'Rescue' youngster - anyone had experience?

[Oldred]

I am about to take on a 2 year old, just gelded, driving pony (about 14 hh now). He has apparently been beaten regularly (RSPCA called at one point), is very underweight and has been driven for at least some months. Obviously I will be turning him out on good grass, worming him and handling him. He will have the company of my two mares (well separated of course!)

Does anyone have any specific experience of taking on this type of situation and what advice would you give re handling, feeding (type, rate) or any other things you learned to do/not to do?

 

[Natalie_H]

Good on you! Always like to hear re-homing stories like this. The only advice I can offer is that you need to be firm in your handling. When I re-homed my ex-racer he was in a pretty poor state & very listless. I turned him away for a bit & handled him very kindly & made lots of allowances for him.....too many it turned out

he turned into a little monster thinking he could do what the hell he liked. Became aggressive & unpleasant to handle - all my fault!!! I should have been much firmer with him. he is great now as I took a much more assertive role with him, but I should never have been so soft when I felt sorry for him. Hope that makes sense??!!

Edited to say he was 3-y-o when I got him.

 

[debsflo]

i have an 8 yr old mare who was rescued by her previous owners as a 2 year old .several of the herd were dead she was very underweight and nearly died twice. they took things very gradually even with gradually buiding up amount of wormer given due to risk of gut damage using pre and probiotics and taking things at her pace. iour pony is now 14.3 she is easily bullied always at the bottom of the pecking order and is kept with one mare who wont take advantage but she has a lovley temperament and is very willing. we still struggle to keep weight on take things as slowly as you need to the psychological effects can take longer than the physical good luck

 

[Tia]

Yes I've had loads of them. The best thing I can advice you of, is take everything at their own pace. Try not to overload them with too much, too quickly. I've had a few who have come into exactly your category - I always turn them out with other horses, generally of around the same age. Depending on how badly scarred they are will determine what you can do with them. I tend to do very little with them when they first come. Most of what I do is spend hours in the field with all of the horses, just grooming them and being amongst them.

Try to be very sympathetic to him and very kind. He will soon start to trust you. Once you have built up that trust this is the time to start doing things with him. It may come naturally within a few weeks or you could easily be looking at a number of months - the time is irrelevant though - never ever rush him!! Otherwise you will be back at square-one before you know it.

Always, always be kind and gentle and he'll be eating out your hand in no time.

I actually find that these ponies who have been physically beaten are so rewarding. Cloud, our little pony, came to us in a desperate state 10 years ago. She was very very badly beaten and was absolutely terrific of people, normal yard implements, whips.....even if you moved quickly, she would completely over-react and fly into a corner and shake. She was utterly terrified. She was a very quick pony to turn around though and literally within a month she was almost over her previous life. She's been the best pony in the world! But she also knows where her bread is buttered

. Pony of a lifetime.

I had a customer of mine round here the other day - she bought a little rescue Morgan pony I had from me last year. This little pony was the same as Cloud but she took much longer to come round. I spent at least 2 or 3 months trying to gain her trust; eventually I did and when I sold her to this special lady, she has found her to be as trusting and loving as I found her.

I know over there you aren't into this much, but over here we always put leather headcollars on our horses like this. For safety's sake and to help with handling.

Good luck.

 

[Oldred]

Thanks for advice so far - very, very useful actually as I'm not sure what to expect with such a bad case. I can't really believe he'll ever trust again so reassuring to hear that they can - although they're all different I know. thanks all.

 

[_April_]

Have never had any personal experience, though my YO has loads of rescue ponies!
Just wanted to say how nice it is that he is getting a lovely new home

 

[dunthing]

My daughter has two rescues at the moment. One is a two year old who had a headcollar growing into his nose and the other was found with six others, starving on Bodmin moor. They are both very rewarding and loving ponies. My daughter is very calm but firm with them and they are doing fine now.
They both took about six weeks to gain trust and the little Bodmin mare had never been handled before. Anything is possible with love and patience.