Psychotic horse

I am at a loss as to what to do about my new project, a lovely 16.3hh Thoroughbred gelding belonging to a friend of mine.

The horse was returned from a year-long loan because of "behavior problems". Prior to the loan, the horse was a very talented show jumper and, although it was never a novice ride, it was never dangerous.

A few days after it returned, my friend rode the horse in the arena and it went completely hysterical. My friend ended up in hospital. He has since asked me to work with the horse and sort out the problem so that he could put it on the market.

I immediately called out the vet, dentist and saddle-fitter but there appears to be nothing wrong with the horse. I then rode the horse in the dressage arena and it was tense but fine. I carried on working in the dressage arena and even took him out for a hack but last week the dressage arena was flooded so I took him into the jumping arena. He was immediately more nervous. I tried to trot him past a jump but about 6m before we reached it he stopped dead and reared badly. When ever we approached a jump he started spooking and rearing. I wasn't intending to jump him at all, he just saw the fences and lost it.

He is so neurotic that if another horse is jumping and I'm trying to ride in the adjoining arena, he starts to panic. We tried to walk him over a pole on two bricks and that was a disaster! His rearing is so bad, I'm worried he'll come over backwards.

Where do I start?
 
By keeping him away from anything jump related I would say, until he learns to trust you/and or his owner again. I would imagine something quite bad happened while he was out on loan which is jump related......... if you have no other option but to be around jumps I wouldnt ride, but maybe walk him in hand near them, or long rein/lunge, not worth someone else ending up in hospital for!
 
Alibear

Alibear

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Don't let himnear a jump or a wing or someone jumping for a very very long time.

Sounds like he's been "pressured" into jumping to the point that he just can't take the sight of them anymore.

Real shame.
 
sounds very much like my nieces horse!

stayed at the vets for over a week having tests etc,
all they came back with was someone wrong with the bloods and organs .

very strange.
in the end she just simply wasnt ridden anymore ,shame as she was on 7yrs old.
 
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sounds very much like my nieces horse!

stayed at the vets for over a week having tests etc,
all they came back with was someone wrong with the bloods and organs .

very strange.
in the end she just simply wasnt ridden anymore ,shame as she was on 7yrs old.

[/ QUOTE ]

.........and you paid money for that to be the full diagnosis and treatment?????????
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she was fully insured for vet fees.

very annoying really as the person who sold her to my niece advertised her as a potential eventer.

i wont go into details but something wasnt right .all was ok when she payed the £5000.
got her home seemed fine then that was it just went loony.

there was a few more issues with the horse in the diagnosis.

so she just felt it was far to dangerous to attempt to ride or even sell on as a brood mare.

hence to say she was the kindest horse on the ground just when you rode her she went crackers.
 
Yes...... all i was saying was you accepted a diagnosis of "theres something wrong with her blood and organs"...... to me if I had paid 5k for a horse I would want a bit more detail tha that!!!!
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I went to a Richard Maxwell lecture one night. He bought out a horse that was his, it was an ex showjumper that has been very successful until it had been pushed too hard. It ended up simply throwing itself to the floor when asked to jump. The owner gave it to him and in time, he had sorted the horse out and it was happily jumping bareback and without a bridle.

I think it is possible for horses to have a nervous breakdown if they are treated very badly. Maybe this horse has been given a bad time over jumps.

I also went to a police horse demo and the head instructor's pet horse was no longer a working policehorse because they felt it had a nervous breakdown. It could no longer cope with any traffic duties. They had the complete full monty of examinations and it was kept for lectures and fussed over but could never go back to active policehorse duties.
 
my niece got all the details half of them i cant say let alone spell them.

this was roughly 10 months after buying her though.
cant do anything about it now as insurance has payed out and the horse isnt alive.
 
I have to agree with above. Something has happened whilst jumping or in a jumping arena. The poor horse is remembering and saying please don't.
Go back to basics with him. Away from jumps/people jumping. He needs to create a bond and gain trust.
Forcing the issue would make the matter a great deal worse. When i have gained his trust and working happily together i would place a pole along the arena fence length ways along the fence and ignore it whilst doing flatork gradually introduceing a pole into the arena but just concentrateing on the flat worrk and not reacting at all to a pole being their. You can then gradually work up to walking over it and go on from there.
This horse has obviously had a major bad experience. The poor thing.
Would it be possible to find out?
 
I agree with all the comments above. I'd spend a couple of months just schooling away from jumps.

You could just try leading him in hand up to jumps, letting him graze in hand near or around them etc. so he starts to associate them with positive things.

Then I'd start with reschooling him again over trotting poles, cavaletti and very very gradually re-introduce jumps. Sounds like its a long term project = good luck!
 
I would agree with the comments about it having some kind of bad experience whilst jumping.

Keep him away from anything remotely connected with jumps for a good few months. He seems to be having a type of panic attack.

When you feel it is right, gradually introduce him to a pole on the ground, ride him around it, praise him, but do not go over it and build up slowly from there.

Poor horse you have to wonder what could have upset him so much.
 
I agree with all the above. Something major has happened to this horse whilst it has been out on loan.

I would say you are going to have to go back to basics with this horse. Build trust and take it very slowly from there.

It may be that this horse will never jump again given that the reaction to just seeing a fence is so severe
 
Agree with the others. We have a similar horse on my yard, not as extreme, but my YO was explaining the other day some of the things some 'professionals' do to these horses to get them jumping higher and TBH i can't believe more horses don't horses don't end up like the one in the OP.
 
If you really want this horse to jump again, only take him near a fence to feed him or maybe put one up in his turn out paddock and let him graze by it. I'd start with a pole on the floor next to his bucket, and work up to a proper fence. Even this may not remove his anxiety, in which case you'll have to face up to him not having a jumping career
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Poor lad. Makes you wonder what on earth happened......... be very nice to him.
 
I have a pony i've had 14 years who was fairly simialr although not in a rearing way but he would reverse at high spedd, plunge etc if asked to school near/over fences. Shame he was tinied so young (he was 7 when i got him), he panicked if another horse jumped near him too. basically after a few years jumping (at high speed or not at all that's how he did it) i gave up, i couldn't improve him and it was dangerous. Basically he jsut hacks now - he is 21 and still neurotic but we 'understand' each other.

we often will have jumps in the field (this pony won't even step over a pole) and I think this has helped in him being able to be nearthem (although my horse picking up poles and rolling them at him probably isn't helful!) Still he's a much more settled soul now he had other issues, launching off the horsebox ramp, rushing in and out of stables, not going in a stable without any straw in, not being able to be tied up. We have overcome all of these over the years. We could never sell him as my conscience wouldn't let me and he's happy now without the pressure on really.

I would suggest maybe light hacking,taking all the pressure off him until he's settled and trusts you and then start slowly. Be very aware what your body language is doing though and what you're thinking. My pony picked up on things in a flash. i coud go round and round poles (back in the early days) but the minute i would try go near them he'd flip out as he'd pick uo on something I was doing. I had to teach myself to think aotu anything else and this seemd to help. I think horses like this are sooo sensitive and pick up on the tiniest signals and changes.

Good luck!
 
Something has happened to that horse whilst jumping - often the case when loaned out. Maybe he has been rapped or had an accident? I would go right back to basics and gain this horses trust on the ground. Get him doing poles then eventually still on the ground and slowly gain his trust. Have you got anywhere you could do join up? I'm not one to suggest this normally but in this circumstance it sounds to me like it could help gain his trust back. Most of all - dont lose your temper with him and don't push him.
 
You have had the best advice reading all the above post's and hopefully you will take notice of them. I am just repeating what has already been said. Give him time patience & love don't force him near a jump untill he has total trust in you. You have started on the right foot already as you are asking for advice.

Some complete idiot has messed this poor horse up because they didn't have the patience with him, hopefully he will get a second chance and finaly find out that there are some decent humans out there that will show him the time & respect that he obviously needs so much off.

Good luck with him and perhaps you can keep us all posted on your progress with him. I hope your friend wasn't to badly hurt.
 
I agree with everyone else that you have to take the pressure off and re-establish trust away from jumps.

As for the jumps and his fear of them operant conditioning works wonders because it re-associates the object of fear with something pleasurable. PM me if you would like some more details on how to work on this.
 
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