Didn't even make it on the lorry

[montysmum1]

I've been following your posts on this horse with interest, and just wanted to say well done too.

You sound as though you are making the right decisions for you and the horse. I hope this doesn't put you off getting another in the future. Very sensible and level headed.

Let us know how you all get on x

 

[Miss L Toe]

Having bought a pony that was found to rear and nap, despite taking my three children out and trialling her on two seperate occasions, vet check, spoke to instructors at the pony club the girl attended (and where the pony had done well), I understand your frustration and disapointment.

However, she is really unsaleable, and because she has a tendency to rear when my daughter suffers from competition nerves, it means that while she is capable of behaving like a dream pony at pony club rally days, on any competition day she can be inconsistent she may perform like a star, or she may not even get into the arena. She has reared her way through a dressage test, and mounted games, she went really well, but every now and then she refused to start over the line, as she reared and napped, and then a few minutes later fine again (but too late). Really frustrating esp. when part of a team.

So I would look at what recourse you have against the seller, I do not know what you spent, but to me a pony that rears has little value on the open market. However, it can be an expensive process, stressful, time consuming and not always succesful to attempt to recover your money/return the pony.

Have you tried Feedmark Steady up. could be magnesium shortage.

 

[Twinkley Lights]

Just to post a positive update on this one after some initial disagreements - he reared for the eventer too his reschooling is going well and he is popping jumps and behaving himself like the boy I know he can be. So hope for the future once he has had some further work to consolidate his training. I feel so relieved as we couldn't get his feet to stay on the ground.

 

[Tnavas]

What a shame that he has resorted to this behaviour as he must have had a traumatic time at some point in his life.

Time and practice and patience will hopefully deal with the problem but you need to make yourself safe while doing this.

This is a list of equipment that will help

A helmet and good strong gloves on all people involved holding ropes/lunge lines

A rope halter or dually halter - the narrow contact points have more effect than the broad strap of a headcollar.

An anti rearing bit - the rope clips to the ring on the bit and the loop or ring on the headcollar/halter

Boot or bandage horse well so you are not stressing about him catching himself

A long thick rope with a clip on it - the sort used by boaties.

A really long thick rope that you will use as a bum rope so that you can lose the peoplpe holding the lunge lines. This rope is used as a bum rope - see picture below - the knot at the withers is a bowline. Feed the free end through the throat of the headcollar and out through the ring where the clip goes.

Using the bum rope allows you to increase the rear pressure which will always actually be behind him - I used to use lunge lines but find they are only as good as the people at the end of them, they have to react quickly to keep the horse straight - the horse can swing to one side and find the other line almost in front of him, actually stopping him from going forwards - you also have the problem that they do jump over the lunge line.

Using this equipment you can work totally alone and not have the general turmoil and yelling that tends to develop when you have a few people and a determined horse.

Try if you can to block escape routes - Park the truck in an area where you can have some confined space - I like to have a wall along the right hand side of the horse as this helps keep him straight and you only have the left side to deal with.

Because the ramp on my truck is on the side we adapted one of the yards by fitting slip rails and by parking the truck up close we could drop the ramp into the gap and reduce escape routes. Currently where I graze we have a loading ramp - a raised area with rails surrounding where you can drop the ramp so that it is level with the ground - makes life so much easier. It's sorted Ruby's jumping in and out.

If you have your own place maybe this is something you need to look at building so that loading can become a happy time. I know that you can't have this facility at shows but it does seem that once the horse gets over the distress of being loaded they will load happily anywhere. If at a livery yard then maybe if all the liveries approach owner a loading area could be built

The little chap in the photo was an absolute sod to load the day he went to the show - we got him in by brute force in the end - we just about picked him up but after that he never ever played up again and he turned out to be one little toad of a horse to work with - but a saint to travel.

 

[ladyt25]

I do hope the eventer does manage to get to the bottom of the issues. In my mind ahorse cannot be 'evil'. Yes they can test the boundaries but as far as the horse is concerned it is merely reacting to a situation or a sensation (ie pain) and as they can't speak out they only have a few ways to express themselves.

I feel that an established rearer either does it due to pain or has done it as a reaction to something it was unsure of/scared of and, as a result of this it got out of having to overcome the fear and hence it becomes a learned behaviour. The issue is trying to find out the reason for a horse rearing and then a pretty confident and calm person to work on them to resolve it.

Good luck with yours and let us know how you get on.