I'm not sure if this is a rant or just me wanting to talk. So bear with me...
So, I got out of riding a little over a year ago. I've ridden regularly from the ages of 5-20, I am now 22. I gave my horse away when I moved off to college because it wasn't fair to him to be left at home in Maryland while I was down in Florida for months at a time and I couldn't afford to ship him back and forth. However, I now stay here about 11 months out of the year. I told myself no horses until I graduated college and could keep them on my property. I had done a good job with that (I've been working on a farm as a farm hand and also teaching lessons at a different farm) and have been perfectly content. That was until this happened...
My manager at the barn I'm currently working at as a farm hand texted me and said she was going to go pick up a 6 year old warmblood (American warmblood - so draft cross) that was on death row. He was purchased from a farm in Tampa, FL and had just begun showing dressage. His new owner had him for roughly 9 months and was not riding regularly, so he began getting rowdy and bucking people off. She tried to sell him, he continued to buck people off, so needless to say, no one was interested. He learned that with this bad habit, people wouldn't get back on, and he wouldn't be worked. Apparently, a male got on him with minimal horse experience and the owner said he wasn't paying attention (bad idea number 20044857473737... getting on a horse that has been known to buck with no horse experience AND not pay attention) and the horse hit him in the face and did pretty good damage to the man - he needed surgery. From that point, they decided they wanted to put him down because he was too dangerous. He wounded up in the barn and wasn't touched again until my manager went to pick him up and the woman didn't even want to go in the barn. She just pointed and said "he's in there." and my manager went in and saw no feed or water.
The horse was brought to my farm to avoid death because the vet didn't feel it was appropriate to put such a young horse down without a second chance. My farm doesn't have the room, but agreed to take him on for a while. They haven't had much time to work with him either, but I had fallen in love. They asked if I wanted him, I with no second thoughts said yes.
In the few days I've been working with him, I have been so upset. He is afraid of life itself. He stands in the back corner of his stall with his head in the corner and wouldn't come to the stall door until I started bringing treats to show him he was okay. I had to convince him to eat grass on a lead rope, he's constantly on edge and jumpy with fear. He's afraid of his own shadow, constantly looking concerned or watching my every move. He's really weird about people approaching him at any pace faster than that of a snail, and he really seems to fear men. All I've been doing at this point is trying to regain his trust. It's so upsetting to see a horse so young that was doing so well be so afraid all because of one bad ownership.
So now I own a horse that will take a lot of work and time, but for some reason, I just felt like he needed me. And maybe I needed him.
So, I got out of riding a little over a year ago. I've ridden regularly from the ages of 5-20, I am now 22. I gave my horse away when I moved off to college because it wasn't fair to him to be left at home in Maryland while I was down in Florida for months at a time and I couldn't afford to ship him back and forth. However, I now stay here about 11 months out of the year. I told myself no horses until I graduated college and could keep them on my property. I had done a good job with that (I've been working on a farm as a farm hand and also teaching lessons at a different farm) and have been perfectly content. That was until this happened...
My manager at the barn I'm currently working at as a farm hand texted me and said she was going to go pick up a 6 year old warmblood (American warmblood - so draft cross) that was on death row. He was purchased from a farm in Tampa, FL and had just begun showing dressage. His new owner had him for roughly 9 months and was not riding regularly, so he began getting rowdy and bucking people off. She tried to sell him, he continued to buck people off, so needless to say, no one was interested. He learned that with this bad habit, people wouldn't get back on, and he wouldn't be worked. Apparently, a male got on him with minimal horse experience and the owner said he wasn't paying attention (bad idea number 20044857473737... getting on a horse that has been known to buck with no horse experience AND not pay attention) and the horse hit him in the face and did pretty good damage to the man - he needed surgery. From that point, they decided they wanted to put him down because he was too dangerous. He wounded up in the barn and wasn't touched again until my manager went to pick him up and the woman didn't even want to go in the barn. She just pointed and said "he's in there." and my manager went in and saw no feed or water.
The horse was brought to my farm to avoid death because the vet didn't feel it was appropriate to put such a young horse down without a second chance. My farm doesn't have the room, but agreed to take him on for a while. They haven't had much time to work with him either, but I had fallen in love. They asked if I wanted him, I with no second thoughts said yes.
In the few days I've been working with him, I have been so upset. He is afraid of life itself. He stands in the back corner of his stall with his head in the corner and wouldn't come to the stall door until I started bringing treats to show him he was okay. I had to convince him to eat grass on a lead rope, he's constantly on edge and jumpy with fear. He's afraid of his own shadow, constantly looking concerned or watching my every move. He's really weird about people approaching him at any pace faster than that of a snail, and he really seems to fear men. All I've been doing at this point is trying to regain his trust. It's so upsetting to see a horse so young that was doing so well be so afraid all because of one bad ownership.
So now I own a horse that will take a lot of work and time, but for some reason, I just felt like he needed me. And maybe I needed him.