Out of control TB .... Please help

H

HOWEN

Well-Known Member
Joined
11 September 2005
Messages
193
Visit site
Haven’t posted on this forum for years but need your thoughts sorry in advance for being so long.

I have ended up with my partner’s 9 year old x-racehorse; she came out of racing at 3 years ago (due to op) and was turned away for a year. Gorgeous looking animal with lovely action doesn’t really look like a TB at all, she was US bred we have owned her since she was 3. We didn’t really have time for her when she finished with racing. Both of our horses are on full livery and a 3rd horse would be wasted as we had hardly anytime for them as it was. So put her on loan to a girl on a different yard that hacked her out and did a bit of schooling with her. As far as I know she had no problems.

Last year we got her back and didn’t do all that much over the summer, a few pleasure rides, hunted about 4 times at the start of season but mostly hacked out or went to the beach. She became a devil to catch in the summer months, but we never gave up and always eventually caught her.

Over the past 3 months I have started to get going with her and ready for the summer season. She is starting to become a nightmare to point I actually don’t want to do anything with her. I feel she is takes all happiness out of going to the stables and it has become a chore to spend time with her.

Catching…. Well it takes about 2hrs to get hold of her, unless she is last in the field. She pulls faces at you then gallops off. I don’t ride her every time she comes in; normally make a fuss of her that she seems to enjoy when she finally gets to the stable.

Riding- Getting on her unless I get a leg up it’s a 30mins battle on trying to make her stand by the mounting block. Then trying to get off the yard to the school or for hack is a complete pantomime if she is by herself, she rears, spins and will back into cars, down ditches anything to not go out to the point she is dangerous.
If I take her to the school some days she is completely fine to lunge or school but then other days she calls out to the other horses and flips out and becomes out of control if a horse goes out of sight. It’s as if she is being a complete spoilt brat. When she goes out with one of our other horses she is fine and a complete pleasure to ride.

I know it’s obliviously a separation thing all this napping, but last year she was fine. She is just so clingy to all the other mares in the field. I am not sure if I changed her field it might break up her routine. Maybe send her away for schooling, A sort of fresh start?

Everything has been check out with her back, teeth, she has recently has a full MOT and no problems were found with her.

I am sure someone on here will have experience of ex-racers that behave like this. So shall I just give up trying to make her do thing by herself and have her as a hack about in company horse? Sell her? I am just at my wits end. Good job the other 2 horse’s arnt like this I would have sold up and got a rocking horse. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
As you said it seems like a seperation thing. You need to get the mare to trust you. Do you have a behaviourist in your area?
I used to have a little exracer like this bar the rearing. I could also catch her, but she would plant in the middle of the fiend and run backwards.
Eventually I got her sorted by establishing that I was the heard leader not her and what I said, went! I had to be very firm and then after that she was a complete doddle.
 
She has ad lib hay, Alfa-A, basic pony nuts at night. She keeps weight on really well for a TB. Catching has become a problem over the last month, since the grass has come in and riding issues have slowly worse and worse over the past few months. I never let her get away with it, well .....unless I fall off, normally when she is backing into a ditch. 9/10 times I get back on and continue. But she is starting to really knocking confidence I will only bounce so many times. I have always been a brave rider and just deal with most things and worry about it after the event, but she is now really testing me.
I don’t know whats happening to me maybe its my age.
 
Alfa A made mine difficult. I only fed him on Spillers healthy hoof and this seemed a good balance and caused no problems with weight.

Mine was similar sounding to yours in the way its not every day and in the end thats what i couldnt handle was the uncertainty and the huge massive extremes of behavior.

Where abouts are you? The place who took mine also re-school and deal with issues like this and they are really really lovely people
 
My tb is always easy to catch, but went through a phase a few years that when caught would then plant himself in the field and point blank refuse to move. The solution was a firm stance, firm voice and backed up with a schooling whip. When on the yard he would then continue to plant when I was riding him, again I had to establish who was the herd leader, by firmness and praise when he did what was asked. We now have a good trusting relationship with none of these issues. However, the other thing that I have done to achieve this is groundwork, groundwork and more groundwork. I went to a Richard Maxwell demo and learnt from him what to do. If you can get your mare to trust you on the ground, then this will show in your ridden work
 
Hi, sorry to hear you're having so many problems. When i first bought my old mare TB (chesnut in sig) i also just did a bit of hacking etc and she was fine, however separation issues in the field did become an issue as did catching her (although she was always fine out ridden) and as i put her into more work she became a bit of a handful (I was only 15 at the time and she was a 16hh 9year old TB).

Are you on a very busy yard, or a small quiet one? I found my mare 100% better on a busy bustling yard compared to a small quiet one.

from a catching point of view i solved it in 3 ways depending on where i was. Initially i left a field safe headcollar on her, always went armed with a carrott (i dont know what yours is like, but once i'd got my hand on the headcollar she didnt try anything) - always caught her fairly quickly. Then i decided it couldnt go on, as i moved to uni and took her with me, we had the use of a round-pen - i did Monty Roberts style 'join-up' with her at least twice a week, and eventually we got a much easier/quicker catching process (although if i'm honest it was never 100%), then moving to a yard that turns out and fetches in as part of the service meant her routien changed very rarely - TB's love routien - and it meant it was never an issue apart from on the odd occasion when she decided she didnt want to come in with the others until the very last minute, she was even fine to be caught out of her routien at this point too.

From a feeding point of view, if she's a good doer, why not just put her on ad-lib hay/haylage/turn out whichever combination you're working to, and a balancer? with my old girl i started on chaff and a concentrate feed with numerous supplements and she was always a bit of a livewire, i changed her onto a balancer only diet from March to October, and then in winter on a hi-fi lite chaff and cool mix (i liked the spillers one) with the balancer if she looked to be dropping weight.

From a riding point of view, how often are you riding? i think it sounds like she might benefit from going to a professional to work through her issues, I was lucky, i had issues with my mare, but ridden they were few and far between in the end BUT in the early days i did get to the point with her that i wrote an advert for her and was ready to just give her away - she became my horse of a lifetime until she was PTS after injury a couple of years ago aged 21.


Best of luck and let us know how you get on.
 
Last edited:
Where abouts are you? The place who took mine also re-school and deal with issues like this and they are really really lovely people[/QUOTE said:
We are in the North East but would travel her to the moon and back to get her sorted.
Click to expand...
 
Don't know much about mares but might be worth checking season-related things out.

With regards mounting I used to ride a horse with mounting issues. Not an ex-racer but for various reasons was used to people getting on whilst he was walking.

For him what worked was hopping on off mounting block as soon as he was remotely near it and then treating... but ONLY when his feet were stationary next to the block. So, if he walked off I'd circle him back to the block and then give a tiny piece of carrot/apple/mint getting him to bend round to my leg each side.

Pretty soon learnt that standing still was quickest way to treats. Later would do it for praise.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top