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Problems With My New Horse (started wrong?)

1K views 12 replies 7 participants last post by  Adelleia 
#1 ·
Hi all! I recently bought a big thoroughbred mare. I got a really good deal on her because she has had a lot of time off. We did a full PPE and she is completely healthy, clean Xrays, etc. Vet says the only thing is that she needs a lot of muscling and then she will be good to go. She's UTD with all worming/vaccinations, just had her teeth done and is sound barefoot. She also came with her tack, and the saddle is professionally fitted and got it reflocked to her. It is adjustable (Marcel Toulouse w/ gensis tree) so I can adjust as she gains muscle and changes shape. I am however starting to feel like I made a mistake in buying her.

I'll paste the sales description and then state my question afterwards. It might be a bit long.

"Magma is a large bodied OTTB. She has clean and straight legs, is sane, sound, and vice-free. Magma is a dark bay with high stockings, a large star and snip. She's very flashy and is sure to get you noticed in any ring you compete. As well as being flashy, she's a dream to handle on the ground. She leads quietly, and knows all the maneuvers for doing halter classes. At a solid 16.3hh, she's good for all sizes of riders.

When I first received Magma, she was extremely underfed and undertrained. Finally after a year of working with her, I feel she is ready for a new home that will take her to her showing potential. She requires a confident rider that can help her differentiate between wrong and right in the saddle. I'm unable to do this with a leg injury (nothing to do with Magma). I've had a rider on her a couple times. She was very strong in the head, evaded the bit and didn't want to frame up much. We didn't do anything more than a walk.

I was told with her previous owner she had shown 3' jumpers and training level dressage. I've free jumped her myself and she has a huge amount of scope. All of her movements in her paddock and while working her on the ground shows she is forward and has nice reach and bounce in her step which will be great for dressage. She's very outgoing and you don't need much encouragement to make her move forwards.

Asking $2000 comes with all of her equipment and tack, included a beautiful Marcel Toulouse dressage saddle. No trades, no leases."

I thought her under saddle thing might be a lack of training thing, but now that she has been delivered there's really no going back. She's kind of pushy on the ground and jumps a bit at everything. I lunged her and she was fine, got on her and her head came straight up in the air the second I started walking.

Are there any exersises I could do with her, on the ground or riding, to get her to relax and use her hind end? Right now she is very llama'esque in her form. I would post pictures but I usually ride alone.
 
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#6 ·
How long have you had her?

Is this new horse nerves? (Hers not yours)

What is your boarding set up? Does she have company?

Wat level of rider are you?

So many questions to help us help you :)
 
#7 ·
Oh I don't mind them! I know it all helps. I've had her for a few months. Have been doing free lunging and spending time so she gets used to me.

She's not nervous but is jumpy. I don't know how to explain it without contradicting eachother, but she's not scared. She's not shy, she's very playful and likes to explore things. While she doesn't full out spook, she will jump at some things.

I have her in a field with other horses. She has adapted really smoothly and is friends with everyone.

I'm an advanced rider. Been riding for awhile and recently branched out for my own thing. I just like to post for new opinions, just because I've been riding doesn't mean I can't learn more info and new ways to do things!
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#8 ·
You can't overdo lateral flexion.
You also can't be too good of a leader. OTTBs are notorious for terrible ground manners and being generally high. Getting her to relax, listen, and wait on you would be my first priorities in all things. Until you have those, don't worry about much else.
I'd also suggest that you have some intensity about you, as TBs are usually fairly aggressive and will run over passive type people. Be a force to reckon with, or she'll just keep ignoring you.
Having ridden Arabs, you should have a good understanding of how to not let a hot horse get too high, so I'll leave that to you.
 
#9 ·
That is one big strong horse you got there! As you mentioned you have a round pen, so I would spend some time on ground work, show her that you are the leader (in a firm but understanding way), good timing and pressure and release are key here, show her some ground manners and in my opinion it is better to get a good foundation with this horse from the ground than starting to ride her under saddle right away.

Once she improved her ground manners it will be so much easier to work with her, I got my warmblood, 17.1 hands and she walked all over me, pushed me around and just lifted her head and I had no chance to reach her.... I finally was so fat up with that disrespect that I had to do something, off to ground work and teaching her respect - best thing ever, she was so much easier to work with under saddle after imporving the basics.

TB's are high energy horses and need a good and strong leader, so does every horse but due to the size of the horse I think it is very important that you get her respect sooner than later before she really pushes you around and something bad happens.... good luck with her and by the way, she sounds gorgeous, so pictures would be nicht :0))))
 
#11 ·
While vet may have given clean PPE, the fact is still that unless full diagnostics done, ultrasound, MRI and the like, no one really knows what is going on internally.

Bone spurs, cracked bones, muscle tears, none of those show up in PPE usually.

Do you have video of this occurring as that would be best to let us see what is going on here.
 
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