Marilyn91
Well-Known Member
So I bought a 4 year old Connemara pony mare sight-unseen (I know, I know...) from Ireland back in September.
She was sold to me as being green but very calm and sensible. The reason for sale was the owner's daughter had decided last minute to go to university. At the time, I was riding my trainer's 4 year old on a regular basis so I thought I could handle it. I later found out she had had a bad riding accident.
She became increasingly spooky and anxious. Not "dancing nervously around a plastic bag" kind of spooky but full-on panic bolting, mostly because of other horses. Example: I was riding in the indoor school, some other horses came in, she went beserk, bucked and bolted. I fell off and so did two other people. She did this again when trail riding. At this point, I stopped riding her and focused on groundwork. But even then she was very crazy-acting. She started cribbing in her stable. I was hand-grazing her in the woods behind the yard and she bucked in my face and bolted back to her stable. I'm not sure why as I didn't see anything that could have scared her. I guess she heard other horses in the distance.
I changed stable yards so she would have more turnout, and also because her stable was next to a stallion who was making her nervous and because I suspected the yard owner was feeding her oats. As soon we we got to the new yard, she calmed down a lot and I was finally able to do groundwork with her and make progress. After about two weeks, I tried to mount and she bolted. Even with someone else holding her, I was not able to get on.
We are waiting for saddle number three to come back from the saddler, since the first one was too long and the second (which was professionally fitted) was pressing on her spine and hurt her. I have had her back checked by a vet and treated by a chiropractor. We are now waiting for saddle number three to come back from the saddler.
It just always feels like two steps forward, two steps back. She was lunging perfectly off my voice commands, then suddenly she got into a habit of stopping, turning around, and rearing when you try to get her to go forward. I got an experienced instructor to nip the problem in the bud and I can lunge her again now, but it requires me to basically chase her the entire time, which isn't much fun for either of us. I think she's bored. The list of things we can do safely, while having fun, just seems to get smaller and smaller...
Her behaviour is a lot worse when I'm not there. For example, we were doing groundwork with a new trainer, I left the indoor arena to fetch something, came back and the trainer said that she went nuts and started rearing. I didn't see it and she behaved perfectly as soon I got back.
It's all becoming very stressful and expensive - I've had two vets out several times, three saddles (the third is now being adjusted for the second time), the chiropractor, she's had her teeth done and wolf teeth out, several farriers because two weren't very good and her hooves needed corrective treatment afterwards, I even changed yards to improve things for her... Balancing all of this on top of a full-time job is so hard, I have no idea how people do it.
Today I handwalked her through the forest near the yard and she was on edge the whole time and was terrified when one horse walked past. No bolting or anything, so I guess that is an improvement but I'm just feeling so frustrated. Even though she is getting better, I just don't ever see her being the kind of easy-to-do horse I can get on and go for a nice relaxing hack on.
Sometimes I feel like giving up but she can be very kind and sweet. A lot of this is my fault, because the yard I initially put her in wasn't very good, I failed to spot that the professionally fitted saddle was hurting her and because she's my first horse I didn't know which vets, saddlers etc were good and which just take your money.
Will it get better as she gets older? I'm worried that it might get even worse as she gets stronger... Any ideas on what to try? Should I think about selling her?
She was sold to me as being green but very calm and sensible. The reason for sale was the owner's daughter had decided last minute to go to university. At the time, I was riding my trainer's 4 year old on a regular basis so I thought I could handle it. I later found out she had had a bad riding accident.
She became increasingly spooky and anxious. Not "dancing nervously around a plastic bag" kind of spooky but full-on panic bolting, mostly because of other horses. Example: I was riding in the indoor school, some other horses came in, she went beserk, bucked and bolted. I fell off and so did two other people. She did this again when trail riding. At this point, I stopped riding her and focused on groundwork. But even then she was very crazy-acting. She started cribbing in her stable. I was hand-grazing her in the woods behind the yard and she bucked in my face and bolted back to her stable. I'm not sure why as I didn't see anything that could have scared her. I guess she heard other horses in the distance.
I changed stable yards so she would have more turnout, and also because her stable was next to a stallion who was making her nervous and because I suspected the yard owner was feeding her oats. As soon we we got to the new yard, she calmed down a lot and I was finally able to do groundwork with her and make progress. After about two weeks, I tried to mount and she bolted. Even with someone else holding her, I was not able to get on.
We are waiting for saddle number three to come back from the saddler, since the first one was too long and the second (which was professionally fitted) was pressing on her spine and hurt her. I have had her back checked by a vet and treated by a chiropractor. We are now waiting for saddle number three to come back from the saddler.
It just always feels like two steps forward, two steps back. She was lunging perfectly off my voice commands, then suddenly she got into a habit of stopping, turning around, and rearing when you try to get her to go forward. I got an experienced instructor to nip the problem in the bud and I can lunge her again now, but it requires me to basically chase her the entire time, which isn't much fun for either of us. I think she's bored. The list of things we can do safely, while having fun, just seems to get smaller and smaller...
Her behaviour is a lot worse when I'm not there. For example, we were doing groundwork with a new trainer, I left the indoor arena to fetch something, came back and the trainer said that she went nuts and started rearing. I didn't see it and she behaved perfectly as soon I got back.
It's all becoming very stressful and expensive - I've had two vets out several times, three saddles (the third is now being adjusted for the second time), the chiropractor, she's had her teeth done and wolf teeth out, several farriers because two weren't very good and her hooves needed corrective treatment afterwards, I even changed yards to improve things for her... Balancing all of this on top of a full-time job is so hard, I have no idea how people do it.
Today I handwalked her through the forest near the yard and she was on edge the whole time and was terrified when one horse walked past. No bolting or anything, so I guess that is an improvement but I'm just feeling so frustrated. Even though she is getting better, I just don't ever see her being the kind of easy-to-do horse I can get on and go for a nice relaxing hack on.
Sometimes I feel like giving up but she can be very kind and sweet. A lot of this is my fault, because the yard I initially put her in wasn't very good, I failed to spot that the professionally fitted saddle was hurting her and because she's my first horse I didn't know which vets, saddlers etc were good and which just take your money.
Will it get better as she gets older? I'm worried that it might get even worse as she gets stronger... Any ideas on what to try? Should I think about selling her?
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