Horses with a mental block about pain...

[Charla]

My horse threw me off a few weeks ago and because this was odd behaviour, I stopped riding him until it was investigated properly. And much to my sadness, it turned out he had quite a sore back and tight hamstrings.
I'm now having the saddler out tomorrow morning because I want everything sorted and checked before I start riding my boy again. (Teeth have also been done previously) However, the back lady kept saying to me, be aware that your horse may have a mental block about the pain he was experiencing when being ridden so he may well have you off again.

Just wondered if anyone had experienced this and if so, how long did it take for your horse to overcome it?

 

[Wagtail]

IME horses usually only have this pain memory very briefly. They may tense up expecting it to hurt but if they are genuinely no longer in pain then it doesn't normally last. I certainly would not expect your horse to have you off again due to pain memory. If he does it again then I would say that the pain has not really gone.

We went through over a year of problems with a mare on my yard who refused to let her owner or me ride her, yet was fine for strangers to ride. he vets therefore said it was behavioural. She went to three different specialist centres at the cost of several thousand, and they found nothing. In the end, we insisted she was scoped for ulcers, and was found to have really bad ones. A month after treatment and she was letting us ride her again with her enthusiasm returned. However, sadly, since I reduced her mediction (on the instruction of the vet) she has started to exhibit the same behavior and is once again unridable. I have had to start the expensive treatment all over again.

My gelding on the other hand has some mild remembered pain issues with his sadde. We don't know what happened to him in the past, but when I first got him, he panicked whenever the saddle was put on, pulling back, jibbing, rearing etc. I had a chiro and a physio, and the vet to him. Nothng was found wrong. I had his saddle checked and was a perfect fit. So this behaviour was obviously remembered. Gradually after weeks of patient desensitizing, he was fine, but if I don't ride him for a week or more, he always has a brief panic when I gently girth up the saddle, then he is fine again until the next time he has had a longer than usual break. However, he has always been excellent to ride.

 

[Charla]

Thank you for your reply Wagtail. My gelding used to feel quite tight and hunched when I used to first get on him (because he was experiencing this discomfort) so hopefully he will be able to tell a difference and so will I when I get on him tomorrow. And if he is tight at first, I hope he realises it actually feels ok afterall so will relax and loosen up in time!

 

[ironhorse]

Yeah, we had to go through this with our mare. She's pretty sensitive anyway, but was unrideable last autumn due, the physio reckoned to having tweaked muscles across her loins playing in the field when she was supposed to be having a holiday. She was fine in walk and trot but if you asked her to canter she would just squeal and kick.
When the phsio gave her the all clear she would still do it, but a few weeks of riding her through it, making sure she was very well warmed up before asking her to canter and incorporating ground poles which she loves, and she was back to normal.