Let's hear your success stories

Coffee_Bean

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In a stable...
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Having seen a few confidence crisis posts etc on here over recent weeks, I thought it would be good to have a post about those who have been through rough patches with their horses, but come out the other side better and stronger for it
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So anything, bucking, napping, rearing- let's hear your stories
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For me with Bean, it was getting her to load. She was absoloutely shocking, rearing vertical and throwing herself on the floor. (didn't believe it til i saw it
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) And I soon learnt that you could not bully her into it. So I did it her way. Got a richard maxwell halter, did 40 mins work with her, and she walked right in. Was amazing. I loaded her everyday for 3 months, and she will now walk on a trailer like she's never had a problem.
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So come on, tell your stories
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Sparkles

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Jumping.

Wanted to hang up my jumping boots end of last year....now doing 4ft+ and loving it! Sort of. lol. Owe it to Splodgy tbh, he's just a saint of a horse. and Bustie in his own wierd way lol.
 

LauraWheeler

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Lucy was going for meat before i bought her. I was 14 and had only been riding for about 2 years. I fell in love with her as soon as i saw her and begged my mum to outbid the meat man. She did and we got Lucy for £500 inclu all tack and rugs in the end. You could not go in the field with her when i first got her as she would try to kill you. She would gallop at you and when she reached you she would spin round and throw both back legs at your head. She had been mistreated in her first two homes. Everyone told me to have her shot. (the local gamekeeper came up nearly everyday with his shot gun and offered to shoot her) I refused to give up on her and after 6 months of gaining her trust she let me catch her. I spent the next 6 months just getting her in and grooming her to gain her trust even more. Then i started to ride her. I fell off her atleast once everyday for a year she could buck like stink and would rear bolt up right. You name it she would do it in a bit to get me off. Everyone still laughed at me and told me she would never come right and i should just give up. That was 12 years ago. Lucy and i have done so much together. SJ, DSG, hunting, endurance, showing, pleasure rides well a bit of everything realy. She is my pony of a lifetime and i'm so glad i didn't give up on her.
Lucy has been forced to semi retire due to illness. I have just bought a new pony called Herbie. Well he cost £550 inclu all tack and rugs! He has so many issues. The poor fella is only 8 and i am his 6th owner. He is a work in progress and we have good days like yesterday when i was able to lunge in walk and trot on both reins in about 15 mins (instead of the 1 hour it normaly takes to get trot on 1 rein) and bad days like today when i tried to hack him out and he was so nappy and kept stopping it took ages to get round. On a good note he didn't leap today.
 

dressedkez

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Wow - that last post was inspirational - and that is how I guess it is with those of us who have limited budgets but unlimited patience.....Too many people now want a made animal. I was given a TB 5 years ago - he did not have huge behaviourial problems, but he was not an easy ride, or an easy horse to handle. He was not unridable in the true sense, but he does not go forward at all - therefore he needs a strong aggresive rider, the type of rider who does not like this type of horse at all! He was a racehorse, but had an injury that seemed to preclude that. We had him as a 4 year old, started racing him again as a 7 year old, and at 9 he became a better than good pointer winning 3 races and being placed in 3 of his 7 runs. You would never had thought he had it in him to hack him out......A leg injury (again) and off for 18 months - and than back stronger than ever (still a horrid horse to hack out, but comes alright on the racecourse....) In the stable and with companions he could almost be called dangerous - but we deal with him. All his racehorse aggression is contained in his personality and not what he is like to be ridden out, where one would have more fun on a riding school cob then you would have on him.....we draw lots to ride him out - and it mostly falls to me....on the coldest, bleakest mornings I sweat buckets just to get him going forwards......But he has given us our proudest moments when we watch him race - simialr to Monets Garden at Ascot the other week....sublime, but incomprenesible as well!
 

skint1

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Due to being a total novice I bought my daughter an utterly unsuitable horse without doing enough research. Ever hear that saying "Thus grief doth tread on the heels of pleasure. Married in haste repent at leisure" (or something close)? That was us!

Horse in question was a 3yo ex racer called Bella, very quiet when bought and in poor condition. For the best part of the 1st year the horse spent resting and being spoiled, occasionally we'd trailer her somewhere for a lesson but she usually just bucked and progress was sporadic and slow.

We rent stables and a field from a farmer, the atmosphere is decidedly casual which always suited our pony and my friend's much older ex racer, but didn't suit this one at all! She began to feel better and turned into a monster, her nickname became "Bellzilla" or "Hells Bells"

In the end we really didn't know what to do with her apart from sell her, but it didn't feel right to sell her with her shocking behaviour. She reared, she bucked, she napped and did these both under saddle and on the ground.

Our friend offered her a place at her yard which had a school and hooked us up with a good RI that would also help the confidence issues my daughter had developed. The idea was to get Bella into some kind of working order and then sell her.

-We had back, saddle, teeth checked all was fine
-We listened to our friend in handling Bella in a consistent, firm but fair manner, no treats, no fussing that kind of thing.
-We stopped all the supplements (apart from MagicCalm and Oestress) and changed her to a largely fibre based diet
-She was put in consistent, daily work, not hard work but still work, under the direction of the RI
-She had Bowen Therapy as the RI detected some tightness through her neck and hamstrings on one rein- I admit to being a skeptic, but it did seem to make a difference

-My daughter had to totally re-think her riding style, especially how she used her hands (too much, too stiff) and develop a more subtle approach, what a difference this has made to all her ridden activities!

-She had to be mentally confident and keep her going forward, forward, forward regardless of what she did (within reason of course)

Things began to improve quite dramatically and my daughter didn't want to sell Bella anymore. She will tell you herself she has a long way to go yet, but I am very proud of the progress they have made and I would say whatever the future holds their story is a success in a lot of ways.
Bella is now 6 btw!
Some photos of one of her worst ever sessions:
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early progress
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and more
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hannah87

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Abit trivial perhaps compared to some, but when i first got Bramble she was very dangerous to clip. At the sound of clippers on the yard she would throw her self round her stable, barging into walls/doors/you. Throw her self on the floor and shake.
If you were in the stable you were really risking being seriously hurt. Someone before us must have scared her out of her wits with them.
This pony grows one hell of a coat, so I decided at the tender age of 13 to do something about it! Mum had banned me from taking the clippers anywhere near her!
I stole my Dads electric shaver and everyday put it on outside her stable, slowly moving it closer as she became accoustamed to it (this is weeks and weeks). I then started putting it her stable, then eventually running it slowly over her. I gradually progressed to proper clippers.
This whole process took a few years!!
I can now clip her head/legs/ everything without a headcollar on!
However 9 years on and she still only lets me clip her!
 

joeanne

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The ginger ninja was a nightmare when she arrived.
Last chance saloon before being PTS. You could soon see why!
Poor mare didnt know how to stand still. Mounting was a challenge to say the least. One foot in the stirrup and she would try to bolt.
Some days it would take an hour just to get on.
Going forwards was an issue too. She could do sideways and backwards, but not forwards. On two seperate occasions she went backwards and rolled over into a ditch with me on board, one of those was water filled, and a close call. That one scared me badly, and I didnt get back on for a good couple of weeks.
Different horse these days. Two years of sheer determination and grit, and we have a different horse. She isnt what you would call a novice ride, but she is certainly not the dangerous beastie that turned up.
And best of all, she has learnt, ditches are for jumping......not falling into
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Firewell

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When I got Vay she was abit of a nightmare to handle. She was awful to load and it could take hours, she was dangerous to shoe and would try and kill the farrier, she would rear bolt upright while being led and was generally very stressy and insecure.

If you tried to touch her legs she would kick out like a loon, treating any injuries on her legs required sedation! She would gallop round her stable, bucking and rearing, she would be agressive and defensive in the stable if you approached her too suddenly. She would rear up at you in the field when you tried to catch her. Sometimes you couldnt catch her at all!

After some practice with a monty roberts headcoller, a lorry she liked and lots of pleasant journeys with a calm companion she was brilliant to load. 2 years of having front and back feet shod seperatly, plus banging on her feet every night with a hammer, riding her before being shod, feeding her while being shod and 4 years of patience she was much better to shoe (although not perfect). With calm, consistent handling and routine she became a dream to handle. I made sure even if I didnt ride that I did in hand work with her everyday. I kept her in a strict in at night, out during the day routine. She would be tied up and brushed and her legs handled every single day. She scared me but I forced myself to do it!

At the end of 4/.5 years she was pretty much a pleasure! She would still have her moments but she was fab to ride and be with, always tried her best and was just a very special little horse. I could take her anywhere and do anything with her. I always came home with a rosette and a smile on my face.

It took blood, sweat and tears though. If I hadnt of brought her and felt like I couldnt pass her on while she was such a nightmare I would have got rid pretty quickly. Glad I kept her though, she really was a fab horse and taught me so much. In the whole 5 yrs I had her I never fell off her, despite being a total crazy whitch to handle as soon as I was on her back she always looked after me
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She also makes any other horse seem so easy which is a bonus now!
 
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