icyfreya
Well-Known Member
My new (and first) horse was delivered on Sunday, so as I haven't done this before, wondering how long it'll be until he's a bit more settled, and how I should be dealing with his stressy behaviour?
He is a 16hh TBx, 18 year old. (schoolmaster) He is absolutely gorgeous, and I love him to bits already, but his behaviour today has unsettled me. This is really long, but basically, new horse, who is supposed to be a vicesless schoolmaster, very calm easy to do etc, is behaving like a complete stress head, and is very tense & anxious...It's knocking my confidence in him a bit, and also making me worry about him as I want him to feel happy and relaxed, not scared and tense! Anyone got any advice on getting him to settle? Might try Naf magic?
Details:
Really, I wasn't expecting him to be much of a stress head, despite his breed, as previous owners have said how calm he is, and his age, and how calm he's been every time i've been to see him...
He was fine yesterday, a little anxious but ok, considering he was in a new place, but today he really wasn't great...very anxious, tense, sweating, whinnying out to the field, box walking, weaving and chewing the wood around the stable door (even though he apparently has no vices and is meant to be fine stabled?)
Unfortunately had to keep him in for the worming, and he's been living out atm, and there was only one other horse in and he can see the rest of them in paddock so thought this might've had an effect.
I went back at 3pm to turn him out (after his 24hrs for the wormers), he was really strong, breaking into trot, a bit bargy, spooking and jumping sideways at everything, mounting block, jump wings, electric fence box, electric fence gate 1, gate 2, and gate 3 (we have a lot of gates to get through haha)...really jumpy... it didn't help that all the other horses were squealing and getting very interested - but he kept spinning and just being generally difficult to keep a hold of. Finally got him into his field, he was ok, went and had a bit of a gallop and a nice role, I put the stressyness down to him being wound up from being in.
Went back to yard this evening (6ish) - I was going to just give him his feed in the field, but he was looking really relaxed and calm, so though I might bring him in, feed him, then turn him out again, as figure the more times he walks past the horses and the scary fencing, the more used to it he'll be.
This was a mistake! He was very stressed indeed, we got half way back and he pulled away and galloped off (i tried to hold on but i wasn't wearing gloves and didn't want to get rope burn) - luckily this was in the corridor so all fenced off - went and got him, he was really on edge, spinning, trotting round me in circles, not listening to me at all
After me doing a lot of shouting steady! got him into the yard, but had to lean my whole body weight on his chest and wrap leadrope round his nose to get him to walk. Tied him up outside stable, gave him his feed, which he ate, but as soon as he finished, he got really stressed again, wouldn't settle, spinning round, kept pulling back to the end of his rope, wasn't very happy about me picking up his feet, and kicked out a few times.
He was getting really worked up and I was losing my confidence in handling him fast, so put him in his stable while trying to decide what to do. It's a very quiet/small yard, and yard owner/main livery site is a few minutes up the road. (Otherwise I would have asked them for advice).
Luckily, another livery arrived then, and gave me lots of reassurance. She very kindly held her mare (the noisiest one) while I turned him out, and although still spooky and on edge, he was much better behaved when she wasn't galloping/bucking about.
However, it has knocked my confidence a little bit, as i'm starting to think maybe he's not as he was described? Or is this just normal yard moving behaviour which will be gone in a few weeks? Should I give him a few days off to take it easy and do lots of grooming and groundwork to get to know him, or should I just get on with it, lunge him tomorrow, then ride him? I'm getting different advice from everyone
What to do?
other than this, everything else has been fine, and he is really really lovely
But i'm feeling a bit inexperienced...any advice appreciated, cocoa and a hot water bottle (because it's sooo late and so cold!) for anyone who replies.xxx
He is a 16hh TBx, 18 year old. (schoolmaster) He is absolutely gorgeous, and I love him to bits already, but his behaviour today has unsettled me. This is really long, but basically, new horse, who is supposed to be a vicesless schoolmaster, very calm easy to do etc, is behaving like a complete stress head, and is very tense & anxious...It's knocking my confidence in him a bit, and also making me worry about him as I want him to feel happy and relaxed, not scared and tense! Anyone got any advice on getting him to settle? Might try Naf magic?
Details:
Really, I wasn't expecting him to be much of a stress head, despite his breed, as previous owners have said how calm he is, and his age, and how calm he's been every time i've been to see him...
He was fine yesterday, a little anxious but ok, considering he was in a new place, but today he really wasn't great...very anxious, tense, sweating, whinnying out to the field, box walking, weaving and chewing the wood around the stable door (even though he apparently has no vices and is meant to be fine stabled?)
Unfortunately had to keep him in for the worming, and he's been living out atm, and there was only one other horse in and he can see the rest of them in paddock so thought this might've had an effect.
I went back at 3pm to turn him out (after his 24hrs for the wormers), he was really strong, breaking into trot, a bit bargy, spooking and jumping sideways at everything, mounting block, jump wings, electric fence box, electric fence gate 1, gate 2, and gate 3 (we have a lot of gates to get through haha)...really jumpy... it didn't help that all the other horses were squealing and getting very interested - but he kept spinning and just being generally difficult to keep a hold of. Finally got him into his field, he was ok, went and had a bit of a gallop and a nice role, I put the stressyness down to him being wound up from being in.
Went back to yard this evening (6ish) - I was going to just give him his feed in the field, but he was looking really relaxed and calm, so though I might bring him in, feed him, then turn him out again, as figure the more times he walks past the horses and the scary fencing, the more used to it he'll be.
This was a mistake! He was very stressed indeed, we got half way back and he pulled away and galloped off (i tried to hold on but i wasn't wearing gloves and didn't want to get rope burn) - luckily this was in the corridor so all fenced off - went and got him, he was really on edge, spinning, trotting round me in circles, not listening to me at all
He was getting really worked up and I was losing my confidence in handling him fast, so put him in his stable while trying to decide what to do. It's a very quiet/small yard, and yard owner/main livery site is a few minutes up the road. (Otherwise I would have asked them for advice).
Luckily, another livery arrived then, and gave me lots of reassurance. She very kindly held her mare (the noisiest one) while I turned him out, and although still spooky and on edge, he was much better behaved when she wasn't galloping/bucking about.
However, it has knocked my confidence a little bit, as i'm starting to think maybe he's not as he was described? Or is this just normal yard moving behaviour which will be gone in a few weeks? Should I give him a few days off to take it easy and do lots of grooming and groundwork to get to know him, or should I just get on with it, lunge him tomorrow, then ride him? I'm getting different advice from everyone
other than this, everything else has been fine, and he is really really lovely