Ground Work on a Terrified Mare

[Be Bop N Bubba]

Hi. Im at a loss with my mare. Some background on us... ive had horses for 16 years broke my own, etc etc. I purchased this beautiful mare from a friend of mine last year as a 4 yr old. She is arab/paint with very nice bloodlines. Of course she was bred to her half brother... Foaled a sweet filly. Anyway her previous owner sent her to a local trainer.... Who I have now learned is more a beater. He claims he uses the old methods of gentling a horse. he throws a saddle on the horse and runs it till its tired in theround pen then gets on andproceeds to beat the spirit out of them. They are ridden this way everyday no exceptions. If they dont stand. Load whateverthey are beaten into submission.
After a year of patient work Laney is blooming for me except for the overwhelming fear of any whip she even sees! I cant even tie her where someone may pass with a crop to ride with on their horse. She will bolt, flail, pull back balk, and if you try to calm her she literally balls up tenses and shakes till she sweats waiting for the smack. What do I do? Ive tried running it over her, laying them on the ground and its heartbreaking to watch her. Ive never encountered this. Any suggestions?

 

[ThreeBoysChicks]

That poor thing.

Get some whips and lay them on the ground or fasten to the fence, so in her time, she can smell them, touch them, etc.

Use a small stick 8 inches long, with black tape on it or smaller to simulate short whip. Small enough that it does not freak her out immediately. Use it and rub all over her. Then increase the length a couple of inches. Over time, you work up to a longer straight item and and then a crop, etc.

But, you may never stop her from being scared of the noise.

I had a draft horse that had obviously been beaten. I started with a very short crop and used it to rub all over her body, rather than my hand. Graduated up to a regular crop and then a buggy whip. She eventually did not freak at first glance. But if you were to crack a whip or swing it and make the whistle sound, she would still get very alert and do what ever she had to do to face the sound and see what it was.

 

[patandchickens]

How awful

Quite honestly, my only experience (of a fairly large amount of horse experience) with a horse that was totally wigged-out-terrified-senseless of something, is not real encouraging for overcoming this quickly or thoroughly.

If you could board her somewhere where there is nobody who rides with a crop (e.g. at a barn with few or no "riding" boarders) that would by far be best, for the forseeable future anyhow. The more she gets all freaked out, the more deeply-rooted the reaction gets.

You just have to see what she can tolerate. Perhaps a stick lying on the ground some distance away; perhaps a crop lying on the mounting block; perhaps as the previous poster says a very short stick in your hand; perhaps a very very thin thing like a strand of straw or a dead goldenrod stem held in your hand; it's something that you would have to know yourself, we can't figure it out online. Anyhow, start with something like that that she CAN tolerate (and by tolerate I don't mean "stand still with eyes bugged out sweating buckets", I mean stay reasonably calm with). Up the ante very gradually, either rewarding her at those moments before withdrawing the stimulus, or letting the withdrawal be its own reward, whichever you feel more comfortable with and whichever seems to work better for you.

The idea is to never get the horse's eyes bugged out or shying away, maybe at most her head coming up a bit or changing her breathing or suchlike. (For this reason, the previous poster's suggestion about 'take a short stick and rub her all over with it' may or may not be doable at this point, that may be too much for her)

The big thing is to have the stimulus approach *and then withdraw* a bazillion times, so that she gets the idea that it is never going to go over her panic threshold and learns to believe that it will be ok and go away again.

Unfortunately you do not get to screw up much with this kind of work with an extremely terrified animal... because every time you screw up (every time FOR WHATEVER REASON she gets really panicky about it) it just makes it that much stronger in her. (That is why it may be real, real hard to do this if you're at a barn where people are sometimes doing things that set her off)

Best of luck,

Pat

 

[freemotion]

Yikes. Poor girl. You need to change her association with whips and that will take a lot of time and patience.

It sounds like it will be a while yet before you can work with her with a whip in your hand, although "sacking her out" with a whip will be a huge stepping stone if you can get there.

Meanwhile, I'd get some old whips and put them in out of the way and non-threatening places where she will find them but not where it will cause her undue stress. Like in a paddock in the spot furthest from the gate/water/feed, but where she will wander over and find it.

If she is not too freaked out by it, put some of her favorite treats several feet/yards away from it and leave her with them all day. She will have to be within sight of a whip to get the treats, but in her own time.

Gradually the whip will be moved closer to the area she spends time relaxing and eating in. When she can handle that, one can be placed in her stall, maybe along a wall on the ground away from her water/food. If that causes too much stress, use a short, short piece of a whip. Like 3" at first. Go to a big training barn and ask if they have any broken whips for you to have. Whips get stepped on and caught in doors and such. Hopefully not broken during use!

Only when she can handle being in the presence of whips on the ground and can eat and drink and relax without looking at them would I pick one up and hold it.

Take as long as she needs.

 

[michickenwrangler]

Good advice here.

Just remember that NOTHING will happen overnight. Be patient and do things in baby steps.

Sacking her out with whips and other "scary objects" like plastic bags and ropes will help too.

 

[Be Bop N Bubba]

Thank you everyone for the ideas, there were some great ones I didn't think of trying.

We did make a little lea way Good Friday on our very first group trail ride! Laney went thru chest deep water and over or around any obstacle we came across. She even helped lead a pony across the water with out hesitaton! One of the english riders had a fly whisk(horse tail on baton thingy...lol), I thought for sure it would be the end of our ride.... But Laney figured out it wouldnt eat her and I let Amanda run it over her a few times.... No bucking, balking or bolting. YAY! She shied from the few crops that were there but trusted me enough to walk past without going into a dead run. Still snorted and was wide eyed, but no bolting! I'm very happy with that. I know it will be a long time before shes over it but I am happy that the bolting seemed to have subsided. I even got alot of comments from other riders on my little green trail horse. thanks again everyone! I'm off to use some more of your advice!

 

[secuono]

My first thought was also to toss a few out in the pasture and let her come around to check them out.

 

[mydakota]

For my two cents, I agree with the advance/retreat method suggested by patandchickens. It would be nice if she just never had to deal with a whip again, but that is not realistic. If you intend to trailer out to events or trail rides with other people, you will encounter whips. Poor girl. Good luck to the both of you.