How to get my ex racer to enjoy being groomed?

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Footlights

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My ex racer really doesn't enjoy being groomed. He is better when other horses are around, but just about tolerates it when it's just me and him.

He stands there with his ears back and occasionally turns around and pulls faces at me. He no longer bites me though, so an improvement there!! :D lol

I have tried all different sorts of brushes, and even got a goats hair one that is super soft. He is better around withers and saddle area but anywhere else he just seems to hate.

I really enjoy grooming and think its a good way of bonding, how can I encourage him to feel the same?
 
does he like being massaged just by your hands? there's an ex racer at my stables and once she went mental and had a huge bucking session inside her stable and almost took the roof off but after about 15 mins of me massaging her neck she calmed straight down, or perhaps he just hates being touched anyway brushes or no brushes

i think you might need to get a really good strong bond with him without grooming, by doing things like sitting in his stable reading a book or something

i may be wrong though im no monty roberts, just some suggestions
 
Have you tried a sheepskin mit? As suggested, try massaging him with it and use quite firm strokes so you're not tickling him which is annoying rather than pleasant.

As a racehorse he will b e used to being in the company of others all the time, so not being able to see other horses is probably why he gets agitated. You don't say how long you've had him, but it can take a while to get to know each other and for him to get used to a non-racing environment.

Good luck with him!
 
No I haven't tried a sheepskin mit, I will have to go get one and see what he thinks of that!

He is much better when I just stroke him with my hands, but still pulls the occasional face! I have only had him 4 months and we are still getting to know each other, so I guess it's just a time thing.

Silly question, but when you massage with your hands, do you just firmly stroke or massage more like you would on a human? Or just trial and error to see what he likes?

He is different horse when in company. I try to bring him in as much as I can when other horses are in, but obviously there are times when this just isn't possible and he needs to learn that he won't die if he's by himself!
 
It is just a time thing, when you get the trust thing it will change. don't mean that you don't but 4 months is nothing. mine took a long time. i have the sheepskin mitt to which helped. i massaged like you would on a human rather than just stroke. you will suss out what he likes. I found quite early that mine loved her mane and tail being pulled, she loves them being brushed. she is a strange bird lol
 
Footlights your boy and mine sound like very similar creatures!
I found that George actually prefers a stiffer brush and for me to use quite firm pressure. But, it took ages for me to actually get him to enjoy being groomed. For him I think it was because he couldn't understand why I would want to fuss around him when he just wanted to get on with his job. I believe that I was the first person to actually want to have a bond with him and he really couldn't get his head around it to begin with.
I never attempted to groom him without tying him up first (avoid an arguement before it starts) and found that times when the yard was quiet was the best time to attempt a proper bonding session. (He would get more short tempered if there was stuff going on)
Tbh though 4 months is not long to undo what he will have learnt before, even now after 3 years I still have days with George when a quick flick is all he wants. But he makes up for it by standing for an hour sometimes while I primp and preen and whitter away to him. And he will put his head on my tummy for me to let me use a lovely soft face brush all round his ears and eyes <3
You will get there. N.
 
at the race yard where i work - the horses are only groomed on race days or for open days, the rest of the time they get a warm shower after work - he may associate grooming with quite stressful or at least busy situations
 
How long has he been out of racing?
Sometimes they are funny about being brushed. Apart from the fact TB's have thin sensitive skin (or can have!) sometimes at some race yards they are brushed quite harshly to get them clean and sweat marks off asap.
I recently visited a horse who was in training at a yard i worked at. She was rehomed with a wonderful place where she is hopefully going to become a little eventer.
At work she was the worst- she needed a headcollar and balls of steel to groom- She double barrelled, bite and was generally very unhappy with being touched any where.
I was shocked and really pleased to see and help her new owner groom her with not so much as a grumpy look. Apparently she just got better and better with one on one and a gentle goats hair brush.
Maybe given time yours will come round. Life in racing yards can be tough- not always but it definitly doesnt suit all horses.
 
rubysmum said:
at the race yard where i work - the horses are only groomed on race days or for open days, the rest of the time they get a warm shower after work - he may associate grooming with quite stressful or at least busy situations
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Wow! At the yard i currently work at the trainer is obsessed with perfect hair and skin and i am chief groomer! They all get brushed before and after all work and even before and after turn out or time on the walker.
I like it as they are my babies! and its good time to fuss them :-D
 
this is interesting as my ex-racer doesn't like being groomed. he'll put his ears back, pull faces, swish his tail, do circles round his stable! sometimes it takes ages to get all the mud off in the evenings.
Having read your earlier posts about the routine etc, it makes perfect sense, he was in racing for a long time and maybe associates it with something he found stressful. Will be following this post with interest :)
 
It's nice to know that I'm not alone, sometimes it's difficult not to take it to heart when he clearly doesn't enjoy being fussed over.

He has only been out of racing for a year and his life has been turned upside down since coming to me. I guess it just takes time. :)
 
Has he been scoped for ulcers? My boy hated being groomed, he'd physically draw away from you if you went in to his stable with a brush but he quite likes it now his ulcers are being treated.
 
maggiesmum said:
Has he been scoped for ulcers? My boy hated being groomed, he'd physically draw away from you if you went in to his stable with a brush but he quite likes it now his ulcers are being treated.
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No he hasn't, and I have put his name down at my vets for when they next have a clinic, but tbh, this is the only possible sign that he shows. His condition is good, he doesn't show discomfort when I do up the girth, he finishes his food etc. I have considered that it could be ulcers though.
 
I kinda know what you mean re the brushing Footlights. I think it was McNally that was saying about the horses being groomed for purpose rather than bonding/pleasure. Maybe you could try brushing off saddle area ect (poss legs?) picking feet, leve it at that, be quite business like with him to start with. Gradually increase the time spent grooming (and other bonding excercises together) he may actually start to like it, dosent sound as if he is used to being fussed over. Time will tell. Good Luck! :)
 
Yes I guess it will take time for him to associate grooming with relaxation. In the last few weeks he has started letting me scratch his face and between his ears, which he wouldn't before. I get the impression that he still thinks im gonna do a runner and disappear or something, It's like he is fighting the urge to give in and be affectionate.
 
My horse is not an xracer but he has never liked being groomed. He swishes his tail, stamps a foot, walks circles around me in the stable, swings his head back to me with his ears back. Mostly, now, he ignores me completely, especially if there is something going on outside the stable. I tried everything but nothing made a difference so I just decided to groom him the way I want to. Grooming sessions are brief and functionry. He is fantastic for mane pulling and when I got him first he would put his bum in the corner of the stable to avoid having his tail brushed but he doesn't do that anymore. After 10 years I have decided that, at this stage, his not liking being groomed is a habit.

Having said all that, he loves being massaged. He stresses a lot and is very tense in his back so I have treatments for him regularly with a neuro muscular therapist and he absolutely loves them. Sometimes he leans into her if she is doing a deep, big muscle. Even when she is doing a muscle that is obviously upsetting him, he moves away from her but he never tries to bite her or kick her and she persists and then she releases the muscle and he visibly relaxes and soaks up the treatments.
 
You could try just cleaning him where the tack will go before riding and grooming AFTER riding when he has got rid of some energy and anticipates relaxing things like food and being turned out. Some horses can be a lot easier to handle after exercise. I had to do this for ages with a young arab I was breaking or his adrenalin levels would have been too high to get any sense out of him during training.
 
Why "must" he enjoy being groomed? Some horses just don't like being fiddled with, in which case I'd be inclined to leave them alone except for the strictly necessary. Or get a different horse if you really want to have something to fuss over. Or get a dog.
 
Cortez said:
Why "must" he enjoy being groomed? Some horses just don't like being fiddled with, in which case I'd be inclined to leave them alone except for the strictly necessary. Or get a different horse if you really want to have something to fuss over. Or get a dog.
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Lol I'm not going to try and make him enjoy being groomed if he really doesn't like it! And I'm not a dog person.

But, in the wild horses groom each other. My horse does it with other horses in the field (ok, not with brushes!) and enjoys it, so there must be a reason he doesnt enjoy it with me. Maybe he doesnt trust me enough yet, maybe he has had a bad experience, maybe he will never enjoy it. But as his owner, and as someone who cares about him, I want to help him overcome his fear/anger towards being groomed.
 
Footlights said:
Lol I'm not going to try and make him enjoy being groomed if he really doesn't like it! And I'm not a dog person.

But, in the wild horses groom each other. My horse does it with other horses in the field (ok, not with brushes!) and enjoys it, so there must be a reason he doesnt enjoy it with me. Maybe he doesnt trust me enough yet, maybe he has had a bad experience, maybe he will never enjoy it. But as his owner, and as someone who cares about him, I want to help him overcome his fear/anger towards being groomed.
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I've had my boy for 4 years & he's never liked it & still doesn't, he's just not a horse who likes to be fussed over. I don't think he's ever going to like it, some don't & that's just the way he is. As long as he's not nasty about it, which mine isn't he just pulls faces at you, then its not a problem. I'm not a touchy feely kind of girl & however long people spent trying to make me into one it wouldn't work so I don't see why it would be different for horses.
 
Some horses are very thin skinned, and simply find being brushed uncomfortable. Buy yourself a sheepskin grooming pad, and use that instead.
 
My boy is out of racing a year and came to me straight away. Only now can I groom him in the stable without tying him up. He used to get sweaty when I started to groom him and stood there head banging! I started with a very small body brush, one of those for faces, gentle but firm. Some rather invented massage type attempts. Grooming at random times of day and sometimes for no reason, because I get the feeling he associated it with work and stress. He now seems to quite enjoy it, he relaxes, stands still, sometimes gets his thing out!:eek: !! Some will always hate it and he still gets stressed if I'm in a rush and forget myself and do things in a tense way. He, for some reason, loves having his legs brushed, so if he loses the plot I just do his legs till he calms down again and I get a grip!
 
My TB hates being groomed if she is not being ridden. I've had her 12yrs, at the beginning she hated being groomed at all then very quickly I figured out she preferred being groomed after she had been ridden. She is also happier to be groomed when she has her equilibrium massager on.
She is ok to groom before being ridden if I get the tack out, it's like she tolerates it because she is going to be ridden afterwards but if I am not riding at all she gets really grumpy if I groom her.
She has grown to like tickles in the areas other horses would groom her and grooms me back. She has just generally got used to it and will relax if it's part of a routine and occasionally I would go so far as to say she enjoys it but only sometimes.
 
Haven't read all the posts but will offer my advice anyway..... When I got my horse last august he HATED being brushed. He didn't really do ears back, but would kick up at his tummy, swish his tail, stamp his front feet and may well have tried to bite me if I hadn't tied him up short. I tried everything - pimply mitts, goat hair brush and all that (never a problem picking out his feet by the way). The only thing he didn't mind for some reason was having his mane and tail brushed. I tried being gentle, tried shouting, smacking - the latter two made him worse. I decided he just didn't want me in his personal space - if I put my hand on his withers he would swish his tail and wriggle. Anyway, come Easter, I'd just about had enough, so I tied him up short (you couldn't get near him otherwise) put on those disposable gloves and massaged him all over - the first time, he came out in a sweat and I did this for about an hour every single day and there didn't seem to be very much improvement - it was so gradual anyway, that there didn't seem to be. I had almost given up really, then suddenly one day at the beginning of may (I'd had him for 9 months and had been perservering with the massage and being kind and nice) - one day, there was a tiny lump on his chest and I felt it, scratched it and bang - just like that, there he was pulling funny faces and enjoying it! Now, (and this is nearly 11 months) he quite enjoys being brushed as long as I am very gentle under his girth. Many times I went out riding with him plastered with mud all over his bum - I just got enough off to get tack on. I love grooming and when I went to view this horse he let me scratch him and he enjoyed it - when I got him home it was a different story! Anyway, all is ok now and I am dead proud of having broken through!! Good luck with yours!
 
oh yes - and now - when I go in the field to check on him and give him a few titbits (i.e. I'm not giving him hard feed in the summer) he will now stand and let me scratch his neck and he's not even tied up - one day, I hope to be able to brush him when he's loose in the stable :D
 
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