Project Horse, Doesnt respect fence boundaries

[ChloeSt890]

Im having issues with a small project horse who has turned out to be a rather large one.

I bought my horse at the end of last year after being coerced into it.

He "just" needed muscle built back up but that turned into us looking into his past finding out he has had surgery in a hoof and either a sarcoid or something removed from his hoof and had to be in rehab to him being a wood cribber, chewing all the fence posts, stable door and wood in the stable, not respecting fence boundaries and pushing the fence down or jumping iver it.

We have tried so hard to stop the wood cribbing but to no avail.
We've had the vet out constantly.

Any help would be appreciated or if anyone could offer a home where he will be trained and looked after properly would be amazing. Im at a real loss and having to replace half our rented fields fence, its costing me a fortune and i can not put in anymore money for him, i feel terrible but he has to go to a more experienced home.

 

[FieldOrnaments]

How to you get coerced into buying a horse?

 

[ChloeSt890]

My mother and her friend brought me to go see him, i got the "hes so good for you" "hes already backed and just needs brought back into work" "i would definitely buy him if i were you"

 

[AmyMay Again]

Electric fencing a meter in will save your wooden fencing.

Have you treated for ulcers?

But bottom line is that if he's not sound, and unmanageable then you may have to cut your losses and have him put down.

 

[Midlifecrisis]

Has he got a friend in his paddock? Is there enough grass in the paddock? Use electric fencing and spray wood with cribbox to make unpalatable. You have had a life lesson and will never buy something at the urging of others and will show due diligence before a purchase.

 

[Red-1]

What has he been seeing the vet for 'constantly' since you owned him?

Chewing can be through ulcers brought about by pain.

If a keratoma has been removed from the foot in the past, are you thinking that this is still unresolved?

I'm not sure how many people would be keen to take a lame/sick horse (presumably, as you are 'constantly' having the vet out), with a surgical history, who is so unhappy to eat half the pasture fence. If the horse cannot be made happy and comfortable, despite constant vet intervention, then it would honestly be kinder to PTS. The only think I would not be keen to do would be to offload him to someone, as he would likely be sent down the downward spiral of bin end dealers, who would try to patch him up enough to sell and make a profit from some unsuspecting buyer.

 

[LadyGascoyne]

Im having issues with a small project horse who has turned out to be a rather large one.

I bought my horse at the end of last year after being coerced into it.

He "just" needed muscle built back up but that turned into us looking into his past finding out he has had surgery in a hoof and either a sarcoid or something removed from his hoof and had to be in rehab to him being a wood cribber, chewing all the fence posts, stable door and wood in the stable, not respecting fence boundaries and pushing the fence down or jumping iver it.

We have tried so hard to stop the wood cribbing but to no avail.
We've had the vet out constantly.

Any help would be appreciated or if anyone could offer a home where he will be trained and looked after properly would be amazing. Im at a real loss and having to replace half our rented fields fence, its costing me a fortune and i can not put in anymore money for him, i feel terrible but he has to go to a more experienced home.

This doesn't sound like a training issue. It sounds like a series of management and veterinary issues which far predate him being with you, but that you can probably do a lot to resolve or at least get to the bottom of.

What has the vet been out for? That's the critical missing information from your post.

Secondly, what is his management like now? Is he out 24/7? Is he out with company, our individually? Is he on grass? What's the grass like - does he have lots of rich grass which could be affecting his behavior or perhaps too little grass and forage which could be stopping his stomach from clearing stomach acid which can aggravate or cause ulcers?

With his recent move to a new home, his cribbing and now the history you have on him having a procedure which probably required box rest or limited turnout in the past, this just screams ulcers at me.

I'd get some Protexin Quick Fix paste for him and get him started on their Acid Ease supplement ASAP whilst you work out with the vet what to do re scoping and your issues with further funding.

Have you had his feet x-rayed? Where did you get the info about the procedure he has had? It's likely to be a keratoma rather than a sarcoid because sarcoids are skin tumours and keratomas tend to occur in the hoof. If you haven't xrayed and don't want to spend more money on him, then you need to talk to the vet about how he is presenting clinically and whether there is some less expensive way of ruling out pain as a contributing factor to his behavior.

The fence jumping and cribbing can be resolved by running electric tape a good few feet off the fence. Too far to jump but too close for him to bounce it. Electric fencing is a great and not very expensive investment which you can use to rest parts of a field, keep horses in smaller spaces if the need rest or grass restriction. But you still need to know why he is doing it, and help him to have the kind of environment where he is happy and settled.