HELP! Any ideas welcome my fillys terrible twos

F

flutini

Active Member
Joined
17 February 2013
Messages
31
Visit site
I've owned my 2 year old warmblood filly from 3 days old and shes been with me since weaning. She's always been a challenging clever little horse capable of throwing the most horrific temper tantrums when things don't go her way triggers of these vary greatly and what could be done with ease one day may prove a horrible nightmare on another. She picks up everything very quickly, and is very bold and fearless the ultimate aim will be to eventually start her young event horse classes she's already shown a natural skill free jumping and was bred for the job. on the face of it she's good to travel (though loading can either be a huge problem or no problem at all irrelevant of what she's travelled in) will stand to be groomed/bathed for hours good with the farrier, vet comes to call in the feild happily walks round busy traffic and countryside (she finds this very but I'm understandingly reluctant to push my luck taking her out too much) she also is fairly happy stabled I have no great concerns being around her in the stable in fact friends often ask to come and pat her as she's never Bargy or nippy though she's been known to try and jump her door or just stand with her front hooves on it! and I've shown her in county sport horse classes across the country with success however at smaller local shows she seems to grow bored and look for ways to amuse herself. It's just the explosive often dangerous temper tantrums climaxing with an outing this last weekend where she couldn't settle and everything upset her every class was a mass of broncing and tearing up at the slightest disturbance the judge wouldn't go near however she did win 3 classes :/and loading was a nightmare

I'm just wondering if there's more I can do for her I've tried various methods if she's thoroughly entertained she's content and calm she's my first weaning though I have worked on international event yards so I'm used to a bit of quirky behaviour but she's just so clever in her approach and they're are no consistent triggers it can be anything from refusing to go through a doorway to trotting her up. Her behaviour has been noticeably worse since I've had her on danilon and penstrep for a kick to her knee which has also meant she's been in daily for hosing and cleaning of the wound as well as injections she cooed with all this well but started trying to bolt off bring her out the feild and walking her back to the yard. Could the danilon have an effect I've been told it can effect gut balance ???

Would a change in feed help she's always had top spec stud until a recent change to thier lite balancer with lite chaff so I've stopped the balancer for now as this was a suggestion ??

She's never had proper baby friends to play with since weaning and is mostly out with my elderly thoroughbred is this playing a large factor I have begun looking for prehaps somewhere with some similarly aged horses for winter ???

Or is there another thing I could try telling her off in the midst of a tantrum just makes her fight back. She's not overly interested in treats and is bored of a lot of suggested games exercises once she's worked it out. A rope halter has thankfully stopped the bolting off ! I'm just confused how something can be so sweet one minute and such a angry horse the next I'm confident from those who've seen her in action her behaviour is a bit more than the average youngster and I realise it may just be in her nature or something she'll grow out of but I'm just wondering if there's more I could do
 
You need to turn her away in a age apporiate group for the winter .
A stud would be ideal were she could be in a group of young horses or even a group of older mares if youngsters are not an option .
The difficulty of providing big enough fields and age apporiate company was what stopped me breeding from my mare .
In the mean time I would handle her as little as possible just the minimum for health and welfare .
 
Yes turn away with other youngsters and an adult 'nanny' that will put her in her place (without danger of hurting her).

Does your elderly TB ever tell her off?
 
I agree with the replies above, she would probably really benefit from some similar aged friends to play roughly with for the next 12 months, an old horse may instill some manners but will not encourage them to use up any excess energy, she sounds as if her education is fine in many ways and she just needs to get some playtime in now before the real work starts.
 
Absolutely agree. Turn her away with her own age group - but more importantly, give her a break. It sounds as if you've been showing her a lot (nothing needs to do three classes in a day) and it's probably time for her to just play at being a young horse.
 
I have a yearling who is a little similar to a lesser degree.

I also agree with above, I wouldn't dream of showing such a young horse in 3 classes in a day.

Turn away.
 
I think it's asking a lot of a 2yr old to travel to lots of different shoes, to do 3 classes in a day and to not have any same- age company at home. She is not able to be a normal young horse. If you want any hope of sanity in the future I'd get her out in a herd of younstock asap and forget about her until she's at least another year older.
I'm all for educating them but it sounds like she has probably been over-cooked and can't cope
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top