The Ozzy Diaries

Great update! Does he have a particularly big tongue? Archie did and it took me forever to find a bit he was happy in. He could be incredibly strong but the bit he was happiest in also gave me more brakes (as he wasn't constantly fighting it, when I used it he actually listened) despite it being the mildest. It was a hanging cheek mullen mouth, he seemed to like how still it stayed in his mouth. Anything with a bit of movement meant he'd fuss with it non stop.
 
Annagain said:
Great update! Does he have a particularly big tongue? Archie did and it took me forever to find a bit he was happy in. He could be incredibly strong but the bit he was happiest in also gave me more brakes (as he wasn't constantly fighting it, when I used it he actually listened) despite it being the mildest. It was a hanging cheek mullen mouth, he seemed to like how still it stayed in his mouth. Anything with a bit of movement meant he'd fuss with it non stop.
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To be honest, he does go nicely in the turtle top - I don't know what mouthpiece he was ridden in previously, other than being an eggbutt, but the turtle top is reputed to be quite comfortable for horses with big and/or sensitive tongues. It's just his reluctance to open his mouth that got me thinking he might be uncomfortable, but as @HaplessHorse has said, he could just be pushing the boundaries a little.
Over the years I've found that the NS trans angled lozenge has suited our horses well...he did mess with the bit a little more than usual, but not excessively. The main thing I noticed about today was that he dropped his head a lot more. The canons are a lot narrower than those on the turtle top (as well as being a completely different shape), so I can see that he may have been inclined to mess with it.
I found out early on that AJ hated anything with a loose ring - he messed like crazy! But the same mouthpiece with a Baucher has worked brilliantly for him.
We may try the trans angled lozenge one more time with Ozzy and re-evaluate...
 
Great update. He does appear to need time to process things and your patience is paying off. Hopefully he will continue to gain confidence and will end up a reliable but fun pony. Well done Ozzy. How are his legs now, is he any better at letting you handle/clip his feathers?
 
Bradsmum said:
Great update. He does appear to need time to process things and your patience is paying off. Hopefully he will continue to gain confidence and will end up a reliable but fun pony. Well done Ozzy. How are his legs now, is he any better at letting you handle/clip his feathers?
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Last week we applied Cydectin to his legs...I was really worried about how he was going to be as it needs around 30ml per leg and takes a while to really get it next to the skin. (Even though he was clipped last month, his feathers seem to be growing back quite quickly, unfortunately!)
As it happened, i held him and offered him a Likit while OH applied the stuff. It has a really strong chemical smell but I think the Likit was a good diversion. He was only snatchy with one leg - the front right - and we've noticed that this leg is the one most prone to sores/stamping.
We agreed that we'd wait a little while and then start him on desensitisation, which will (hopefully) begin later this week.
He does let OH brush and handle his legs but he's always a bit funny with the front right. We're hoping that getting rid of the mites will make a difference.
 
September 9th

Ozzy makes an exhibition of himself!

Ozzy has been doing so well and making such good progress. Today we took him out on the village circular route, which he's now quite familiar with. I was riding Snoopy.

Everything was fine until about 20 minutes in. Ozzy planted and tried to turn round. OH said no, asked him to move on and follow Snoopy. Ozzy refused.
He then decided to move into the middle of the road and plant. Of course, it's at this very moment that a bunch of cars turn up, going in both directions.
OH put his leg on and tried to turn Ozzy in the right direction (and get him out of the middle of the road!) Ozzy responded by throwing a buck, accompanied by 'oooh's and 'aaahhh's from drivers and passengers, who were waiting patiently for Ozzy to do the right thing.
OH decided, sensibly, that the safest thing to do would be to get off and lead him. He was able to get back on about 100 yards down the road. After that, Ozzy followed Snoopy and then decided that he wanted to lead. He walked home very nicely without any further fuss.
As an added bonus, he was very sensible when an absolutely massive, loud, clattering lorry thundered past. But I was finding it difficult to forgive him for the 'middle of the road' incident!

The reason I'm posting this is because I sometimes - foolishly - assume that progress is a straight diagonal line. If it's going well, it's just going to get better the more we do it.
But, as OH said, they are horses. There will be setbacks. We just have to persevere.

Ozzy looks very well and is probably feeling well too; perhaps he is now really pushing the boundaries. We are just trying to stay calm, consistent and firm. (TBH I'm failing miserably today, OH is as patient and pragmatic as ever!)
Onwards and upwards...
 
Nancykitt said:
September 9th

Ozzy makes an exhibition of himself!

Ozzy has been doing so well and making such good progress. Today we took him out on the village circular route, which he's now quite familiar with. I was riding Snoopy.

Everything was fine until about 20 minutes in. Ozzy planted and tried to turn round. OH said no, asked him to move on and follow Snoopy. Ozzy refused.
He then decided to move into the middle of the road and plant. Of course, it's at this very moment that a bunch of cars turn up, going in both directions.
OH put his leg on and tried to turn Ozzy in the right direction (and get him out of the middle of the road!) Ozzy responded by throwing a buck, accompanied by 'oooh's and 'aaahhh's from drivers and passengers, who were waiting patiently for Ozzy to do the right thing.
OH decided, sensibly, that the safest thing to do would be to get off and lead him. He was able to get back on about 100 yards down the road. After that, Ozzy followed Snoopy and then decided that he wanted to lead. He walked home very nicely without any further fuss.
As an added bonus, he was very sensible when an absolutely massive, loud, clattering lorry thundered past. But I was finding it difficult to forgive him for the 'middle of the road' incident!

The reason I'm posting this is because I sometimes - foolishly - assume that progress is a straight diagonal line. If it's going well, it's just going to get better the more we do it.
But, as OH said, they are horses. There will be setbacks. We just have to persevere.

Ozzy looks very well and is probably feeling well too; perhaps he is now really pushing the boundaries. We are just trying to stay calm, consistent and firm. (TBH I'm failing miserably today, OH is as patient and pragmatic as ever!)
Onwards and upwards...
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It's so useful to have that patient pragmatic person around. Sometimes I needed one myself, sometimes I managed to be that person for other people. And two heads so much better than one as a rule. You will get there as a team!
 
quizzie said:
Quote" The reason I'm posting this is because I sometimes - foolishly - assume that progress is a straight diagonal line. If it's going well, it's just going to get better the more we do it.
But, as OH said, they are horses. There will be setbacks. We just have to persevere."


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Poor Ozzy, brain momentarily fell out of his ears and into a hole! 😂

We have had a few setbacks recently too tbh, the weather has changed rather drastically here, grass is doing weird things, everyone is growing winter coats so fast you can almost see it. Doesn't need to be purposefully pushing boundaries, maybe just having a weird brain day. You're just right tho, calm and consistent will sort you all out in the long run ❤
 
They do know how to pick their moments. We have a large open area known locally as the common (although it's not strictly a common). There's a rugby and cricket pitch in the middle and horses are allowed on the perimeter. My first pony and I were walking past when there was a match on. He was normally very well behaved but could put in the odd buck, easy to sit and no big deal. He chose that exact moment to attempt his first bronc for apparently no reason, dump me in front of about 100 rugby spectators, run onto the pitch, stick his head down and start eating.
 
I once had an escaped horse join the rugby players on the pitch , I had to hide it was devastation, tough men scattered, fleeing from a 17 hh lunatic that decided to gallop about the pitch at full speed whilst bucking wildly, I could hardly get the breath to catch him for laughing, he then stood in line with spectators just like a fan watching, so he got caught in the end

Rugby must be so exciting
 
smolmaus said:
Poor Ozzy, brain momentarily fell out of his ears and into a hole! 😂

We have had a few setbacks recently too tbh, the weather has changed rather drastically here, grass is doing weird things, everyone is growing winter coats so fast you can almost see it. Doesn't need to be purposefully pushing boundaries, maybe just having a weird brain day. You're just right tho, calm and consistent will sort you all out in the long run ❤
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Quite! D decided she couldn't cope with cows yesterday, having never bothered with them before and previously having shared an albeit large field with them before. Yesterday they were horrifying, normal service resumed today.

I wouldn't understate the rattly trailer I think that's sounds super 😁
 
Its definitely hopefully some vindication for Jasmine, who was heavily criticised in her initial thread, that you and OH, who are more experienced, are having tricky moments with him. It definitely sounds like the right decision was made for all. It also makes the dealers description look all the more inflated

Mine was ex rs so when I first started hacking him alone he'd try planting at certain places, as he never led the rides and theyd turn round at certain points. Id do the same as your OH did, get off and lead him for 100 or so metres to get him rolling again, before getting back on (fortunately quiet country lanes). Id also do a fair amount of trotting, to get him thinking "forward", and there was also more momentum to drive forward from if he thought about whether he wanted to continue i found it easier to say get on with it from a trot than walk. Interesting Ozzie wants to lead, mine probably from being in the rs used to be worse if he was asked to lead, it was great fun when me and someone else on an exotic rs tried to go out as neither was keen on leading

A foot soldier also helped

I loved hacking, so downing of tools and not hacking/only able to hack in company were not options!
 
Thank you Crazy_cat_lady that means a lot to me. This has certainly made me realise it was the right decision for both myself and Ozzy to not keep him. But I didn't want to just sell to anyone so I was glad Nancy came along. As for Devine Cobs they couldn't have given a truthful description of Ozzy as they only had him 24 hours from buying him from the auction to selling him on. And there is no way they got a needle near him for the Strangles test🤔
 
26th September

Our three month owniversary!

When I think back to June, he's made so much progress. And we've learnt a lot on the way!

There are still a few things that bother him, notably that if he is being led, he becomes absolutely petrified if he is anywhere near a slow moving or stationary van/small lorry. We can only assume that he thinks he's being transported - he tenses up and runs in the opposite direction. Ridden, he is fine near pretty much any vehicle! He can be quite tense when feeding (tail swishing, etc) and will turn his head when having his girth tightened, although I wouldn't describe him as girthy in general. Out hacking he has been occasionally planting and backing up, but this could be a number of things.
He has become very attached to Snoopy and AJ!

We were talking to our EP about Ozzy and she asked if we'd considered that he might have ulcers. Well, I certainly had considered it but decided that scoping was not something we wanted to do just yet. This is because Ozzy is a needle-phobic, resource guarding horse who doesn't want to leave his friends and is utterly terrified at the prospect of travelling. I just couldn't justify putting him through the enormous stress involved in being starved, transported for scoping and then being sedated.
(I will say that if it was a life or death situation (eg, needing emergency surgery) then I would just hire transport and get on with it.)
The EP recommended Ron Fields supplements for ulcers - she said that lots of clients have used them and noticed a difference. We've had Ozzy on them for about three weeks now and it has indeed made a positive difference! He is calmer in general, more cheerful, no anxiety when feeding. We took him out today and there was no planting or reversing, he just seemed happy and relaxed, in spite of AJ being a bit of an idiot at times.
Obviously these supplements may not work for everyone but it's definitely made a difference to Oz... he had such a stressful time around the auction and dealer period of his life, it's understandable that he could have developed ulcers.
I know that the only way to tell for sure is scoping and I'd always opt for scoping if possible - but I was worried that it might set him back when he's now a lot more settled and trusting than he was. Anyway, we can see a positive difference and we'll be keeping him on the maintenance dose for now.

He really just needs miles on the clock now! (Oh, and desensitising to having his legs clipped...!)

Here he is after his hack out today with AJ. What a good boy! I do ❤️ him.

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I trialled Ron Fields for my pony for the same reasons, non-invasive and natural. It didn't make the difference, but then I think I just have an anxious and needy pony and it wasn't ulcer related!
Ozzy looks quite the dude in that photo. I was happy to see an Ozzy update posted as I am invested in him and even happier to see a good update.
 
misst said:
Lovely update. Lucky Ozzie. Jasmine, I'm sure, must be feeling happy seeing him settle eventually and in a good home. He is not for the inexperienced or faint hearted though is he! A good outcome for everyone.
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I absolutely am over joyed to see Ozzy beginning to settle and do so well. I will be ever so thankful to Nancy and her husband for taking a chance on him knowing that he had issues. I am sure that he proved much harder work than anticipated but you have both been patient with him and it looks like it's working out for you all. I am glad I didn't palm him off to just anyone even though I was very stressed at the time and could have just to make it easy on myself.
@Nancy this is a great update. It would not surprise me if he did have ulcers he has been through such a lot in these short few months. But it seems you are dealing with this potential issue well. I agree that testing for ulcers would be more stressful at this stage.
 
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