Would you have done the same? Opinions please!!

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JollyTall

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Hello all, I have only just joined the H&H forum (don't know why it has taken me so long) and there is something I would like people opinions about, or has anyone been in the same situation?

Basically, I wa sworking at a yard earlier in the year, when something happened that In a roundabout way I ended up loosing the job over (no fault of mine)

The owner of the horses was very rarely on the yard to see her horses or her staff. There was a yard manager and three or four of us "girls". One day the manager was about to take a young horse schooling. He is a 4 yr old anglo arab, 16.2 who had only been at the time broken for 3 months and was quite nervy. Once the manager had mounted from the ground and caused a considerable kerfuffle he started to ride up to the school. On the way he went passed the stallion pen. The stallion was turned out and he was not normally when other horses were due to be exercised but we had been told to put him out anyway. This wound the young horse up, which ended up in him spooking (I think at a pink skip bucket, which was by the entrance to the school, again unsusually). The manager fell off, and the young horse fell over and badly frightened himself. The manager and one of the girls then proceeded to take it in turns to re-mount and shout and chase the horse up to the school (he was allready very frightened). The horse had grazes on both his knees and was walking lame but they insisted on trying "so he learns". I agree you have to be firm with young horses and try and get them past being scared of things but what they were doing just seemed wrong to me. In the end myself and another girl managed to take the horse off them, who was by now extremely worked up, and led him away to clean and bandage his grazes. The others continued to shout at him for "being silly" and being extremely rough with his bridle whilst they were holding him. A horse being silly is a horse being silly but a young horse that has just been very frightened really doesn't need to be shouted at. In the end I had a full on row with the yard manager when I tried to take the horse back to his stable to rest and calm down (he wanted to get back on) which resulted in me deciding I didn't really want to work with these people so I left the yard (this was the cullmination of many similar incidents).

I would really like peoples thoughts on this, I still don't know whether I did the right thing or was being "too soft minded about young horses education" (I didn't think so). I would just be really interested to see what others thoughts are.

Thank you :)
 
Having a young horse myself (4yr old broken in April) I think this is disgusting behaviour! My boy is still nervy out on hacks and with new things, there is no way rough handling would help as you saw yourself it makes them even more scared and they then think there is something to be afraid of when their rider/handler has that sort of response. My lad thrives off positive rewards and encouragement. No offence but that guy sounds like a right d*ck.
 
I would have done what you did. My horse as a 4yo was nervy, esp out hacking in front or by himself. The only way through it was to calmly repeat things. Standing and patting him if necessary to chill him out, before asking the question again. I won't lie, draw reins and/or a standing martingale helped me control his behaviour - but they were only there for control not for schooling.

Think its a good thing you left. :)
 
It's a pity you couldn't take all the horses with you when you left. Thats a disgusting way to treat any horse let alone a young and scared one, I'm appalled you so did the right thing. Hello & welcome x
 
(Anglo-)Arabs do attract some insane owners.

There are plenty of ways of getting a horse used to pretty much any spooky object/situation. This doesn't sound like one of them.

You're better off out of there.

Sadly the horses probably would be too. :-(
 
I would have done exactily the same.
When my boss fell off her horse he was lunged afterwards to calm him down/get the energy out of him and then was lead back up to the yard by me.
If he had been lame/that paniced he would have gone for a relaxing walk to cool off and back to the stable to be hosed/untacked/have a sweat rug put on.
Way to scare a nervous young horse - by chasing it around after he has gotten a fright.
 
Hopefully OP, the owner of the horse has been fully appraised of the behaviour of her Yard Manager, and made some significant changes to both the staff and the running of her yard.

What an awful experience, and what a bunch of w*nk*rs.
 
"(Anglo-)Arabs do attract some insane owners."

I have an AA and I'm not insane! :)

Joking aside, my AA is highly suspicious and he's nearly 12. This is a horrid way to treat a baby - or any horse for that matter.

You can be self assured you did the right thing. What a bunch of nobs.
 
How very odd some people are. I don't see that this is a constructive approach to training, can't imagine what they were trying to achieve. Poor horse

In a totally unrelated topic, your username is awesome :D
 
amymay said:
Hopefully OP, the owner of the horse has been fully appraised of the behaviour of her Yard Manager, and made some significant changes to both the staff and the running of her yard.

What an awful experience, and what a bunch of w*nk*rs.
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^^^^this!!^^^

And welcome!
 
I think thats shocking behaviour and completely unneccessary why did they ride him to the school? Surely it would have been safer to lead him to the school and get on him in there especially with a young horse let alone one thats recently been broken. When I first got my horse I always got on him in the school even if I was going for a hack until we got to know each other and built up a bond. Just in case they spook or any other mis hap occurs then you have a soft landing and the horse can't come to any harm.

I think you definately did the right thing in taking him off of them though as soon as they began punishing him I would have suggested they lead him to the school past the scarey bucket/stallion and lunge him for 5-10 mins to give him a chance to calm down and then get on him quietly. That poor horse is going to turn into a nervous wreck I don't blame you for leaving I would have done the same thing. It makes me mad that people think they can treat horses like that and at the end of the day they are going to end up with a problem horse that's a nervous wreck :(
 
So sad! But you were right to go with your gut instincts. Some people cover their fear by shouting and brutalising the horse and claim to be experts. The real horsemen (and women) are always calm, serene and wait for the right moment to ask the horse to do something.
 
Pocket_Rocket said:
I think thats shocking behaviour and completely unneccessary why did they ride him to the school? Surely it would have been safer to lead him to the school and get on him in there especially with a young horse let alone one thats recently been broken. QUOTE]

Another example - in my first week of working there I was asked to help back one of the horses "because you're now the smallest". I was told he had been wearing tack and havingg weights on his back for a month. What actually was the case was the he had come off the lorry only three weeks previously, unhandled since a foal, and had barely worn tack let alone had weights on. They told me to attempt this on the concrete yard. I was wearing one of the girls patey hats so no chin strap. Needless to say both me, horse and hat went flying. The girl then lied to her boss and said I was only leaning across the sadle when I was actually fully sitting on him. This was my first week. Probablly should have guessed then what they were all like, but I really wanted the job!




Thanks everyone, so nice to find a place to communicate with decent horsey people! :D
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amymay said:
Did you tell the horses owner what had been going on???
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She turned out to be in the same mould! My first horsey job was with a lovely, caring lady, who gave everything to her horses and if there was a bit of it left over it went to her staff. I was shocked to go and work for someone who was so different, I know it sounds naive but I genuinely did not expect it. They just seemed to read the horses like they were human. You can't just put human emotions onto horses like that, and react if they were the same. Horses are animals, not people (well they are, just not human people thank god) so saying "he's being silly" when he's obviously terrified didn't mean a jot :( it was really difficult!
 
Another example - in my first week of working there I was asked to help back one of the horses "because you're now the smallest". I was told he had been wearing tack and havingg weights on his back for a month. What actually was the case was the he had come off the lorry only three weeks previously, unhandled since a foal, and had barely worn tack let alone had weights on. They told me to attempt this on the concrete yard. I was wearing one of the girls patey hats so no chin strap. Needless to say both me, horse and hat went flying. The girl then lied to her boss and said I was only leaning across the sadle when I was actually fully sitting on him. This was my first week. Probablly should have guessed then what they were all like, but I really wanted the job!




Thanks everyone, so nice to find a place to communicate with decent horsey people! :D[/QUOTE]


Thats shocking I would of refused to get on it you have to look after your safety it has to be your number one priority at the end of the day. What a stupid girl for lieing to you that he had been worked for a month. Imagine if you'd of really hurt yourself. Though I have to say it would have been partly your fault for agreeing to get on it firstly on the concrete and secondly with an insecure hat. Madness! I worked at a riding school in a similar situation a 3 yr old pony recently been backed was put into the riding school for a little girl to ride.

The pony threw her and jumped on the little girls stomach. Needless to say that was enough for me and I quit. Thats the shortest amount of time i've ever had a job for! I was there just under an hour! lol At the end of the day people have to have common sense around horses otherwise its just a recipe for disaster.
 
Pocket_Rocket said:
I think thats shocking behaviour and completely unneccessary why did they ride him to the school? Surely it would have been safer to lead him to the school and get on him in there especially with a young horse let alone one thats recently been broken.
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly. Or get someone to calmly put a hand on his bridle to help get him past the scary pink bucket with that number of people on the yard.

Sadly some people don't understand the concept of setting the horse up for success.
 
Awful behaviour...how can they be considered worthy of bringing on a young horse when they act like this.
I left a yard once becausei found the YO and Deputy terrifying a very nervy tb with a rake because it wouldn't take the wormer from syringe...I saw to the wounds and realised i was never going to learn the right way there (was supposed to be training there).
 
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