Ok so this may be long but bare with me!
I work at a private stable with eight horses. It's my job to care for them and ride them all. My boss also rides with me.
We have one mare who is causing a lot of trouble for us. My boss is fed up and seriously considering selling her.. I would like to avoid that at all costs because she is my favorite horse (despite her many many flaws lol!) And I worry where she would end up as most people would not keep a horse like her for long..
She is absolutely difficult on all fronts constantly. In the paddock she has no respect for the other horses, she will let them bite and kick her and just stand there with a blank expression. She doesn't seem to pick up on the other horses body language whatsoever, or maybe she just doesn't care.
On the ground she is pushy and has no respect for personal space, and will try to get away from you the second you're not paying attention.
Undersaddle she's unpredictable. One day she will barely walk and nothing I do seems to affect her. She is dead to my leg, whips, voice, nothing will even make her flinch. The next day she bolts and bucks and rears. The next day she is absolutely perfect and does everything asked of her.
She is so so smart. She can work at liberty with only voice cues and she figures things out incredibly fast. She can be so friendly and will come running when she sees me. Yet she acts disinterested or downright annoyed with me most of the time. I try to keep things interesting for her but it's so hard to get her motivated and then once she is it's hard to keep her from bolting!
I'm at my wits end with her. I broke her myself, she was barely 2 when I started working there and she is 5 now. I used the same approach and mindset I used for the other horses I have trained and yet, they are all perfectly fine and she is a mess!
Has anyone dealt with a horse like this before? What did you do? What worked and what didn't? Any ideas are so appreciated!
I work at a private stable with eight horses. It's my job to care for them and ride them all. My boss also rides with me.
We have one mare who is causing a lot of trouble for us. My boss is fed up and seriously considering selling her.. I would like to avoid that at all costs because she is my favorite horse (despite her many many flaws lol!) And I worry where she would end up as most people would not keep a horse like her for long..
She is absolutely difficult on all fronts constantly. In the paddock she has no respect for the other horses, she will let them bite and kick her and just stand there with a blank expression. She doesn't seem to pick up on the other horses body language whatsoever, or maybe she just doesn't care.
On the ground she is pushy and has no respect for personal space, and will try to get away from you the second you're not paying attention.
Undersaddle she's unpredictable. One day she will barely walk and nothing I do seems to affect her. She is dead to my leg, whips, voice, nothing will even make her flinch. The next day she bolts and bucks and rears. The next day she is absolutely perfect and does everything asked of her.
She is so so smart. She can work at liberty with only voice cues and she figures things out incredibly fast. She can be so friendly and will come running when she sees me. Yet she acts disinterested or downright annoyed with me most of the time. I try to keep things interesting for her but it's so hard to get her motivated and then once she is it's hard to keep her from bolting!
I'm at my wits end with her. I broke her myself, she was barely 2 when I started working there and she is 5 now. I used the same approach and mindset I used for the other horses I have trained and yet, they are all perfectly fine and she is a mess!
Has anyone dealt with a horse like this before? What did you do? What worked and what didn't? Any ideas are so appreciated!