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Horsey People, some advice?
12 years ago
⭐️ be rootin, be tootin, and by god be shootin ⭐️ I'm not sure how many of you have worked with or have horses, but I'd like some advice.
A friend of mine has been trying to sell one of her horses, with no luck. The last bid was 250 and they backed out, so obviously no takers; here's why.
She is difficult to catch, lazy, fat and spookish.
That being said, she seems to like me okay and lets me work with her as long as I hold my ground. She's a 14 year old Haflinger that was mostly used as a brood mare. She's gentled and takes a saddle , though she is girthy. I know she is not the optimal horse for me, which is why I won't buy her.
But what about leasing her?
We're talking about a three month contracted lease where all I pay is 60 a month for the pasture and 35 for the farrier. Any vet bills would be halved and I could use her tack as long as I didn't break it. In short, taking the financial burden off of my friend and letting me work and practice fairly cheaply. I know her problems, and I know most horses have problems. I feel a little more comfortable working with a horse whose issues I know and can work with than leasing from a stranger whose horse is going to be painted as perfect.
I guess my question is less 'should I' but 'how do I work with a skittish grump'?
A friend of mine has been trying to sell one of her horses, with no luck. The last bid was 250 and they backed out, so obviously no takers; here's why.
She is difficult to catch, lazy, fat and spookish.
That being said, she seems to like me okay and lets me work with her as long as I hold my ground. She's a 14 year old Haflinger that was mostly used as a brood mare. She's gentled and takes a saddle , though she is girthy. I know she is not the optimal horse for me, which is why I won't buy her.
But what about leasing her?
We're talking about a three month contracted lease where all I pay is 60 a month for the pasture and 35 for the farrier. Any vet bills would be halved and I could use her tack as long as I didn't break it. In short, taking the financial burden off of my friend and letting me work and practice fairly cheaply. I know her problems, and I know most horses have problems. I feel a little more comfortable working with a horse whose issues I know and can work with than leasing from a stranger whose horse is going to be painted as perfect.
I guess my question is less 'should I' but 'how do I work with a skittish grump'?
however When working to deal with its spook issue, I wouldnt recommend riding her while doing so XD just in case.
Today she spooked because her saddle fell off (she's THAT fat, so when I undid the girth it just... wooop, fell clean off XD)
I will say that there were some things that happened where she reacted but didn't necessarily spook, which is a great sign. My friend got stung by a wasp and came barreling out of the shed. now her OTHER horse nearly reared but Trix was just like, 'woah, wtf is wrong wit u'
ahaha silleh horses. but yeah, just be patient with her, and work with her. the only way she will get used to things to not spook and to stop being so dominantly grumpy, is time spent on them, and frequently, :3
for the short time you are thinking of leasing her for, I would recommend more than twice a week if possible, but i know thats not always a capability for some people :3 and as time goes on and she learns time can be cut back for your sanity, but yeah... I would think of it as...re-breaking in a horse.. just till you think she is good enough again. and as for her grumpy she might get better with being in shape, she'll have more energy and just likely feel better so she might be easier to handle, but thats one of those 'depends on the horses temperment' kind of things lol
My friends horse gets to be a cranky piss pot when hes out of shape and chubby, which happened when she broke her hip, but when hes fit hes this super soft kind good-for-children horse XD
But I'm semi-planning on getting my motorcycle license soon, so scooters are always better in terms of mileage. c:
So many things going on at once. oi D:
My friend has a tendency to come out, ignore her to work her other horse, and when she does want to work trix she pushes her in tack and doesn't acclimate her to anything. It's kinda impersonal, you know? I think she thinks being worked is just some stupid chore humans make her do sometimes.
But on the other hand I've read that my approach might not be right either. I was planning on just walking with her on a lead around pasture to get her used to me first and teaching her to take bareback before I tack her up. I figure that if I stop treating the tack as a safety measure against her, she might realize I'm not afraid and that I'm not going to let her get away with things when she's NOT tacked, y'know?
this is a great way to teach a horse not to be lazy as well as not to sppok
have a nice long stick whip (not sure what they are called) work the horse at varrying degrees of movement each time quing them with a sound before using the whip that way they wont even need the whip just body language. after you comunicate for a few months like this every fe3w days your horse will read you well... nooow with skiddishness... my horse had that issue... what we did... is tie a grocery bag to the end of the whip had the horse halt and stand still... you kinda flip the bag and walk the horse in a tight circle saying whoa till they stop you then pet them and wait till they lick there lips (that means that your horse is learning and thinking) after a while of this your horse wont even be worried by the bag... you can then start rubbing the bag allll over her body (the cribnkling scares them) after a while the crinkly wont fluster them. soap rinse and repeat with other objects that make the horse skiddish.
im no professional but my nieghbor was and he taught me all i know about them i got a yearling for 500 and when everything was said and done sold her for 2500 when i had to move elsewhere... so once again im no pro... but i trained about 13 different horses while we stayed there did it almost daily.
I like the plastic bag, people tend to forget their groundwork, even though it's the most important.
Funny that it's so easy to forget the basics, even when they've been drilled into your head for so long.
I don't know what your situation is, maybe the 60 is a genuine deal when you take pasture fees into account, but there is no way you want to be on the hook for things like vet bills for someone else's horse. From a purely financial point of view 60+60+60+35+god knows what could just as easily buy you a much younger, more malleable horse.
Which brings me to my second point: She's a 14 year old broodmare. Sure a horse can live up to 30 years, but at 14, you are approaching the point where they start to develop problems like arthritis (especially on an overweight animal) and are more likely to come up lame, or founder.
Finally, you can't teach an old horse new tricks. In my experience, if you don't have them where you want them by year three, those bad habits stay for life. When I hear "skittish, lazy, and hard to catch" I cringe. You MIGHT be able to IMPROVE her temperament, but not in three months.
Run. And. Hide.
Around my area, 600 would get you a younger, mostly broken starter horse.
If you've leased before could you give me a basic run-down of what their agreements and charges are? I might be able to negotiate paying my friend a small sum monthly instead of risking vet bills.
The other thing is, you are basically doing your friend a favor by working with her problem animal... If you want to help a friend out, great. But by no means take that 60 bucks monthly you're talking about and consider that normal.... A year of that WOULD buy you a good animal. And here's the comment that people are going to hate.... But people that have actually worked on a farm will understand: "Dr. Ballards pays more."
I think that generally, the public always feels like they have to save and work with every animal, nomatter what. This sounds like a whole lot more trouble than it's worth, but if you're just looking for a learning supplement, nothing can teach a rider better than a difficult animal. Just don't over-invest yourself.
I do understand that for 60 a month per year I could save up for my own horse, but I still wouldn't feel right buying when I know I might only be in this town for another year and a half. I'm going to talk to my friend about paying her a straight fee and having her handle vet expenses as long as they're not my doing. That is, if I cause her a gash or a broken leg while working with her, that's my responsibility. if she does something in pasture when I'm not there, that falls on my friend.
Before leasing her, you need to improve her social skills with people. if she doesn't have good manors, and really hurts someone who you lease her to, a lawsuit is waiting to happen. What would be the best way to contact you about how to help fix her problem areas?
Vet fees
Immunization/Worming fees - Annual
Boarding Fees - If kept in a barn
Food cost - Hay, grain, vitamins
Farrier fees
Of she's a fat girl, you're going to want to automatically focus on getting her to a healthy weight, lunge her a bit and work on her ground work and get those muscles working so she can get her figure back. Also, you mentioned she was a brood mare, does she have a sway back by any chance?
There's no barn, though there is a lean-to for heavy weather. Otherwise they're all in pasture with plenty of good grazing. I'm prepared to pay the boarding and farrier, and I won't likely have to do worming and immunization in the short span I'll be working with her. I'm only worried about vet bills. I know they can get ridiculously high but there's only a slight chance something will happen in three months. These are hardy horses.
So, sadly, what I'm going to have to suggest when you stat working with her us putting on polo wraps so help support her legs while she looses the weight as to prevent the strain. Get her on a good diet and the chance of her getting hurt will go down more.
As for the training: I spent some time training babehz back in the day. As far as I know for curing the skitters, exposure exposure exposure! The more stuff she encounters with a firm and calm hand the more likely she'll recover. Also companionship often helps. If there's another horse she gets along with and trusts or even looks to as a lead they can help her calm down too. Thats why I support group training :) Working her will help the pound fall off, but only if you refuse to reward with goodies... She'll have to be placed on a diet too if she can't keep a saddle on :T More $$$... Then again, working doesn't always mean RIDING. I suggest frequent lunging.
As for "pasture sour" aka hard to catch: thats a really hard one to fix. Mostly its based on trust... and sometimes on food >.> If she's a foodie you might be able to bribe her into behaving but then that comes full circle with the weight thing..
She'll make a nice pasture horse, but I wouldn't ride her after 15... after about 12 they start aging fast, and I wouldn't want anything to be aggravated in her, which is probably why she's cranky (from being overweight/scared of everything).
PS: Her price point seems REALLY sketchy... either she's a terrible horse or someone is desperate to get rid of her....
Best of luck~
Not saying they're all bad though, just the ones I've had encounters with. I'm going to stick with geldings for my whole life.
But it looks like you've been given enough good pointers here
the meanest horses i've ever seen/worked with were all haflingers. So you're in for a bit of work if you really want to change her. Also there's no guarantee that you can change her at all.
I've seen haflingers that were worked with very lovingly and with great patience by people with a lot of experience.. and those horses would still be lazy, stomping on peoples feet for FUN (yes, they'd have FUN doing that) or just being complete assholes. ^^
They're extremely stubborn.
the best way to get rid of her lazyness is getting her weight down and finding something to do for her she has fun with. Sounds strange but works.
Some may say at her age it's hard to learn her something new or get her to be more active.. well our horse was about the same age when we got him and he still learned a lot.
for the skittishness ... well..
Horses are stupid sometimes if bored. You can pass a shovel like 5 times and the 6th time the horse will jump as if the shovel is about to attack and eat them.... All boredom.
Depending on the situation she seems skittish in... well .. the key is patience, showing nothings wrong, and not being pushy. Give her time to think about what's upsetting her and time to realize nothing's wrong.
Our guy had seemingly never been outside the stable grounds. He was EXTREMELY afraid of water... he was a sports horse, a jumper but would not even go near water. He'd not go outside the stable gates. He was very afraid of black dogs.. no matter what size. it was black? it was pure evil.
We spent hours just standing in the open stable gates, him with his ass on his "secure" ground looking outside and just.... looking. when he'd had enough we'd turn around and work on the stable grounds. We'd repeat that on a daily basis just... going to the gates, getting a look for like half an hour... and going back. it took about a month before he'd set a hoof outside the gates and he was extremely skittish when trucks or black dogs would pass, but if you stayd calm and just talk soothingly not showing signs of fear he'd calm down.
after owning him for a year i have to say he was the best, most intelligent, trusted horse i've ever sat on. He'd wade through water where he'd been even afraid of puddles and rather sidestepped or jumped over them in the beginning, he could have a black dog jumping up around him barking without a reaction, and he was by far the most calm horse I've ever had when riding across the country and encountering lots of unexpected things.
sorry :D massive wall of text...tl;dr: get her weight down, be patient not pushy, find something she has fun with. And be prepared to run against a concrete wall. because haflingers are just like that.
Sorry for the short reply, I did read but I'm derping on what to add.
Ive personally been to his clinics and in my opinion there is no better way to train a horse than with his methods ;)
First of all, not my horse. She's my friend's horse.
Second, this is a HUGE financial responsibility. If you're not even graduated, your mom won't let you and it's 'up to your boyfriend' then I don't feel you're responsible enough yet to take on an animal that is as expensive and long lived as a horse. This is an animal life we're talking about.
You wonder why she's so cheap? There's a reason.
Greenhorn plus greenhorn = black and blue.
also haflingers LOVE food so thats a good way to catch them. also let them approach you, try not to approach them until they feel comfortable.