Evil pony!!

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Willowsimmons

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I ride a pony who I would describe as evil and bipolar. I dealt with a horse like this before and thank god it was a boarder and they left. Violently unpredictable undersaddle and on the ground. On the ground he will be fine and sweet and pleasant and suddenly get violent out of nowhere. Biting like he wants to hurt me, not just bites to show he’s uncomfortable. He is absolutely unresponsive to leg aids when I am riding, same violence if I give him a little squeeze, he will turn around and attack my leg. The saddle fits- from his reaction. It’s not custom for him but he violently reacts if we put a different saddle on him, and is happy about the one we use. He gets plenty of turnout and is friendly with his pasture mates. Is this a training issue? Or if anyone thinks it’s pain what are some other diagnostic tests we could do? He dosent have ulcers, is 8 years old, and gets biannual chiropractic. Eager for any tips.
 
Definitely vet, that sounds not dissimilar to a pony I had who turned out to (most probably) have kissing spines. He was a real sweetheart really, but once you put him into proper work he couldn't cope and would become difficult to handle and downright unpredictable under saddle. His KS was not obvious but was clearly causing him a huge amount of pain / distress. Not to say that yours has KS, but the behaviour you're describing sounds pain related to me.
 
Horses cannot be bipolar. The thing literally making my eyes bleed is people calling their horses autistic/bipolar etc Horses are reactive animals, they don't sit there with their little teeny brains and think about feelings and emotions. Their teeny brains are taken up with phenomenal senses and reacting to those. Thus if you horse is reacting in a negative way then something negative is happening to it.
 
LEC said:
Horses cannot be bipolar. The thing literally making my eyes bleed is people calling their horses autistic/bipolar etc Horses are reactive animals, they don't sit there with their little teeny brains and think about feelings and emotions. Their teeny brains are taken up with phenomenal senses and reacting to those. Thus if you horse is reacting in a negative way then something negative is happening to it.
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the throwaway comment upset me as well.
Hope ponio gets sorted! Do keep us posted OP! :)
 
LEC said:
Horses cannot be bipolar. The thing literally making my eyes bleed is people calling their horses autistic/bipolar etc Horses are reactive animals, they don't sit there with their little teeny brains and think about feelings and emotions. Their teeny brains are taken up with phenomenal senses and reacting to those. Thus if you horse is reacting in a negative way then something negative is happening to it.
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^^ this. With bells on.
 
How do you know he doesn't have ulcers?

If the answer is that he has been scoped, did the vet consider hind gut ulcers that don't show on a scope?

And did the vet who did the scoping make any suggestions as to what you could investigate? If no, did you ask?
 
very rare having a thing as an "evil" animal of any kind....stop riding the poor thing, get him fully checked over, properly.....horses do NOT react like this because they are "evil", he is clearly in pain or something is bothering him.....,
 
Sorry to everyone thinking I hate the pony. I’m not trying to torture him by riding him but I don’t own him and he will get ridden and trained whether I like it or not. The next person who rides him will probably just get more angry because of his “misbehaviors”. after everybody mentioning kissing spine, I looked into it a bit more. But after reading about kissing spine I think he definitely has it and I feel so bad. I’ll definitely have a vet diagnose it/ check it out. From the internet, I think that time on a Pessoa lunging system would be good to help stretch his top line? any other suggestions aside from what the vet will do? Stretches, etc. thank you for everyone’s replies
 
OP, your posts are a little confusing, you say you don’t own the pony but you’ll have a vet diagnose him.

Whatever the case, absolutely nothing should be done with this pony until he has had a full work up with the vets and has a firm diagnosis, the vet will then advise whoever owns him/is involved in his care, of the treatment needed and if appropriate, rehabbing.

If you pony is yours please get the vet immediately, if it is owned by someone else, it seems odd that they have not had the vet (perhaps they have and you are unaware?), go and speak politely to them and say you are worried about him and ask if he has had the vet/could he see the vet, as you believe he’s in pain.

You may well find out that he has been seen by a vet and you will find out more about what is going on.

You may also find out that the owners haven’t had a vet and aren’t prepared to get one out. In which case it is difficult for you to help the pony.

I repeat though, please don’t do any rehab/work you’ve read about on the internet, the pony needs the vet to diagnose.

Strangers on a forum who haven’t seen the pony are limited in what they can tell you.

Best of luck. x
 
Willowsimmons said:
Sorry to everyone thinking I hate the pony. I’m not trying to torture him by riding him but I don’t own him and he will get ridden and trained whether I like it or not. The next person who rides him will probably just get more angry because of his “misbehaviors”. after everybody mentioning kissing spine, I looked into it a bit more. But after reading about kissing spine I think he definitely has it and I feel so bad. I’ll definitely have a vet diagnose it/ check it out. From the internet, I think that time on a Pessoa lunging system would be good to help stretch his top line? any other suggestions aside from what the vet will do? Stretches, etc. thank you for everyone’s replies
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I know that you say you are getting the vet, though it's a bit of a mystery how that's going to happen if you only share him. You write about "the next person who rides him" as if this is a riding school horse?

So for anyone else reading in future, you can't diagnose kissing spines yourself. Not even a vet can do it by looking at a horse. And they are very often caused by a problem elsewhere. The symptoms you have described could be caused by a number of other things. This horse definitely needs a proper investigation.
 
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