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Companion only because of behavior?

2K views 17 replies 10 participants last post by  smrobs 
#1 ·
Ok so a girl on fb is trying to find her horse a good home. However she says he can never be ridden. As far as I can tell there is nothing physical that prevents it. Just behavioral. He is only 9 years old. Apparently he will panic and loses his mind. He apparently works fine on the ground but not undersaddle. What I don't understand is if someone is willing to try and work through his issues and turn him into a riding horse why wouldn't they consider that?
 
#2 ·
It is possible the horse has some sort of permanent nerve or vertebra damage that causes it to be so reactive.

It is also possible it has some sort of structural damage that is causing pain and is fixable.

Nine is pretty young to suffer permanent damage but it is possible. I rescued my Arab when he was seven; he had permanent vertebra damage that rendered him unridable for anyone over 100 pounds ---- that eliminated most of the adult world but he ended up being a great lesson horse for small children.
 
#4 ·
Well, if the horse has never been injured and a chiropractor can't find anything wrong, the horse didn't get that way by itself. It had human intervention to ruin it.

Nine years is pretty young to go tnru life as a pasture pet. It would take someone very devoted and with a nice checkbook to keep the horse to its end time.

As far as re-training the horse to ride, it is certainly not a horse for someone who doesn't have a lot of experience re-schooling horses.
 
#9 ·
When I see "companion only" ads, I look really hard at the why? of it. Why are the unrideable? Why is the owner trying to turf her problem off on someone else? Why isn't she getting more/additional specialized care for the horse? WHY WHY WHY? And 99% of the time, when someone has a horse that's been unrideable and they want to sell it or give it away, it's because they have given up and don't have the spine to put the horse down.

I'm all for someone like Wallaby, who has made the commitment to work with her horse to try to get him sound of mind/body, trying everything in their power for a cherished animal. What I take issue with is when they have done what they can do and said, "That's it. I'm done.", whether for financial, emotional or just plain can't find another thing to do for the animal, they then want to have someone else do the dirty work. Let the horse go. Put him out of his misery and pain, regardless of whether that pain and misery is physical or emotional, let him rest.

I had a very difficult mare once, I bought her after waiting for her to be born for 3 years. Got her as an unhandled weanling and made excuses for her for 4 years. We didn't bond. I was too gruff, she needed a lighter hand, she was just 'high'. Sent her out to a trainer and got told she was terrorizing the other horses and the barn staff and the little kids would walk 20 acres around her stall to avoid passing near her, would I please come get her. Long story short, she injured herself with her terrorist tactics and I ended up at OK State University with her to find out what was wrong and how bad it was. Evidently, she had kicked at the horse next to her in the shedrow and managed to get a tiny little puncture wound that unfortunately went to the bone. She got an infection and MAYBE after $10K or so of surgery and hospitalization, would be broodmare sound afterwards. Like I'd even consider breeding that on! Anyhow, the point of all this is, when I was discussing her behaviors and the options for treatment the surgeon looked at me and said, "You realize that horses can have mental illness, just like people, right?". I put her down right then and there. I SHOULD have done it 3 years earlier, we'd have both had a lot less pain.

If this horse has been deemed unrideable, unsafe, then there's only one safe answer for him and it's not as a companion, IMO.
 
#6 ·
Some horses are just not suitable as riding horses. Whether they have suffered something traumatic in their past (either due to human treatment or due to a pain issue) or have a faulty switch in their head, some horses just CANNOT be safely ridden. Likely she is attempting to prevent anyone from unwittingly getting hurt by him after the sale. If she sold him as a project or unbroken, then someone who has trained a couple of horses might think they are getting a steal and can do a quick flip on him to some unsuspecting novice owner. Being advertised as unrideable due to behavioral issues, he is slightly less likely to be taken in by some half-witted backyard trainer.


People tend to over-estimate their abilities when it comes to horses. Folks who have "trained" a couple of horses that are calm and good natured automatically consider themselves "trainers" capable of handling anything so they take in "project" horses and almost always end up way out of their depth (and I've seen many of that type end up on here making posts about "this horse I just bought is doing this and this or that and I don't know what to do, tell me how to fix it"). It is highly unlikely she will find a good forever home for him at his age and with his issues. Not many people have the funds or willingness to take in a horse that they know they will have to feed and care for for the next 15-20 years and not be able to do anything more with it than pet it, especially with good horses being basically given away or sold at auction for rock bottom prices. If I were a buyer, even though I am a trainer with problem horse experience, I would not look twice at a horse like that...free or not. Too much risk and care and cost involved for a horse that may not ever be safe and then I'd be the one in her position, stuck with an unusable horse.


If I were in her position and had determined that he was truly unredeemable under saddle, I would likely put him down before I tried to re-home him because a) You never know where he'll end up. Horses like that normally don't find/keep good quality forever homes. They usually end up passed from owner to owner to owner, usually going through several trainers, some of whom are cruel, before finally ending up on the meat truck, or b) I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I re-homed him in good faith only to find out somewhere down the road that he hurt/killed someone who purchased him without full disclosure.
 
#8 ·
Some horses are just not suitable as riding horses. Whether they have suffered something traumatic in their past (either due to human treatment or due to a pain issue) or have a faulty switch in their head, some horses just CANNOT be safely ridden. Likely she is attempting to prevent anyone from unwittingly getting hurt by him after the sale. If she sold him as a project or unbroken, then someone who has trained a couple of horses might think they are getting a steal and can do a quick flip on him to some unsuspecting novice owner. Being advertised as unrideable due to behavioral issues, he is slightly less likely to be taken in by some half-witted backyard trainer.


People tend to over-estimate their abilities when it comes to horses. Folks who have "trained" a couple of horses that are calm and good natured automatically consider themselves "trainers" capable of handling anything so they take in "project" horses and almost always end up way out of their depth (and I've seen many of that type end up on here making posts about "this horse I just bought is doing this and this or that and I don't know what to do, tell me how to fix it"). It is highly unlikely she will find a good forever home for him at his age and with his issues. Not many people have the funds or willingness to take in a horse that they know they will have to feed and care for for the next 15-20 years and not be able to do anything more with it than pet it, especially with good horses being basically given away or sold at auction for rock bottom prices. If I were a buyer, even though I am a trainer with problem horse experience, I would not look twice at a horse like that...free or not. Too much risk and care and cost involved for a horse that may not ever be safe and then I'd be the one in her position, stuck with an unusable horse.


If I were in her position and had determined that he was truly unredeemable under saddle, I would likely put him down before I tried to re-home him because a) You never know where he'll end up. Horses like that normally don't find/keep good quality forever homes. They usually end up passed from owner to owner to owner, usually going through several trainers, some of whom are cruel, before finally ending up on the meat truck, or b) I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I re-homed him in good faith only to find out somewhere down the road that he hurt/killed someone who purchased him without full disclosure.
Exactly this.
 
#7 ·
My about-to-turn-13 year old gelding is unrideable in a way that would appear "behavioral" if you didn't know any better - not saying that that's the case for this particular horse, but it could be.

As it turns out, he has a muscular disorder that causes him intense pain if his diet, exercise, and basically everything else isn't heavily managed...and, even with it heavily managed, his pain level continues to be a day-to-day thing.

Anyway, back when he was ridden, he was labelled a bolter, he'd rear, he'd do these giant 180 degree spook/rollbacks completely without warning, and basically he was all around sour - totally balky, unless he was bolting.

Now that the medical issue is identified, there's still about a thousands "steps" he must have missed in his original saddle-training experience because he is uncomfortable with just about everything to do with being ridden.

Anyway, due to all that, I've put riding him wayyy on the back burner and deemed him unrideable...hopefully just for now. I hope to ride him again one day, but it's more fair to him to say that he's unrideable and not focus on the riding aspect. Instead I'm focusing on the things he needs to feel safe being handled and living life, because that's really what he needs.
If I were to sell him [never gonna happen], I'd definitely say he was unrideable.
 
#10 ·
She doesn't want the horse put down and she says he has extensive ground training. From what I have gathered is she got him from an abusive situation as a 3 or 4 year old and since then he will panic and bolt if someone tries to ride him and he is terrified of men. To me that sounds like some "cowboy" tried to break this young horse and instead created a mess with him. Though she says he has extensive and years worth of ground training. The picture is of said horse.
 

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#11 ·
That's a toughie. 9 is very young indeed, & to be a pasture pet for the rest of its life...that would be hard too- who knows where he will end up? It's not guaranteed that whoever buys him will keep him forever, it's a scary thought. I don't think that would be much of a 'life' really either. I second what @Dreamcatcher Arabians said too. Let the horse go, out of its misery. If they have done all they absolutely can, that is- otherwise, it's not fair for the horse to have to live that way.
 
#12 ·
Found out he is actually 8 and he is APHA reg as Quinsknightrider. He was bought at an auction in Sherman, Ny as a yearling and a couple of months later he was traded for an Appy mare. I haven't been able to find out what happened to him between then and when his current owner bought him as a 3-4 year old. However from what I have been able to dig up it is pointing more and more towards someone tried to break him and pushed too hard too fast and has mentally scarred him.
 

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#16 ·
My best friend's gelding is technically riding sound, however, if she were to get rid of him, it would be as a companion only. Poor training and blowing him up on barrels have led to him being VERY unstable under saddle. I wouldn't even let a super experienced person on him with the way he completely loses his mind. On the ground, he's not too bad (can be a bit of an ***, but that's more her fault for not getting after him when he misbehaves because "he's an old man"). Under saddle...whole lot of NOPE going on with that one.

If the girl sells him as a companion only, then if the person who buys him wants to try to rehab him, it's on them if he hurts them. Better she do that than try to sell him as a riding horse and someone get hurt and they blame her because she supposedly wasn't honest about his issues.
 
#17 ·
There are some bad actors out there. Many have unresolved physical ailments that would show up on a bone scan and extensive X-rays. Many are kissing spine or a soft tissue injury that wasn't properly taken care of. But there is such a thing as mental illness.

And I have learned that I break and it isn't worth dying over when a person says a horse shouldn't be ridden there is usually a serious reason why.
 
#18 ·
I think we understand that he is a wonderful horse on the ground, but still. Not many people will take a horse, knowing all the cost and care involved, that they know beforehand they will likely never be able to ride, knowing that IF they choose to be a forever home, they will be swallowing that cost daily for the next 20 years or so.

In my experience, the only way to guarantee that he won't end up somewhere much more horrible than he came from is to either keep him herself or put him down. It's a really tough choice, but tough choices often go hand in hand with owning animals.




As an aside, has she ever worked with him on ground driving? Could he possible be turned into a driving horse with some training or would that likely over-load him as well? If he can't be ridden but is good on the ground, that might be something to look into as it would make him much more marketable and give him a probable future. He'd make a super cute little buggy horse if he could stand up to it.
 
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