Taking care of a rescue

[SissyTheEvil]

Hey, I am new Forum user. I am not a native endlish speaker, so please bear with me if I say something wonky.

On a 4 day notice I adopted a rescue horse, which I went to pick up last sunday. His hooves are a disaster, and blacksmith comes next monday to fix his hooves. Deworming is done on monday, and vet got bloodwork on their way. Teeth are okay for now. He is put on special diet and I am slowly trying to clean him up and see how we start trying to get him back to shape.

He is a 7 years old trotter gelding.

It has been 16 years since I sold my previous horse, and I have almost nothing left for him. I am starting with unreazonably small resources and on unreasonable short notice.

I am scared. I am so sad animals like him are out there, not being taken care of. How to build up trust? How to make him feel safe? How to show him I am doing anything In my power to make sure everything will be okay? I have never dealt with a rescue like this before. I would really need a friend now. Someone who will advice, support and be kind. Because I am scared.

-Sissy

 

[be positive]

Welcome, your english is better than many native speakers.

As for the horse he is young so has a good chance of full recovery, take everything slowly, try not to give him too much feed to try and speed up the weight gain, give him plenty of hay access to some decent but not too rich grass and small feeds so he can gain condition slowly and surely, it will take time but he will improve as long as there is no underlying issue found by the vet.

The trust will come in time, horses are extremely forgiving and he will know you are trying to help him, be firm, not too soft when dealing with him, give him security by setting some simple clear rules as to how he behaves, he will gain trust if you are prepared to be the leader rather than being scared to take charge, you will probably make a few mistakes, we all do, but do not dwell on them, learn and move on he will not expect you to be perfect but will appreciate you being kind, considerate and fair, he is a lucky boy to have found you, best of luck.

 

[SissyTheEvil]

I have had him for abit more than 2 months now. Start was difficult. I got kicked, bitten, dragged around and ran over. I felt so depressed with him since everything was a struggle. But I chose not To give up, and kept going to see him daily, trying to do things with him with his speed and terms. And now I have a whole different animal waiting for me to go see him. He greets me, and is a very gentle soul. We can do this, it just will take abit time. But we are not In a hurry, and I am happy I did not give up on him, even sometimes I sat crying In my car before going home, because getting bit or kicked was so disheartening (is that even a word). But we pulled through. Instead of a scared and traumatized horse, I have a funny and playful one that loves life. I guess I have done something right.

 

[Errin Paddywack]

Well done. Should only get better from now on.

 

[hellspells]

To see that change in such a relatively short time is so good. I hope you enjoy him and have many happy years! I had a trotter, sadly for not very long but he had the most wonderful temperament.

 

[Shay]

Well done - thank you for letting us know.

 

[SissyTheEvil]

 

[SissyTheEvil]

Here. My 12 yo son Sebastian (with severe adhd and some other problems) and our sweet boy Baron. This animal has made a complete 180 turn with us. At start he didn't trust us, and gave us really Hard time. But now, these two make any of my days worth all we went through.

 

[Pinkvboots]

I think horses know when they have found kind caring people after being mistreated, he sounds like a very lucky horse well done for doing such a good job.