Would you bring him back off loan..

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BigYellowHorse

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Just wondering what people would do in this situation and if anyone has had past experience or advice..

I'm off to see my loan horse this week, (have been to see him as often as possible though had to put off seeing him for a few weeks as I've had uni exams and couldnt get the time away from books and doing my own) after reports of his behaviour he doesn't sound like the horse I know and love. He went out on loan in January, within the first week of arriving he ended up with a hoof abscess, so had to be stabled for a week, he found this very difficult and got very sweated up, weaved and called. I've had him on box rest before for a previous abscess and he was perfectly content. He then was turned out however did not settle well in his field and would pace the fence line most the day - at home he has been turned out with a herd and a lone and never have I had any trouble. He was then moved fields where he seemed really happy, his ridden work was coming along well and all seemed quite quiet and peaceful. Recently it seem he is getting worked up in the afternoons when even just one horse on a large yard gets brought in and apparently he is too worked up to be ridden in the evenings, turn out in the morning he is getting worked up soon as one horse is turned out, he's starting to barge out his box. Out hacking he is refusing to pass things and make a right deal out of small stuff.... He's never, ever barged out the box at home and out hacking we will 'look' but he would never make an issue out of anything.

He's been on a very large livery yard with me when I moved him from home so I could have some more facilities and he was perfectly behaved and I had no issues.

Just to cover the basics... back has been looked at, teeth checked, saddle checked. Feed has been dropped and I have said to the loaner try him on magnesium for a few weeks to see if there is a change in behaviour especially since we have been going through nutritional changes of spring grass... not sure if she's taken my advice or not.

My gut is telling me something is not right. Simply I dont think he is either keen on yard or loaner and if it carries on I will either have a horse with a lots of gastric ulcers (which could also be the reason behind the change from the period of settled pony back to unsettled pony) or have a horse returned to me mentally changed to the worse. It's a shame as the loaner is one of the good ones.

Sorry its a long post .. most people probably will have been bored and left half way through, to the warrior's that persevered to the end thank you!
 
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It does seem that he's not going to settle at that particular yard, or maybe with that particular loaner.

I would bring him back and ask her to work him from your yard.
 
He's your horse, if you think he's not happy then you won't be happy. Ask for him back.

Depending on how much you like the loanee and think he's upset by being at a hectic yard, do as 9tails suggested and ask her to come to him at your home for a while. Something is obviously up with him! You'll only end up worrying horribly if he stays there, and it certainly sounds like it isn't doing him any good.

Good luck :)
 
It's entirely up to you, and gut feelings are a pretty good diagnosis tool. I would however say that a number of horses are acting up/out of character at the moment and I do put that down to grass/magnesium/feed related issues... Ben is noticeably different and sharper... Snortier and spookier... He has just gone on naf magic to see if that helps. I'd turn up assess the situation, investigate if he has been put on a mag supplement, and take it from there... Or you may feel that once you are there it is simply the yard that is causing this.

Go with an open mind, but questions you want answered and decide what you are going to do. For example, if she hasn't tried the calmer... Will you tell her that if she wants to keep him she has to try it, or just take him back? If its the yard, will you discuss the possibility of her keeping him if she moves to a more suitable yard or will you just give notice?

Good luck and keep us updated :) hope it all works out
 
Thank you - pleased everyone has said the similar thing and what I was thinking. I dont think the loaner would be interested in traveling here as its a fair distance and also the family own the yard so I doubt she will move him somewhere she has to pay.

Will find out if shes tried any mag or any other type of calmer.

Wouldn't harm for him to come home my colt even though my colt has a 4yo friend he could do woth an older, wiser companion to teach him not everyone wants to play!!
 
A quick update, he's coming home this week.

I've been across a few times to see if I could help with him, at the end of the day he's in a place where he would be sole focus of the person and gets one to one attention, with me my time is spread amongst others, so really he's better off where he is and if there was something I could do or see that would help the situation as he was apparently being difficult to lunge and the loaner wanted to make sure he was ok as there had been a slight issue with the saddle as I sent it fitting him though because he had been brought into work and inevitably bulked up it had become tight, but hadnt been noticed so ended up with an osteo visit to put things back in place so to speak.

So the long and the short of it, first time I went over we did some long reining with him and he seemed calm, looked a the odd thing but no issues. Loaner had a go and she got on well with it, left her to go it alone next day didn't go well at all, he was very spooky and then saw something decided he didnt like it turned and bolted back to his field. So went over again, we long reined him again did the same route; good, no issues, calm and only had a little look at something but walked on fine from it. Went into the arena to ride, walked around no problems, happy chap. Loaner rode him no problems still happy, not looking or jumping at things. Next day loaner went to ride he wouldn't settle was calling and very unhappy and reluctant to do anything.

So he's coming home this week, we gave it a shot and tried to see if it could work. Its funny as he was completely his normal self whenever I went over to help but just completely lost all confidence when with loaner. It is such a shame too as she was definitely one of the good ones and obviously took great care of him. I feel terrible for her now though as it must be gut wrenching to think a horse just isn't at ease with you and it can't do her confidence any good. I really wish there was something I could do to help, other than say she did a fantastic job and sometimes these things just dont click like they should.

Im gutted it didn't work out but there's space here for him and with uni having an extra horse is something I didn't really need but at the end of the day he's completely and utterly my responsibility and he's normally such a lovely horse so look forward to having him back in the boys herd again to play law enforcer with the bratty bad boys :)
 
It sounds as though you and the loaner had a great relationship and talked things through a lot with you going over to help several times. It just didn't quite work out, as you said, the horse didn't trust or respect her, and played up as a consequence. Don't feel too bad about the loaner, she may be a bit sad, but she's probably a bit relieved too - she has had a hard time of it over the last few months really, and tried hard. Lets hope she finds something that suits her better.
 
So glad you are having your horse home. It patently wasn't working, your loanee sounds very nice - as do you - and you obviously tried to sort things out. But he's not a happy horse and things would only have got worse.

I do believe there are horses who are one man horses - or one place horses - and he may be one of them.
 
This happened to me last year. I loaned to a lovely girl and her mum and although I thought them a little novice everyone has to start somewhere, they had good back up or so I thought and I was half an hour away. The horse although in the past had been a real handful had totally chilled in the past year or so so I didn't really anticipate any problem.
Well he was awful for her, a complete s@d tbh! But he was so unhappy and stressed- she didn't even manage to get on him. The second I got him home I went back to his normal self.... Weird isn't it. Poor loaners must be difficult?!
 
It's a shame it didn't work out, but it's nice to read a post from an owner who seems really nice and helpful and human! All to rare these days when discussing failed loans !!
 
Well done you for working with the loaner to try and find a solution, at least you know you tried everything you could.

I've had the same problem with loaning out my pony. Overall she is pretty well behaved at home but out on loan she turned into a nightmare. It's such a shame as she is now completely wasted as I haven't got a rider for her.
 
ihatework said:
It's a shame it didn't work out, but it's nice to read a post from an owner who seems really nice and helpful and human! All to rare these days when discussing failed loans !!
Click to expand...

this ^^

OP you are one of "the good guys" by looking after your horse, thinking about saddle etc rather than just assuming its down to the loaner and spending time trying to fix the situation

i hope it all works out for you and good luck with uni :)
 
Thanks everyone! I'm looking forward to having him home as he is such a lovely horse (generally! )

Poiuytrewq - this sounds a lot like my mare when she went out on loan, she had been a right moo from 18months to about 4. She eventually came round to being a nicer character so after 4 years of good behaviour I looked to loan her out as I had a 4yo to break and I was starting uni that year too.
I knew her past so made sure the loaner was prepared to start off with a share for a couple of months then when winter set in she could move her to a place with facilities. The 2 month share went well we had the odd nap but taught the lady how to ride her through it. So she left for the new yard, it barely lasted a month she started to rear, turned nasty and eventually ended up backing up and purposefully going to kick another rider and horse. It was terrible to hear - I got the phone call the day after I'd had a massive op on my knee and was still at the 'throwing up in front of good looking physios' stage lol

Anyway she came home and is absolutely fine no rearing, no nastiness.

Horses they such silly things sometimes both my gelding and mare would have been completely*doted upon but they chose to play up and come home to me where they certainly don't get 100% of my attention. I dont think i will ever understand it!
 
Sounds a shame that it didn't work out- loaner sounds lovely, as do you and your boy, especially as it's very hard to find a good loaner and loanee these days. It does take a while for a horse to settle in a new home and with a new handler, but your boy didn't sound happy at all and you definitley made the right decision in bringing him home.

I have my girl on perm full loan and I treat her as my own, I see her as my own :). Her real owner is fantastic and we've even become friends which is really nice, she doesn't ever come down to see her (young family and other ties, although she's promised to come down soon as I keep begging her to come and see T to see how different she now looks!) but I forever send her pictures and updates and she really appreciates it.
 
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