Do Horses Really Say No To Being Ridden. Have You Had One?

Elsbells

Elsbells

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Following on from a couple of threads on here tonight, there seems to be a reoccuring statement being made, which intrests me.

"after that, he was never ridden again and is now a lawnmower."

My mare jacked in jumping with her prev owner and had kind of mental breakdown, so I understand that sort of thing can and does happen, but as for never being ridden at all, or wanting to kill the rider!?

How does this happen and why? What type does this happen to? How easily can it? Is it that common place? Do they ever come back? And what does happen to them eventally, as they are often so young and surely they can't all make good brood mares, can they?

Have you had one and what was the outcome?
 
Both my horses have strong opinions. Captain will be ridden by Elizabeth happily and will tolerate my YO and me riding him, he will not tolerate anyone else. He is a very sensitive horse and has made it quite clear to any one else who tries riding him that they are unwanted, giving them a very difficult ride.

Fany says no to schooling, happily hacks out but hates schooling and won't lunge at all.

Sounds like they rule the roost, they don't. Fany was bought as a hack so that is fine, bit of a pain when she won't lunge or free school and the weather is too icy etc. to hack out. Captain is just very sensitive and has an incredible bond with E. plus he was only re-backed to ride 4 years ago and he is 17 and a half now. And there really is no need for any one else to ride him, as he is semi-retired. Would not ask any one else to ride him any way.
 
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my now retired gelding choose not to be ridden aged 14 he went on loan as I went to uni and had a bad fall with the girl who frankly did not look after him. it was in the middle of foot and mouth horror and I was told being cared for etc but don't visit as he in very bad foot and mouth area fortunately I smelled a rat and after a couple of weeks just turned up. I was heart broken he had been shut in stable and uncared for while girl had gone to London leaving no one to care for him. YO had done her best as in making sure hay and water but was on crutches and couldn't muck out as ge was difficult to handle ( no other liveries on yard) he was also skin and bone.

I managed to find someone who I am forever grateful to to transport him and allow him on yard even with foot and mouth restrictions and spent the next 2 years of him having physio and treatment but he was never the same again. it got to the point where you could not predict when he was going to react and had no respect for himself or his rider so I called it a day. I was lucky enough to be in a position to keep him even tho at the time I couldn't afford anything else to ride and he is now 21 healthy as an ox and a very pretty field ornament.

I would never rehome dye to the many Saturday experts who asked "have you tried lungeing before you get on?" er durh! never thought of that! lol
 
I had one, a TBxWelshD mare. She was sugar intolerant and although after I'd stopped riding her because she was so unpredictable, we found out what was wrong and stopped feeding her any sugar. Her behaviour improved but because she was kept in an area where people walked past with their dogs etc and fed her, no matter what we did, we didn't ride her much again. In fact I don't remember any-one riding her after we moved to our own place - there were still footpaths around the property. So she must have been here for about 12 years as a field ornament. We certainly wouldn't have considered breeding form her, although we have a pretty good idea that her problems stemmed from being kept short of food as a 2 yr old and then being fed up too quickly, by the breeder who bought her back, before selling her on to us.
The final outcome was that she died of a stroke in her stable aged 24.
 
I had a Welsh C mare who I bought as a 6yo broodmare with then intentions of showing under saddle as she was quite simply the perfect specimin of a C. All started off well and she was going fantastically well until I rode her in a different field, thinking nothing of it and a big lorry drove past on the rode, she got scared, went up and came over sideways. After that day all she ever did was run backwards or forwards at the speed of light bucking and cowkicking.

She is now a broodmare again. She produces fantastic stock so at least she does have another use other than just a lawnmower.
 
Tont completely refuses to ride in a field.

I only have to get on and he gets a wild look in his eyes, and I can tell that he's about to bugger off. So far he's bolted down a steep hill, bucked me off, reared, thrown himself about ect - so I've given up :rolleyes:

We only hack now :)
 
One of my old horses is now a lawnmower. He one day threw himself over backwards on me breaking my back and was never the same again, he became so unpredictable and dangerous he was retired. We think this was due to being gelded late - no physical problems found.
 
Mine lets you know if he doesn;t like something. He is a horse that knows his own mind!
When I had him at the livery yard he flatly refused to hack out alone. He wouldn;t let me get on, he would throw himself into walls and try to smear me off under trees! Thankfully he will hack out alone happily since we moved to the farm. Very odd, I think maybe he just didn;t like his surroundings!
He hates schooling, he is good at it but if you do it more than once a week he gets lazy and stuffy. It's a nuisance because I used to do lot of prelim comps with him and you could never tell what mood he would be in, it was really frustrating. When he goes well he scores mid-60s (with very little practice) but he is also capable of coming last when he can't be bothered.

So now I just go with what he enjoys, that way we can both have fun! Thankfully he seems to love anything we do with the riding club.
 
When my boy first started showing signs of arthritis he turned from a very forward going endurance horse, to not wanting to go faster then walk and only for a few mins and was very sluggish.

I knew him too well to think he was just being naughty so called the vet.

So he said no, but very politely :p

now he is a lawnmower, but as he's sound the vet suggested to bring him back into light work over the winter to keep his joints moving - cant wait!
 
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