Lil' Ramona
Just born
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2009
- Messages
- 9
- Reaction score
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- Points
- 7
Hey ya'll! I am a relatively inexperienced rider. I've had 2 years of English lessons and leased a horse for the last year so I'm used to pampered, lazy lesson horses. My husband and I want to do some trail riding together so we started looking for horses of our own. I found a quarter horse that "needed me". Newbie mistake. He is 11 years old and has a history of abuse. He was being trained as a barrel horse and they used harsh discipline. He has a scar on one cheek where it looks like they used a barbed bit. He is terribly headshy. He is a beautiful horse tho and seeing the look of fear in his eyes broke my heart. I do have somewhat of a natural way with animals. I bought him from a young gal that purchased him at an auction. She had him for over a year and made good progress with him but she no longer had time for him since she started college.
I've had Chief for about 3 weeks. I did not ride him prior to buying him because I wanted to build trust first. I did see him riden tho and was impressed. I have been lunging him daily and leading him around. I've been using a lot of possitive reinforcement and rewards (treats) when he does well. I've made progress. I can now touch his face some.
Today I saddled him up and we went for our first ride. I used a copper snaffle bit on him and even tho his bridle fit well he didn't seem comfortable with the bit. He was just kind of figgity with it. I walked him down my neighbors dirt drive, past her horses and he did great so I decided to take him on our trail thru the woods to the creek and he was wonderful. When we came out of the woods however he started acting rather stubborn. I wanted to go right towards home and he wanted to go left to the neighbors. I stood my ground with him and gave him a lot of left leg and pulled the right rein. He reared on me! I reached down and grabbed the reins as close as I could to the bit and managed to stay on.
I'm not sure what the problem was but I am afraid of it happening again. I spoke to the seller and she was surprised. She said she's never known him to do that and I believe her. I saw her ride him hard and I also saw her put her 4 year old on him. She's an experienced rider and never would have put her child on him if he were not gentle. I've never seen the slightest bit of aggression from him until today and he has always been ready to please.
My question is this: given his abusive history how do I discourage this behavior without making him fearful of me? He needs to know who's boss and that foolishness will not be tollerated. I think I did good by staying on him; I didn't let him win. I'm hoping this was just a one time thing.
Thanks for reading!
Laura
I've had Chief for about 3 weeks. I did not ride him prior to buying him because I wanted to build trust first. I did see him riden tho and was impressed. I have been lunging him daily and leading him around. I've been using a lot of possitive reinforcement and rewards (treats) when he does well. I've made progress. I can now touch his face some.
Today I saddled him up and we went for our first ride. I used a copper snaffle bit on him and even tho his bridle fit well he didn't seem comfortable with the bit. He was just kind of figgity with it. I walked him down my neighbors dirt drive, past her horses and he did great so I decided to take him on our trail thru the woods to the creek and he was wonderful. When we came out of the woods however he started acting rather stubborn. I wanted to go right towards home and he wanted to go left to the neighbors. I stood my ground with him and gave him a lot of left leg and pulled the right rein. He reared on me! I reached down and grabbed the reins as close as I could to the bit and managed to stay on.
I'm not sure what the problem was but I am afraid of it happening again. I spoke to the seller and she was surprised. She said she's never known him to do that and I believe her. I saw her ride him hard and I also saw her put her 4 year old on him. She's an experienced rider and never would have put her child on him if he were not gentle. I've never seen the slightest bit of aggression from him until today and he has always been ready to please.
My question is this: given his abusive history how do I discourage this behavior without making him fearful of me? He needs to know who's boss and that foolishness will not be tollerated. I think I did good by staying on him; I didn't let him win. I'm hoping this was just a one time thing.
Thanks for reading!
Laura