are no underlying problems.
It can take months, even years to retrain the more stressy, sensitive types, some always find it hard to go it alone.
 

tusculum10

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Thanks, will start doing this with him.
I'd have to still have my cob in sight otherwise he backs up and kicks out with his anxiety of being on his own, but maybe start off like that and then gradually move the cob up and out the way?
 

morrismob

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We too have an ex racer who had been out of racing and let down for a few months before we bought, physically he was and is in good shape. He does not like to be without other horses but we expected that. He is hacked in company and his very first time in the school we took another horse with him.

We found lunging him really helped him and he now doesn't call for his mates and listens to us. We had a few bucks and so on to start with but he has quickly settled to it. Keep calm and try the lunging, just ignore the calling he will settle to it hopefully. On the ulcer front he appears to be fine but we have an ex hurdler who is not so. They are all feed a high fibre diet and other than vits and mins and ad lib hay when in I have kept the new guys diet very basic and will build it up if I need to. He's only been here 3 weeks so its early days. Good luck and keep updating so I can follow your story.
 

tusculum10

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We too have an ex racer who had been out of racing and let down for a few months before we bought, physically he was and is in good shape. He does not like to be without other horses but we expected that. He is hacked in company and his very first time in the school we took another horse with him.

We found lunging him really helped him and he now doesn't call for his mates and listens to us. We had a few bucks and so on to start with but he has quickly settled to it. Keep calm and try the lunging, just ignore the calling he will settle to it hopefully. On the ulcer front he appears to be fine but we have an ex hurdler who is not so. They are all feed a high fibre diet and other than vits and mins and ad lib hay when in I have kept the new guys diet very basic and will build it up if I need to. He's only been here 3 weeks so its early days. Good luck and keep updating so I can follow your story.

Hi, Thank you for your advice. We have been lunging him a couple of times, but being a racehorse he hasn't a clue on lunging, im tried getting him to go into a circle but he just faces back into me, I've even had someone walk round with him a couple of times and still faces into me. I haven't had a lot of experience with lunging but a friend of mine who has have tried to lunge him and still facing me any advice on how to make him not face into me.
 

morrismob

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Only doing as you have been we lead him round first then I step back and send him forward to get him moving. This usually results in a few bucks and mucking about but I keep him forward. One thing I find helps is say if you start on the left rein keep a lunge whip in your right hand and keep your body exactly where your leg would be so not going in front of his shoulder and the whip is kept low and behind him then your left hand holding the lunge line at the front so you make a V shape with the lunge line and whip making the long sides of the V and your body is the point.

Hope you can follow that not great at explaining it then the key is to keep him forward so he can't back up or turn in. We also use a surcingle with very loose side reins that don't restrict him but kind of guide him. We can then get him used to voice aids so when he's under saddle we use the voice at the same time as applying leg aids as he doesn't really understand the leg at the mo. Keep trying he will get it. Then hopefully he'll be too busy paying attention to you and not his mates. We keep the sessions very short as in 5 mins each rein and build up.
 

tusculum10

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Only doing as you have been we lead him round first then I step back and send him forward to get him moving. This usually results in a few bucks and mucking about but I keep him forward. One thing I find helps is say if you start on the left rein keep a lunge whip in your right hand and keep your body exactly where your leg would be so not going in front of his shoulder and the whip is kept low and behind him then your left hand holding the lunge line at the front so you make a V shape with the lunge line and whip making the long sides of the V and your body is the point.

Hope you can follow that not great at explaining it then the key is to keep him forward so he can't back up or turn in. We also use a surcingle with very loose side reins that don't restrict him but kind of guide him. We can then get him used to voice aids so when he's under saddle we use the voice at the same time as applying leg aids as he doesn't really understand the leg at the mo. Keep trying he will get it. Then hopefully he'll be too busy paying attention to you and not his mates. We keep the sessions very short as in 5 mins each rein and build up.


Thank you so much with your help and advice will keep you all updated on how he is doing and what I think he is thinking ha.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/283767_157053661135320_1067833536_n.jpg


This is a couple of months after purchasing him, he has now put a lot more weight on and is very energetic.
 
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tusculum10

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just an update on my ex-racehorse today.

Okay, today being quite windy but with some nice sun I decided to try something different to get Tusculum to try and rely on me and put trust with me so I got my cob in groomed him, once I was done with my cob I got Tusculum in and mum walked the cob back out. He was brilliant stood still let me groom him didn't neigh to much. I got a plastic bag and rubbed it all down his legs and he was brilliant. Done some lunging but I had to walk round atleast 6 times and then he got the hang of it on both sides. However I walked him down the bottom of the field and put him in a paddock on his own. He can still see my cob but he's not stuck to the hip with my cob. I let him off the lead and walked away he followed me all the way round the paddock, even the corner he never liked going to as something spooked him there before.. I'm so happy that he had to rely on me and follow me. Felt a good connection today. Will keep doing this everyday and let people know his progress.
 

morrismob

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Fantastic well done to you both ! You have done so well with him, looking at photos of when you first got him until now. He's a credit to you :D
 

IAmCrazyForHorses

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Maybe you could tie your cob up outside the school so he/she could watch? Then your ex-racehorse might relax a bit knowing he has a friend near him also if he's had time of he'll probably be a bit jumpy because he hasn't had a rider on his back for a while. Maybe you could lunge him with his tack first?
 

tusculum10

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Maybe you could tie your cob up outside the school so he/she could watch? Then your ex-racehorse might relax a bit knowing he has a friend near him also if he's had time of he'll probably be a bit jumpy because he hasn't had a rider on his back for a while. Maybe you could lunge him with his tack first?


I've started to bring him in and take the cob out but still in a paddock so he can see him still there. He's been brilliant the last two days, alot more trust in me.

Thanks anyway x
 
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