cosmo_sam
Well-Known Member
I've not been on here for a while (new job means I actually have WORK in work - How rude!!!
)
So I thought I'd post an update about my friend's horse that I ride for her/help her with.
He's a sort of rescue job. Totally amazing breeding (grandsire Donnerhall) but he's had a tough time and she picked him up for a song.
Well!
Talk about a learning curve!
I'd better do this in phases
As was -
Basically I'd reached the point with him that I just wasn't happy schooling him anymore. He enjoyed his hacks with my Hubby and his owner and I had some good results long reining, but I didn't feel he enjoyed being schooled and I wasn't williing to keep at it.
Then - our new trainer's verdict
He told us his back wasn't right and it was due to his incorrect action behind, which he felt had been caused by VERY bad basics (or lack of them) in his early training. He felt that he had undoubtably been brought on very quickly in a totally incorrect way which had left him stepping over ever so slightly on his left hind (due to very early and incorrect lateral work), but that no doubt had been ignored just to "push" him through performance horse sales in Germany and for them to get the best price of him.
He said no doubt that he had been strapped down/over bitted at some point and made to perform "tricks" to impress and that likely the lady who imported him had probably paid serious money for him.
The result of his training though, would have been that his incorrect action now meant that whenever he "pushed" from behind, he would throw the rider forward and cause them to bang into his wither/base of his neck and made him very sore and reluctant to push. He then developed a "tick" that he found most probably stopped the riders pushing/riding him (aka the dramatic head tossing that he does when under pressure) and this worked at putting them off. THEN no doubt his new owner went to a "professional" who proceeded to "force him" to work through his back/work through his silliness, at which point he most likely began saying NO quite venomously and hence he ended up with his owner at a bargain basement price!
So we then left off him really and went back to as was until he could go away to the trainer's for schooling.
The Schooling
He goes to our trainer and his opinion at the end of it, was that he had been, and his actual words with a funny french accent was "seriously !! Ooops !!ed up" by someone. He said he felt that he had more than likely damage to one or more vertebrae in his neck and that he had been "broken" at the wither. By broken he explained that he meant that, if a horse is worked deep before it had developed in a way to come UP and OUT from the wither, this has the effect of causing a sort of fold/crease at the wither, which is very damaging to a horses skeleton (due to the fact that the neck is only connected to the back by ligament at the wither). He said that this is were "Long and low" can be misused/misunderstood and cause negative damage if done too soon/when the horse isn't pushing from behind and already very stable in the wither area.
He had worked pretty much solely on getting him confident again to push himself from behind (in conjunction with back physio etc) and to learn to elongate his neck up and out. 95% of his was done on the lunge with short amounts of work at the end only in walk.
That is what we have been sent away to do, for at least 3 months, and not to try and move on at all. He said he needs total consistency and to strengthen in the right way again. He said he has been forced so badly that if you so much as get a little bit greedy, he will tense and tighten again and undo any good work. So that's the plan!
The healer comes to visit
As it fell, last weekend his got the chance for him to see a healer/horsewhisperer type person. She took the chance to see if what he told her supported our trainer's thinkings.
The result was, a report that explained that he is physically well, but has had severely incorrect training and has been TOTALLY dominated to the point of total explosion. He said that good trainers, train the neck before they concentrate on anything else, and that this had been totally missed out in him. The healer's words where "in his early days they took him from here(very low) to HERE(very high) in an extremely short space of time. Then when things began to go wrong they dominated him"
He also said that he had developed certain behaviours that he had learned made people stop, and this was the spooky bit! He was in his stable with him, doing very slight delicate movements with a soft rope around the base of his neck. It looked nothing, but he explained he was actually asking lots of questions of him with this. He began very clearly doing the same head tossing he does when ridden!!!!!! He has NEVER done this without someone on this back! The healer said this was one of the ways he found to make people take the pressure off!!! How bizarre! his owner and I were dumbstruck.
He went on to show us some groundwork with him and leading exercises, and explained the significance of always being mindful of where the horse's weight was (as in which leg etc) He said that if you pull/tug him around or cause him to lose balance, this dents his confidence and so the leading work we do has to be very sympathetic and make things easy for him to do for us.
PHEW!!
I feel like we've had a real learning curve with him, but all has began to slot into place.
My heart bleeds for him, but at least we're actually beginning to get to the root of it all
Watch this space...
So I thought I'd post an update about my friend's horse that I ride for her/help her with.
He's a sort of rescue job. Totally amazing breeding (grandsire Donnerhall) but he's had a tough time and she picked him up for a song.
Well!
Talk about a learning curve!
I'd better do this in phases
As was -
Basically I'd reached the point with him that I just wasn't happy schooling him anymore. He enjoyed his hacks with my Hubby and his owner and I had some good results long reining, but I didn't feel he enjoyed being schooled and I wasn't williing to keep at it.
Then - our new trainer's verdict
He told us his back wasn't right and it was due to his incorrect action behind, which he felt had been caused by VERY bad basics (or lack of them) in his early training. He felt that he had undoubtably been brought on very quickly in a totally incorrect way which had left him stepping over ever so slightly on his left hind (due to very early and incorrect lateral work), but that no doubt had been ignored just to "push" him through performance horse sales in Germany and for them to get the best price of him.
He said no doubt that he had been strapped down/over bitted at some point and made to perform "tricks" to impress and that likely the lady who imported him had probably paid serious money for him.
The result of his training though, would have been that his incorrect action now meant that whenever he "pushed" from behind, he would throw the rider forward and cause them to bang into his wither/base of his neck and made him very sore and reluctant to push. He then developed a "tick" that he found most probably stopped the riders pushing/riding him (aka the dramatic head tossing that he does when under pressure) and this worked at putting them off. THEN no doubt his new owner went to a "professional" who proceeded to "force him" to work through his back/work through his silliness, at which point he most likely began saying NO quite venomously and hence he ended up with his owner at a bargain basement price!
So we then left off him really and went back to as was until he could go away to the trainer's for schooling.
The Schooling
He goes to our trainer and his opinion at the end of it, was that he had been, and his actual words with a funny french accent was "seriously !! Ooops !!ed up" by someone. He said he felt that he had more than likely damage to one or more vertebrae in his neck and that he had been "broken" at the wither. By broken he explained that he meant that, if a horse is worked deep before it had developed in a way to come UP and OUT from the wither, this has the effect of causing a sort of fold/crease at the wither, which is very damaging to a horses skeleton (due to the fact that the neck is only connected to the back by ligament at the wither). He said that this is were "Long and low" can be misused/misunderstood and cause negative damage if done too soon/when the horse isn't pushing from behind and already very stable in the wither area.
He had worked pretty much solely on getting him confident again to push himself from behind (in conjunction with back physio etc) and to learn to elongate his neck up and out. 95% of his was done on the lunge with short amounts of work at the end only in walk.
That is what we have been sent away to do, for at least 3 months, and not to try and move on at all. He said he needs total consistency and to strengthen in the right way again. He said he has been forced so badly that if you so much as get a little bit greedy, he will tense and tighten again and undo any good work. So that's the plan!
The healer comes to visit
As it fell, last weekend his got the chance for him to see a healer/horsewhisperer type person. She took the chance to see if what he told her supported our trainer's thinkings.
The result was, a report that explained that he is physically well, but has had severely incorrect training and has been TOTALLY dominated to the point of total explosion. He said that good trainers, train the neck before they concentrate on anything else, and that this had been totally missed out in him. The healer's words where "in his early days they took him from here(very low) to HERE(very high) in an extremely short space of time. Then when things began to go wrong they dominated him"
He also said that he had developed certain behaviours that he had learned made people stop, and this was the spooky bit! He was in his stable with him, doing very slight delicate movements with a soft rope around the base of his neck. It looked nothing, but he explained he was actually asking lots of questions of him with this. He began very clearly doing the same head tossing he does when ridden!!!!!! He has NEVER done this without someone on this back! The healer said this was one of the ways he found to make people take the pressure off!!! How bizarre! his owner and I were dumbstruck.
He went on to show us some groundwork with him and leading exercises, and explained the significance of always being mindful of where the horse's weight was (as in which leg etc) He said that if you pull/tug him around or cause him to lose balance, this dents his confidence and so the leading work we do has to be very sympathetic and make things easy for him to do for us.
PHEW!!
I feel like we've had a real learning curve with him, but all has began to slot into place.
My heart bleeds for him, but at least we're actually beginning to get to the root of it all
Watch this space...
