HHO horse hunting posse

Yes, I bought her when she was about 20mths, ish? She was on livery there until I moved for the hard standing at gryffeside.

She’s small, she’s almost 5 and only 14’3. she’s a wonderful person, but tends to have favourites in the people who handle her. However, despite having the same maternal herd and then the youngster field, she isn’t a fan of most horses, especially mares.

I turned my back on her on Saturday and she’d stolen the farm dogs toy to give to my dog. She likes hats and pony tails, and laces. She’s smart with a sense of humour, it’s a dangerous gorgeous combination.

I can hack her out alone, but she hates the school. i hate schooling so we call it quits. I sent her to Giorgia Burns to back, I was really happy with the job done.

I’m assuming it’s Liz whose in Cumbernauld?
 
Yeah, it's Liz in Cumbernauld. I'm happy backing the horse myself, but the breeder said that they benefit a lot from Spanish-style in-hand training, plus it's something to do. I have no idea how to do that. I've also seen from YCBM and Cortez's posts that it's useful to have a trainer who understands Spanish horses. I guess the things that WB or more TB types find hard, they find easy, and things WBs/TBs etc find easy, Iberians find hard?

I hope she gets on with mares, because she will be in the mare herd at my yard. She's not staying at the breeder's because Neilston is a ball-ache to get to from the West End, and two horses in two different places that are nowhere near one another doesn't work. I've driven there lots to rock climb at the wee quarry. It doesn't get better.

This wee mare is meant to be a dressage horse, so hopefully she won't mind schooling, either!
 
She was meant to be an endurance horse, so I’m not exactly looking for the same things as you ?. I wanted forward and independent of the herd. I’ve got that, we went passed a combine harvester alone without a fuss in the first month of her ridden career, but she actively avoids David gatherer who has been nothing but nice to her.

she does have the most amazing floaty trot and can really extend it out when she feels like it. I can come and go with riding her, with out much fear, she likes having a job. I had abdominal surgery, she had surgery so we’ve not exactly done much since she was backed, and obviously the general lockdown rule of not to be an idiot on the newly backed horse.

Currently she needs her saddle widened again so we’re back only doing in hand work.

however, she’s 4 so I’m not really looking for much from her, just a willing attitude.

field wise, she’s in a mixed herd. The mare herd did not work. The other older mare mostly ignores her, and she occasionally interacts with the two geldings. She generally keeps to herself. I couldn’t figure out if I was happy or annoyed that she came in with her new rug torn up by the boys last week, as she would have been playing, they’re not much older than her. I went with happy.

However, she can easily jump 1.1m if she feels like it. As in she will jump out of the school if she’s stretching her legs and left for a minute. Giorgia thought she had the bones of an eventer. No, absolutely not happening.

I might be giving her a bad rep, she’s learning fast and she’s eager to please. She understands voice cues and we had been doing well with leg yields and lateral work, and the beginnings of neck reining. She’s easy with the farrier, dentist, clipper and the physio can deal with her without my help. She’s generally an easy and kind horse who is nice to be around.
 
My Spanish girls get on with mares so don't worry ?.

I don't think you need to learn specific 'Spanish ' ground work but they do enjoy learning. I tend to use Richard Maxwell exercises with mine and they really enjoy it.

I think the only reason for choosing an instructor that knows the Spanish is often trainers will try and make them go like a warmblood which they can struggle with. This doesn't mean you can't teach them to stretch etc but it is often a different way of teaching them.
 
Can I ask why she had surgery?

I'm trained in 'natural horsemanship' groundwork (though I hate using that phrase). Was going to spend our first months together teaching her the groundwork I know, like backing, leg yielding, etc. from super light cues. And all the other stuff a horse should know to be a good equine citizen of the world. I guess I'm interested in the Spanish in-hand work primarily because I am realistically not going to be riding anything for a while :( (tell me why I'm buying a two-year old again?), and it would be something to do that looks fun and different.
 
You could take a look at the proper long rein work? Ie teaching all of the school moves on the long lines, piaffe, passage, changes, Spanish walk etc. Obviously that takes years but you can start the base work as a young horse.
 
Malignant melanoma. She’s on oncept for the rest of her life. She was given an 8mth average survival time in 2018. I really never expected her to still be here. any lumps or bumps gets removed. She had 4 taken off in December. Only one was a melanoma, we had a fibroma (not a sarcoid), a keratinous cyst and an eosinophilia granuloma. She gets her guttural pouches scoped annually for metastatic spread.

get a grey horse and get the non grey variant of melanoma. Go figure. I have rubbish luck with animals. My dog is missing a vertebra so her femoral nerve is being crushed on her right hind. Diagnosed same time as the horse.

you figured if it’s going to have bad habits it might as well be bad habits you taught? I don’t know, at least you dont have to feel guilty because of the lockdown.
 
Correction, the non grey variant that Derek Knottenbelt saw about once every 10 years. ??‍♀️

pretty sure there was a really excited vet student about a really rare disease
 
Inda said:
Malignant melanoma. She’s on oncept for the rest of her life. She was given an 8mth average survival time in 2018. I really never expected her to still be here. any lumps or bumps gets removed. She had 4 taken off in December. Only one was a melanoma, we had a fibroma (not a sarcoid), a keratinous cyst and an eosinophilia granuloma. She gets her guttural pouches scoped annually for metastatic spread.

get a grey horse and get the non grey variant of melanoma. Go figure. I have rubbish luck with animals. My dog is missing a vertebra so her femoral nerve is being crushed on her right hind. Diagnosed same time as the horse.

you figured if it’s going to have bad habits it might as well be bad habits you taught? I don’t know, at least you dont have to feel guilty because of the lockdown.
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That's terrible. Do they know if there's a genetic component, or is it just shight luck?
 
shortstuff99 said:
You could take a look at the proper long rein work? Ie teaching all of the school moves on the long lines, piaffe, passage, changes, Spanish walk etc. Obviously that takes years but you can start the base work as a young horse.
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Aye, hence trying to connect with the Spanish trainer. Would be pretty cool to get there some day.
 
Inda said:
Malignant melanoma. She’s on oncept for the rest of her life. She was given an 8mth average survival time in 2018. I really never expected her to still be here. any lumps or bumps gets removed. She had 4 taken off in December. Only one was a melanoma, we had a fibroma (not a sarcoid), a keratinous cyst and an eosinophilia granuloma. She gets her guttural pouches scoped annually for metastatic spread.

get a grey horse and get the non grey variant of melanoma. Go figure. I have rubbish luck with animals. My dog is missing a vertebra so her femoral nerve is being crushed on her right hind. Diagnosed same time as the horse.

you figured if it’s going to have bad habits it might as well be bad habits you taught? I don’t know, at least you dont have to feel guilty because of the lockdown.
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Oh no, that sounds so stressful! Fingers crossed for her and you.
 
Did your mare or the others that you know of adjust all right to livery yard life? Lay awake in a panic last night, terrified the horse would have a major meltdown once removed from her family and become unhandleable.

I don't know why I'm spiraling. The last 2/3 year old I bought went to a yard as large and busy as my current one, and he did not bat an eye. I was in a happier place, though. No lockdown, Gypsum was in her prime, and I'd bought the horse as a project to break-in and sell, so I guess I didn't have the same emotional investment as I would when buying one for myself.
 
I've bought all of mine from their baby herds and none of them seemed any more bothered than an adult horse would be just moving from one livery yard to another.
 
Look for classical dressage instructors / or those based in classical dressage and they'll help you with in hand work - she looks lovely.
 
No issues, as long as she has food she’s happy. Everyone else is chilled too. She was perfectly happy in the vet school for the week.

biggest problem I have, the others too is the waistline. It’s a constant battle. It’s either scrub grass or a muzzle. I’m hoping once she’s in regular work the issue will be easier to manage.

when is your vetting?
 
Vetting is Thursday. Yikes!

Our grazing isn't great. I know this because the fat natives are fine, and it's a ball-ache to keep weight on my hard keeper Shire-TBX. At my last yard, my Shire-TBX looked amazing (during the summer anyway) on minimal hard feeds, while the fat natives were coming down with laminitis left, right, and center. This will probably be useful for a PRE.
 
How did i miss this? She looks very like my mare CI, congratulations!

Mine was a lot older than yours before she was moved from her birth place, but she literally shook with nerves for a week and kept running back into the barn. So do expect her to be insecure, and be happy if she isn't. I would say it's only recently she is feeling really secure, 8 months. And no, I can't train her like a warmblood, it fries her brain.

Really looking forward to following your story. Congratulations again ?
 
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She'll only be mine once the vet confirms that there's nothing obviously wrong with her. Unlikely at 2, but it's horses, isn't it?

Training Gypsum like a warmblood did not go well. Probably set our dressage progress back years. But she was a Shire-TBX, so she should have been able to be trained like a warmblood, right? Every trainer we had thought so! She only started going well when I started using Philippe Karl sort of methods, which are primarily aimed at Iberians.
 
Caol Ila said:
She'll only be mine once the vet confirms that there's nothing obviously wrong with her. Unlikely at 2, but it's horses, isn't it?

Training Gypsum like a warmblood did not go well. Probably set our dressage progress back years. But she was a Shire-TBX, so she should have been able to be trained like a warmblood, right? Every trainer we had thought so! She only started going well when I started using Philippe Karl sort of methods, which are primarily aimed at Iberians.
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Without wanting to get into the conversation, this is my own personal adversion to warmbloods becoming the norm in pretty much all levels of dressage, because people are increasingly likely to try to ride and train non-warmbloods like a warmblood. There has been that much development in the warmblood breeds that no a hot x cold first generation cross is not the same. My PRE X warmblood doesn't even particularly ride like a warmblood (aside from being big), he is just like a PRE in an awkwardly big body. Such is the lottery with crosses. But there are a lot of trainers who are great with a lot of the more 'baroque' builds/inclinations of horse (including a lot more than just PREs), it's just a bit of trial and error to find someone who gets you/the horse. <Waits for someone to turn up and tell me that nobody but a Spaniard can train one> (I used to work work a woman who rehabbed them so have ridden lots of them - I'm not completely talking out of my backside...she wasn't Spanish either).


PREs are usually pretty easy and fun on long reins so I'm sure you'll enjoy just playing with stuff like that for a while. Good luck for the vetting ?
 
Oh how exciting.

My PRE is sort of a mental case but settles into whatever lifestyle he needs to. He adapts well to changes in turnout or stabling. Steps off the trailer cool as a cucumber. Some things he's super chill about.

He took to long lining easily. When he was younger, and sometimes now, I would hand walk him everywhere. Sort of like a big dog. He's been on many long hikes with me, OH, and our actual dog. He will follow me anywhere and in general loves the sight seeing. I also do a lot of ground work and some tricks. A lot of it makes life easier (ground tie, coming to and standing at an object for me to mount from). So there's always stuff to play around with.

Ideally a trainer that has worked with Iberians is best, but I've had some "standard dressage" trainers that were quite ok too.
 
There's an upper level clinician who comes to the barn regularly, who I think might be okay, from what I've seen watching other people's lessons. Obviously not this year -- horse has to be strong and fit enough under saddle for a 45 minute lesson. Mainly want to avoid trainers who want you to more or less pull the horse's down and then hold it there with a firm contact while you drive horse into it with your leg and seat. That was my wrong turn with the Shire-TBX. She learned to cut the impulsion and drop behind the leg. It seems as if it would quite upset a PRE.

Like I said, I have the name of an Iberian horse trainer nearby, so I'll try to track her down once the horse is ready for the long lines.
 
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