Slightlyconfused
Go away, I'm reading
Our 8 yr old appy gelding has developed a big confidence issue out hacking.
He was backed using the TRT Method in a feild in the middle of woods and was hacking all over on his own up till he moved yards.
He has been to the beach, miles round woods, dogs come up barking and other things and did not bat an eye.
Moved yards twice in three weeks due the first yard closing and an issue with another livery and then due to being beaten up in the feild at the first yard he moved to.
He is now with me and mine, has been here a year and a half.
Lost a load of weight and was treated for ulcers due to the stress he was under. Went from being a bomb proof allround solid lad to a nervous reck and he had to learn how to be stabled due to being on grass livery his whole life.
He has come on in leaps and bounds, will now lay down and sleep in his stable were as before he wouldnt and would nearly fall over due to exhaustion.
Leading to and from the feild is now spot on, he is happy in the school after being petrifried. Can long rein round all the feilds etc.
Its just under saddle that we have issues out hacking, school ridden work is fine.
He will be fine walking past scary stuff, geese, pigs screaming at feeding time, bird scarer going off right next to him and just shot forward a few steps and stopped.
But he randomly starts jogging, gets agitated and just tenses up. No reason we can see for this to start happening and no amount of turning, patting, encouragement etc will settle him. And she ends up getting off as doesnt get sick pay and doesnt want to push him into doing something out of fear. But getting off doesnt actually calm him down its just safer on the ground. Working through ground work patterns does settle him until she gets back on again and he goes back to being tense and its like he has lost his comfort blanket.
We have come to the conclusion he needs a pro to work with him, we are wanting to send him away as think it will be good for him to see a bit more of the world while learning relax again out hacking.
He does have seperation anxiety with his herd horses which at the moment is just my gelding so this hopefully will be sorted with.
So our options are below, which ones would you go for.
Option one send to one of the below for 6-8 weeks or longer if needed.
Miri Hackett (Also does TRT which he is familer with)
Joe Midgley - have seen AmbersEcho posts on him
Connie Coldfox
Kate Davis
Sophie Seymour
Or anyone else you can recommend for the above issues. No one who is heavy handed, he is not a nasty horse he has just lost his confidence in a big way which has caused my sister to loose her confidence and she works long hours and battles with generalised anxiety disorder so not being able to help him is stressing her out.
Option two
Turn away for a year to decompress and bring back into work next year.
He will have a vet check including back xrays in the next two weeks before he goes away.
We are based in the Milton Keynes area if anyone can recommend anyone locally.
He was backed using the TRT Method in a feild in the middle of woods and was hacking all over on his own up till he moved yards.
He has been to the beach, miles round woods, dogs come up barking and other things and did not bat an eye.
Moved yards twice in three weeks due the first yard closing and an issue with another livery and then due to being beaten up in the feild at the first yard he moved to.
He is now with me and mine, has been here a year and a half.
Lost a load of weight and was treated for ulcers due to the stress he was under. Went from being a bomb proof allround solid lad to a nervous reck and he had to learn how to be stabled due to being on grass livery his whole life.
He has come on in leaps and bounds, will now lay down and sleep in his stable were as before he wouldnt and would nearly fall over due to exhaustion.
Leading to and from the feild is now spot on, he is happy in the school after being petrifried. Can long rein round all the feilds etc.
Its just under saddle that we have issues out hacking, school ridden work is fine.
He will be fine walking past scary stuff, geese, pigs screaming at feeding time, bird scarer going off right next to him and just shot forward a few steps and stopped.
But he randomly starts jogging, gets agitated and just tenses up. No reason we can see for this to start happening and no amount of turning, patting, encouragement etc will settle him. And she ends up getting off as doesnt get sick pay and doesnt want to push him into doing something out of fear. But getting off doesnt actually calm him down its just safer on the ground. Working through ground work patterns does settle him until she gets back on again and he goes back to being tense and its like he has lost his comfort blanket.
We have come to the conclusion he needs a pro to work with him, we are wanting to send him away as think it will be good for him to see a bit more of the world while learning relax again out hacking.
He does have seperation anxiety with his herd horses which at the moment is just my gelding so this hopefully will be sorted with.
So our options are below, which ones would you go for.
Option one send to one of the below for 6-8 weeks or longer if needed.
Miri Hackett (Also does TRT which he is familer with)
Joe Midgley - have seen AmbersEcho posts on him
Connie Coldfox
Kate Davis
Sophie Seymour
Or anyone else you can recommend for the above issues. No one who is heavy handed, he is not a nasty horse he has just lost his confidence in a big way which has caused my sister to loose her confidence and she works long hours and battles with generalised anxiety disorder so not being able to help him is stressing her out.
Option two
Turn away for a year to decompress and bring back into work next year.
He will have a vet check including back xrays in the next two weeks before he goes away.
We are based in the Milton Keynes area if anyone can recommend anyone locally.
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