Wild 3 year old! Please help!

[squemma40]

Hi there everyone, I'm a new member and have found many of the discussions in the forum helpful but I can't find anything relating to a particular problem. We have two homebred 3 year olds who have both been treated exactly the same. One of which (the mare) is virtually wild the other is not quite so wild but still timid. The mare is stabled and she has got a headcollar on after a great deal of thrashing around. When you enter the stable she does act as though your interested in you when your at a distance but as sonn as you approach she backs off or turns her bum on you. From my judgement she is not at all nasty she is just absolutely petrified as you can see her legs shaking. We have been at this stage before last year but decided to turn her out to see if she chilled out but now we are back to the same problem. I know all the normal things to do such as going in the stable, talking lots to her, doing other things in the stable to show I'm not going to hurt her and also the monty roberts method of lowering my body,not making eye contact and moving towards her then when she backs of I back of to show I'm not a threat. However much time taken doing this nothing works, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[flohelf]

Has she ever been in someone else's care while you were away ?
Just trying to find the cause of her fear since she is homebred and has been treated the same as your other 3 year old... Anything to do with sire or dam ?
Sorry, I'm not being of much help here.

But whatever the cause it will certainly improve only through patience and trying to bond with her. Just a thought: Maybe the other one is timid because of her ?

Is she the dominant one ?
Welcome to the forum, Best of luck and keep us posted

 

[RobinHood]

Sorry I don't have any personal experience but I thought this might be of some help to you, especially what Sarah Weston has to say http://ihdg.proboards91.com/index.cgi?ac...6373&page=1

 

[squemma40]

No she has always been with us and always been this wild, the 3 year old gelding hasn't been affected by the mare I don't think because you can tell his timidness is only because we've not dealt with him much while he matures, plus they were also put out in the field with another who is extremely friendly and easy to deal with. So they are now stabled while we try and get near the mare and do a bit more ground work with the gelding, but we just can't get her lose this wildness you can't even touch her!

 

[flohelf]

Very interesting article. But when she says wild ponies, does she mean REALLY WILD?

Polo-addict 's pony hasn't grown up as a wild one... But some of the techniques SW describes are worth a try. Still, patience is the key unless you are experienced in this natural horsemanship business

 

[tinker512]

If she is homebred was she not handled at all as a foal?
Has anything happened as to why she is so scared?

 

[Tia]

Best piece of advice I could give you is sell them! Give them to someone who knows what they are doing and hopefully they will turn out to be decent little horses.

Sorry to be so blunt but really - you've had the horses for all 3 years of their young lives and they are still wild?? Alarm bells ringing here.

Plenty people, including myself have had totally unhandled horses and it really shouldn't take longer than a few months at tops to teach the horse that there is no need to be afraid.

I know you are new on here and I honestly feel awful saying this to you as a person but my thoughts are with those poor horses......sorry.

 

[eohippus]

However blunt, Tia you make a valid point.
If the horse was acting up as a youngster, why oh why do people think they will change and be humanised after being turned away for a year?
If they have a overactive flight mechanism, this will not change by turning away.

PA, I would like to question, how you managed to get a head collar on and got her in the stable in the first place. If there was a lot of thrashing ect this just reinforces the fact that humans are not to be trusted.
If you are so determined in doing well with this little mare, let her come to you, not the other way round, if she does not let you near (by what you have said), just stand within the vicinity until she stops shaking, then move a little closer each day, let her accept you into her space. Do not make quick or unexpected movements that will scare her, remain completely calm and do not rush things.
It may take time, but you have already wasted years with her being in the field, what is another year to establish bond and trust.
I really hope you are ready for the long haul challenge to get this mare on yourside. When she does this will be very rewarding but it will not end there, what ever you want to do with her will take a lot longer than with a well handled and trusting youngster.
Best of luck
Dawn

 

[vicijp]

With horses like these it is best to just ignore them. Go in the stable, turn your back on them and have a fag over the stable door. In the end they will come to you. It will take time every day, somedays you will think you have gone backwards but they will come.
With horses like these you have to give them trust and they will give it back. Dont go in the box expecting to get kicked, you may do but if you stand close enough it wont hurt a lot. Most are better if you work with them out of the stable - dont go leaving her in until she is somewhere quiet. Lead her out (again keep your back to her - she wont come over the top of you). Let her dance around on the end of the lunge for 5 mins (dont try and bit her yet, use a headcollar and keep her head to you - she wont get away). When she has settled down a bit start to handle her in a wide open space. Run your hands over her, down her legs, start teaching her voice commands.
You may need to do it a few times a day.

 

[sorona]

I bought 2 wild NF ponies straight off the forest 2 years ago. All were stabled at first and 2 of them were handleable straight away and halter broken within a couple of weeks whilst one of them was completely unhandleable. You could approach his head over the stable door and he would let you stroke the front of it and he desperately wanted your company but would not let you touch him anywhere else on his body and if you wer eint he stable, just trying to muck out, he would be doing the wall of death around it. i felt so awful for him as nothing i was doing was working but the other 2 were good as gold but always were much calmer and trusting.
The other 2 babies got turned out with the other boys in their halters for a while before going naked but Branston was in the stable alone for around 2 months and still couldnt be handled and still didnt have a head collar on, I was getting desperate! I had to resort to penning him in a very small area with a 5 bar gate to get a head collar on him and then turning him out as I felt 2 months confined in a stable wasnt acheiving anything. In time, with a huge amount of patience, he got better and you could ocassionally clip a lead rope on him if you were very quiet as if he heard the trigger clip he would take off giving you rope burns. It was awful to see him so scared and have no idea why as i got him at 4 months (very young, i know, and not ideal but he would have been taken through the sales otherwise anyway). I had him gelded as a yearling and he had improved a lot by them but still flinched away if you tried to touch any further back on his body than his neck but once gelded, there was a huge change in him, he was far calmer and setled. He was more confident with the 4 other horses and i was able to walk him out, brush him, intoduce him to new things and people, get his feet trimmed; all the thing she should be doing! He attended a Sarah Weston Clinic and was fantastic, walking over tarpaulin, behind a tractor and motorbike, round tyres, under an umbrella, etc. i was so impressed with how he trusted me enough to do that. he is now so trusting, still a little jumpy and not as full of himself as my other 2 youngsters but with that comes a lot of respect and sensitivity from him and a real eagerness to please me o on the whole i think he will make a fantastic riding pony when the time comes. He is 2 1/2 now and I love him to bits but I considered giving up on him and selling him on but my OH said that he wouldnt let me; I am so glad he did as we have such a fantastic bond now.
Dont give up on them, I know it is a very long time to have bred a pony and it still to be wild but perhaps you jsut need sme help. A friend of mine bought a yearling filly from the pony sales and she was totally wild and agressive when cornered too (something mine never was), she was bolshy, confident, attacked with er teeth bared and legs flailing. She managed to get her into a stable and called out a natural horsemanship person who within 1 1/2 hours had her in a head collar and leading out beautifully and respectfully; she too is 2 1/2 and a very confident little girl with very good manners. I am not one of those people who think that pirelli/ natural horsemanship is the way to go as i have had both good and not so good experiences from different ones but if you havent cracked it after 3 years you really do need to look at the alternatives now and get somebody out. You could phone Sarah Weston and ask her for recommendations of people in your area. It was the best £35 or so that my friend had spent and i wish I had done the same as i had months and months of heart ache, worry and anguish with my boy, causing him a great deal of stress too.
Good luck and sorry for the novel x

 

[JaneMBE]

Surely you have done groundwork with them? As youngsters putting headcollars on and walking around showing them the real world?
If you have had these from birth, you must have touched them, groomed them and done basic handling?

You can't just have foals and expect them to be brilliant at 3 if you have done no work with them

Blunt as Tia is, I agree, if you haven't got the experience to raise them and they are still 'wild' then you will do more damage than good.

Do you keep them on livery or have your own stables? Is there anyone who has experience who could help?

Sorry, I know you are new and it's probably not what you wanted to hear

 

[AmyMay]

Have to agree with Tia, it does sound as if you are way out of your depth here.

Sell em pdq.

 

[squemma40]

Only one of the mares is like this the other two can be led, groomed etc it is just the mare. We have bred and raised 5 others one of which is the masters hunter. I understand your views as I would probably think the same but I think selling her like this, you would get nowhere near her worth and I don't want to give up. Basically they were handled as foals but they were then weaned and turned out, due to a family illness my mum didn't have time to spend as much time as neccesary with them. Your probably going to say we should have got someone else to work with them or sell them then, but that wasn't up to me and I can't change that now. So now I am working with them I know they are well behind but I just needed a broader range of advice but selling her now is not an option. Thank you for all of your help.

 

[sojeph]

I have to say that the thrashing around in order to get a headcollar on her will not have helped her view of us humans but now its on I would just advise you to just work on her each day. The advise fromSarah Western seems pretty good to me.
I'm in a similar boat actually. Although a bit worse!! I have a pony who is pretty wild but has also been badly treated. He's been with me 5 months and I still can't get him to allow me to put a headcollar on him. I can now stroke him from his bum up to the top of his neck but definitely NOT his head yet and only if he's confined in a small area. If I just sit with him he's almost sit on my lap but if I make the slightest move towards him he's outta there! To top it all he's a smart arse too and pretty angry about life - oh and he's a rig!!! Oh and he's approx 6yrs!!

Good Luck anyway