MDB
Well-Known Member
Loooong post. Apologies in advance.
Today I have decided I can no longer deal with my gelding. I bought him precisely one year ago as my first horse. He was to be a happy hacker. Fun rides only, no schooling or eventing but something safe and suitable for a novice.
Within two weeks after getting him he was diagnosed with an infectious disease which the vet thought had been brewing for several months. Queue £1000 in vet fees and two months of medical care. C'est la vie. These things happen. However, he was tough to handle from day one, bolshy and bargy with few ground manners. (With me anyway). I spent a few months doing daily groundwork with him because he lost so much weight and was too poorly to ride.
When eventually he had recovered I tried hacking him but he was nappy and spooky and he would drop his shoulder and spin around and try to bolt home. I put the difficulties down to my lack of experience and confidence and vowed to work through it.
Being alone in Spain with my husband working abroad for most of the year I had nobody to help me with him. I tried short inhand walks, continued groundwork and tried riding him in the fiels. His napping continued and he threw me once.
To add to things he escaped three times from my two metre high electric fence, in the process wrecking my neighbour's fencing. On one occasion he jumped the fence simply because he was hungry and there was lusher grass on the other side. I reinforced our fencing, bought more powerful energisers and resorted to tethering him during the night.
He needed company so we got him two placid docile rescue mares. He was nasty and aggressive and would repeatedly attack them, biting and kicking. I had additional field shelters built because he would refuse to allow the mares inside with him.
Throughout this I still had difficulties hacking.. he now realised that he could add bucking to the equation and he quickly got out of work. He was checked over and was healthy and not in pain. When hacking in company with the other horses we had no bucking or rearing or napping at all but I struggled to control him when I asked him to go behind the other horses. In addition he would continue to spook wildly at random things.
This month we think he bit my mare causing an infected wound and hundreds upon hundred of pounds of treatment. Then yesterday he backed the above mare into a corner and bit her twice on her legs and rump and chased her around the field. And finally today he totally freaked out with my husband when being led to an adjacent field for grazing because the other two got out of sight for a fraction of a second.
I simply cannot trust him and he is too much horse for me. He has been too much since the beginning if I am honest but I put our issues down to settling in and my confidence. I wake up at night worrying that when I get up in the morning my mares will still be ok. I am sure somebody more experinced would have been able to deal with him but i made it clear when i went to view him that he was my first horse and what my level of experience is. I consider myself a confident novice.. had lessons as achild for years and years then pottered with riding on and off since.
I feel gutted having come to this decision. I just don't feel safe anymore, he is costing me an absolute fortune and I am terrified he is going to cause serious injury to my other horses.
So there you have it. A sad day for me today. The only good thing is that he is going back to his previous owner who I am friends with on facebook. Apologies for the long, long post but this forum has given me a lot of support with our issues over the year. So thanks to you all. I did my absolute best foe him but it just isn't working.
Today I have decided I can no longer deal with my gelding. I bought him precisely one year ago as my first horse. He was to be a happy hacker. Fun rides only, no schooling or eventing but something safe and suitable for a novice.
Within two weeks after getting him he was diagnosed with an infectious disease which the vet thought had been brewing for several months. Queue £1000 in vet fees and two months of medical care. C'est la vie. These things happen. However, he was tough to handle from day one, bolshy and bargy with few ground manners. (With me anyway). I spent a few months doing daily groundwork with him because he lost so much weight and was too poorly to ride.
When eventually he had recovered I tried hacking him but he was nappy and spooky and he would drop his shoulder and spin around and try to bolt home. I put the difficulties down to my lack of experience and confidence and vowed to work through it.
Being alone in Spain with my husband working abroad for most of the year I had nobody to help me with him. I tried short inhand walks, continued groundwork and tried riding him in the fiels. His napping continued and he threw me once.
To add to things he escaped three times from my two metre high electric fence, in the process wrecking my neighbour's fencing. On one occasion he jumped the fence simply because he was hungry and there was lusher grass on the other side. I reinforced our fencing, bought more powerful energisers and resorted to tethering him during the night.
He needed company so we got him two placid docile rescue mares. He was nasty and aggressive and would repeatedly attack them, biting and kicking. I had additional field shelters built because he would refuse to allow the mares inside with him.
Throughout this I still had difficulties hacking.. he now realised that he could add bucking to the equation and he quickly got out of work. He was checked over and was healthy and not in pain. When hacking in company with the other horses we had no bucking or rearing or napping at all but I struggled to control him when I asked him to go behind the other horses. In addition he would continue to spook wildly at random things.
This month we think he bit my mare causing an infected wound and hundreds upon hundred of pounds of treatment. Then yesterday he backed the above mare into a corner and bit her twice on her legs and rump and chased her around the field. And finally today he totally freaked out with my husband when being led to an adjacent field for grazing because the other two got out of sight for a fraction of a second.
I simply cannot trust him and he is too much horse for me. He has been too much since the beginning if I am honest but I put our issues down to settling in and my confidence. I wake up at night worrying that when I get up in the morning my mares will still be ok. I am sure somebody more experinced would have been able to deal with him but i made it clear when i went to view him that he was my first horse and what my level of experience is. I consider myself a confident novice.. had lessons as achild for years and years then pottered with riding on and off since.
I feel gutted having come to this decision. I just don't feel safe anymore, he is costing me an absolute fortune and I am terrified he is going to cause serious injury to my other horses.
So there you have it. A sad day for me today. The only good thing is that he is going back to his previous owner who I am friends with on facebook. Apologies for the long, long post but this forum has given me a lot of support with our issues over the year. So thanks to you all. I did my absolute best foe him but it just isn't working.
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