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SaddleUpSin

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So I might be part sharing this really sweet gorgeous cob (hopefully), he used to be a school pony so doesn't really connect with people so well but I would love to be able to show him that he can trust me and hopefully acknowledge me in time. I feel no need to rush and also accept that he may never feel so inclined to be a people person. But how would you go about it? Would love to hear different approaches.
 
When I tried my Draft made, she was very shut down. The owner admitted that they didn't get on. I made sure that her tack fitted(that was a big part of the problem) and then treated her firmly but fairly and am always consistent in my dealings with her. She now exhibits her fabulous but opinionated personality to everyone she meets.

I am not sure it would be possible with a share horse, I'm afraid
 
Oh it's entirely possible. My share horse was always a bit of a bolshy tit and not very affectionate. But with me he gives full on head hugs and kisses and will groom me back. Doesn't do that with the others. He usually just shoves them away.
 
Old cob came to me from a riding school. He was depressed and angry for the first year. I tried to do things with him that were a bit different from what he had done before - so not too much school work, more hacking in different places, some groundwork etc. He learned that I wasn't going away and that he could count on the people in his life now, and that being with them was interesting and fun. The turning point was when I took him away for a weekend to an Intelligent Horsemanship clinic. When I turned him back out in his field he just stood next to me at the gate and wouldn't leave. It was a really emotional moment and a real breakthrough in our relationship!

One of the horses on our yard has a sharer who rides only one day a week. He adores her as she spends time with him in the yard, hacks him out to interesting places and always arrives with a carrot. He is quite indifferent with his actual owner!
 
Oh that's lovely to hear! I'm thinking just a lot of time on the ground together, in hand walks, letting him get a good suss of me and get to know me :)
 
One of mine was an ex-racehorse followed by a short stint as a trekking horse, just one of 70-80 horses and treated with all care and attention that people dealing with that number of horses can possibly dedicate(not much!), and when he first got to me he was switched off and machine-like compared to my other horses who came to me straight from their breeders and had lived their lives being treated as individuals.
It took two years for him to come to the realisation that I am 'his person' and he felt comfortable to show his actual personality, we have a mutual friendship now I think. To bond with him, we just did lots of things he likes to do, anything he shows enthusiasm for, so it was time spent out for walks, ponying him off my other horses, playing in the paddock, teaching him to eat carrots and apples(he arrived not knowing what they were) and generally taking him places and making his life interesting.
 
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