So what do I do now??

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happyhaffie

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This is going to be a long one, im not even sure what I hope to achieve by writing this, but perhaps some ideas will help along the way
Back in June my parents went to Appleby horse fare and came home with a beautiful looking haflinger gelding, he didnt belong to travellers but to a dealer from Northumberland. First month he behaved perfectly, you really couldnt get a nicer pony however he didnt bond with anyone other than our other horses he just seemed to put up with us. My mam took him on a pleasure ride, they were out hacking alone and in company every day, in the school he behaved beautifully the only thing I noticed is he was mouthing alot with his bit, a D ring snaffle so I tried a few other bits but he seemed to be the same in each one.
Now one month in we took him into the school so my younger novice sister could have a plod around on him, she had literally sat on his back hadnt even had time to get her other foot in the stirrup when he just went, broncing across the school, i caught him took hos saddle off checked everywhere nothing un towards, got on myself he was fine pleasent as always. We decided a back check was needed and saddle check, we purchased a new saddle even though the saddler said his old one was a good fit (it was getting a bit tatty to look at), back man found nothing wrong, we just put it down to a blip.
He was fine for the next couple of weeks but still didnt seem to settle with us, he then started to fret if one of the other horses were taken out of their stable, even when the other one was still their, this then turned into napping when he had to go out alone to now where if he gets his head down youre off, even if theirs another horse their and exactly the same in the school, however once were out of the yard hes fines.....
Cue vet back man dentist etc, everythings fine, just a naughty little pony, my mam decided she no longer felt safe enough to ride him anymore , weve tried very experienced people riding him the soft approach and the not so soft approach and nothing changes his behaviour. It got to the point last week we were sitting down talking about him that we actually decided enough is enough we cant keep him, we were actually going to give him away to a friend, I was supposed to call the friend the following night to arrange delivery etc, now heres where it gets strange.
A lady who came to my office for an interview the week before, who decided she didnt think the job was suitable and who I have never met before, knocked on my office door, she said she had been driving past and felt that she had to come and see me, hence a very strange look on my face, anyways we were talking for about ten mins, she then blurted out, you have a horse youre having problems with, now I can honestly say hand on heart before the interview I had never seen this woman before and obvisouly I was dressed in work clothes so no traces of horses. I was quite gob smacked to be honest I told her I did, she then came out with you cant sell him, he needs you, hes been sent to you for you to help him, he was with his previous owner for a long time and he really misses him although he accepts his owner has now changed he cant quite accept it, cue me stunned in silence, ok im listening pretty good now, she explained that his previous owner used to ring a bell when he arrived at their field and Jack was missing this, im pretty sceptical about things like this but I must admit I was amazed and thinkng im definetly going to try this, she explained a few more things and even rhymed off a name on his passport. she then told me she is physic but most of her family dont even know never mind a stranger and shes has never done anything like this before, to be honest I believed her..... to be continued
 
How odd. It will be worth a try tho, what have you got to lose with a bell??!! lol! Keep us posted!!

Very spooky tho!
 
I agree with Bills give it a go bells are supposed to be Calming they can help horses with their rythm ie rythm bells you can buy to hang round necks when you ride them like a necklace, not girly. good luck and let us know cant wait to see if it helps, i like spooky stuff.
 
Sounds like he may have been passed from pillar to post and he's reacting the only way he knows how. He's beyond my ken, but a know a guy who might be able to help you (he understands horses far better than I do).

As to the lady... Well, there are stanger things in life than know about. Sometimes we just do things, without being able to explain why, but it turns out to be Right.

Try the bell :). Let us know how it goes :)
 
Well she told me some other stuff and alot could not be made up, she also does reiki on her family and said she was willing to come and have a try on jack, although she admitted she was the bravest around horses. At home i told my mam and shes really into all this stuff so off out searching for a bell we went, we couldnt find one, my mams a mobile dog groomer and most of her customers are elderly people so she was sure she'd get one the next day, well the next day came my mam was in an old customers house and she asked if she had a bell, as soon as she got her words out another friend rang and said guess what ive found....a bell!!! Jack isnt hard to catch but he wont come to you, you have to go to him, never once has he came to us, so off we toddled up the farm and theirs trees going along side the field where we can see the horses but they can really see us, we rang the bell and shivers just ran down my back, the only horse in the field to lift his head was jack, not only that he galloped to the gate!! We just stood their in shock, he stood at the gate looking for someone, he didnt even aknowledge us at first he was waiting for someone else. To be honest I was thinking maybe a fluke, so we tried again the next night exactly the same thing happend, now ive told people on the yard about my encounter and a few were in our barn that night, all the horses were standing at the back of their stable munching quite happily, so I rang the bell and he literally launched for his door, but the look on his face brought some to tears he was looking the opposite way to us again looking and waiting for someone, he stood their for about ten minutes just staring, until I went over and stroked him, he looked really upset and sloped back into his stable.
Since the bell episode he has seemed to relax, hes no longer fretting and actually came for a cuddle and we even got a whinny last night, so we decided to look into locating his old owner, it looks like on his passport he may have been with his breeder all this time either that or nobody has bothered updating any ownership details, weve googled the address and found two numbers however both dont seem to have had horses so we seem to have hit a dead end. The strange thing is I spoke to two people that night for the first time, the first nearly gave me a heart attack, she was looking for her pony who was the exact same age as jack etc but turned out it wasnt him, the second told me about a website where you can look at pedigrees as this was how she had traced her haflinger, turns out our little jack sprat is pretty well bred, if anyone wants to look hes called avantus and you can see his pedigree on allbreedpedigree.com, the thing is where do I go from here, do I keep trying with him, is he just best left to be a pampered pet, do I keep trying to locate his past owner or try something else my mams adamant hes going no where now so Help please
I was thinking of maybe trying to re-break him, thinking along the mouthing issue and trying the reiki, what do you guys think
 
MrsMozart said:
Sounds like he may have been passed from pillar to post and he's reacting the only way he knows how. He's beyond my ken, but a know a guy who might be able to help you (he understands horses far better than I do).

As to the lady... Well, there are stanger things in life than know about. Sometimes we just do things, without being able to explain why, but it turns out to be Right.

Try the bell :). Let us know how it goes :)
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were open to any help we can get with him, to be honest im a practical kind of person, I thought hes done this before he knows exaclty whats hes doing so im very confused or bewildered by the whole bell thing, if she had said whistle I'd have told her on youre bike missus
 
TBH, he sounds like a very intelligent little horse - so it is perfectly possible that he is waiting for the person he bonded with - so sad he ended up at a dealers.

IME, haffies do tend to be one person horses with a very developed sense of fairness, they will tolerate others (especially if they have food) but only really work well for their person and with various people working him and especially if, as you said they get tough with him they are not backward in using their strength of mind and body to make the point that they don't like it.

Mine was expelled from a riding school :o when he got bored in lessons and started dumping riders - however take him over the XC or put him in a handy pony class and he was a star so he was sold to his next owner as a companion as he was classed as sometimes dangerous to ride. Up to retirement, he still had a buck if he disagreed on anything you did ;) but became a well schooled, forward going pony but with very strong opinions! It probably took about a year to bond properly .

Amazing what that women was able to tell you......very spooky but also very nice.
 
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