horse accomodation is dodgy but I have no other place what to do

[gazoula]

Hi all, I am thinking of adopting the horse that I have been riding at my riding school (I have never owned a horse) but have been reading and self training on anything I can get my hands on regarding natural horsemanship. This riding school has no idea or belief in natural horsemanship so everyone who tries to get this horse to move uses a lot of heavy handling. However I am afraid that if I do adopt him and he still stays in the same environment seeing all the past trainers in the same environment that I am just going to further confuse and mess up this horse. Its very confusing what to do all options seem almost bad! But I don't have my own horse accommodations ready yet and am planning but that wont happen for a few years or so. So he will have to stay there whereby I would be the only one train and ride him and see him everyday but like I said I am also afraid if they use any bad handling when I am not there... What do you suggest? Do you think I can still gain his trust and confidence? PS: He a 15 yr old extremely introvert stallion that shuts down very often... So my plan was to start from the very beginning... Many thanks x

 

[Nugget La Poneh]

Aside from the fact it is unusual for a stallion to be used in a riding school which makes me slightly guarded about the scenario you describe, just because a person doesn't subscribe or follow natural horsemanship techniques does not make them bad handlers. There are plenty of people here that would be willing to show bad handling examples within said natural horsemanship fraternity.

You would be able to build up a relationship with the horse just by seeing and tending to them everyday. But it won't take time. And I would think very, very carefully about taking on a stallion as your first horse.

 

[gazoula]

Thanks for the post my bad he is a gelding so I shouldn't worry about the same accommodation that he's already staying in? I have seen the handlers generally talk about him as not liking him much because he doesn't easily canter or he can shut down in middle of riding him but they tend to just whip him harder or only ride with spurs which made me think they were heavy handed. The school also doesn't have a pasture so he is ridden about 5 times a day max at half an hour each session then is shut away at his stall and sometimes when they get him ready for a lesson he gets tied to the stable door for long hours which to me seemed unreasonable (although I am inexperienced my gut instinct tell me to let him hang out in his stall until he is ready to be ridden instead of constricting him).

 

[Welly]

I take it from your post that you are not in the UK where do you live?

 

[gazoula]

In Turkey

 

[Welly]

I don't know how horses are kept in Turkey so would not like to comment, but good luck.