Wildfyre
New User
Hi all,
Just wanting to see if anyone has some suggestions.
I have a 3yo TB filly breaker, by a stallion who is known to throw difficult horses (found this out after we bought her). We’ve bought her to race ourselves, she was cheap as part of a dispersal so I imagine she’s spent a lot of time with minimal human interaction although she did lead and branded and feet trimmed. She is quite aggressive and has a bunch of quirks I’ve never seen in combination. We haven’t even got to saddling or driving her yet. I’d consider myself and relatively experienced horse person and rider having worked with a hundred or so different horses and having broken in a dozen or so. Very familiar with TBs
She is highly reactive and spooky - but will plant/Jib.
She has more fight than flight and is quite aggressive
She acts quite ‘stalliony’ to things she doesn’t like, will go for the bite at the knee and the stamp/maul, and is more inclined to lay all over the pressure rather than move away from
She has some sort of phobia of things near her legs, she lost her mind and did herself some scuffing over a rope dangling onto her knee (setup deliberately
after a lot of desensitising work)
we’ve spent two weeks on the ground being kind but firm, she has improved a bit, sort of, however she just feels really dirty and unwilling, it feels very unsafe and uncomfortable working with her, I do not trust her at all. I feel more like she is tolerating what we are doing not accepting it (and we’re really only up to a roller) She does not ‘soften’ to anything, she usually has a kinder softer eye after a session but I am doubting the chances of her making a useful race or riding horse. I feel she’s a bit in the basket of anyone that is capable of handling or riding her wouldn’t want to.
Today we laid her down - (now I’m not an advocate of this and have never felt the need to do this to any horse previously) had hoped this might bring about some sort of attitude change. She put up a bit of a fight and took a while to give in, but went down gently and was then gentled and was happy chewing and relaxing on the ground. I’d thought the lesson might have stuck but as soon as she was up it was back to her bad attitude.
Does anyone have any suggestions here? I’m not inclined to think there is a pain issue. She is not stabled and is in a decent size paddock. Im considering putting her in a paddock with a very dominant horse but don’t really want to risk injury to the other horse. I’m not opposed to paying for help but I’d like to see a little more progress before I start throwing money at a horse that has a few convictions. We bought two from the same situation and the other (different stallion) is progressing perfectly without issue.
Just wanting to see if anyone has some suggestions.
I have a 3yo TB filly breaker, by a stallion who is known to throw difficult horses (found this out after we bought her). We’ve bought her to race ourselves, she was cheap as part of a dispersal so I imagine she’s spent a lot of time with minimal human interaction although she did lead and branded and feet trimmed. She is quite aggressive and has a bunch of quirks I’ve never seen in combination. We haven’t even got to saddling or driving her yet. I’d consider myself and relatively experienced horse person and rider having worked with a hundred or so different horses and having broken in a dozen or so. Very familiar with TBs
She is highly reactive and spooky - but will plant/Jib.
She has more fight than flight and is quite aggressive
She acts quite ‘stalliony’ to things she doesn’t like, will go for the bite at the knee and the stamp/maul, and is more inclined to lay all over the pressure rather than move away from
She has some sort of phobia of things near her legs, she lost her mind and did herself some scuffing over a rope dangling onto her knee (setup deliberately
after a lot of desensitising work)
we’ve spent two weeks on the ground being kind but firm, she has improved a bit, sort of, however she just feels really dirty and unwilling, it feels very unsafe and uncomfortable working with her, I do not trust her at all. I feel more like she is tolerating what we are doing not accepting it (and we’re really only up to a roller) She does not ‘soften’ to anything, she usually has a kinder softer eye after a session but I am doubting the chances of her making a useful race or riding horse. I feel she’s a bit in the basket of anyone that is capable of handling or riding her wouldn’t want to.
Today we laid her down - (now I’m not an advocate of this and have never felt the need to do this to any horse previously) had hoped this might bring about some sort of attitude change. She put up a bit of a fight and took a while to give in, but went down gently and was then gentled and was happy chewing and relaxing on the ground. I’d thought the lesson might have stuck but as soon as she was up it was back to her bad attitude.
Does anyone have any suggestions here? I’m not inclined to think there is a pain issue. She is not stabled and is in a decent size paddock. Im considering putting her in a paddock with a very dominant horse but don’t really want to risk injury to the other horse. I’m not opposed to paying for help but I’d like to see a little more progress before I start throwing money at a horse that has a few convictions. We bought two from the same situation and the other (different stallion) is progressing perfectly without issue.
