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Reeco update for those that are interested

4K views 30 replies 14 participants last post by  faye 
#1 ·
Well it is D day tommorow, the day I hopefully get back on after over 9 months of hard work.
He had his last session with the scarecrow today


For those that dont know Reeco is a pony that I bought about 2 and a half years ago as an unbroken 2.5yr old.
He was extremely difficult to break in and it took 3 different proffesionals (2 of whom told me to have him shot) to get anyone on his back as he was so terrified.
The first time we did a girth up on him he bolted head first into a wall and fractured his skull. He was terrified of longreins and it took months untill he didnt bolt at the first hint of the line going behind him.

We finaly got him undersaddle after 9 months of work and we were going great guns, he was hacking out on his own and even did 2 dressage tests scoring 69.1% in one of them. However he was very very unpredictable in the school, when i asked him to engage his hocks and shift his weight back he would bolt and he drilled me into the floor several times.

I finaly decided to get him checked by the vet, he spent 4 days in horsepital, he had a full lameness workup, a neuclear scintograph scan (bone scan), he was scoped to check for ulcers and had several hundred blood tests, eye tests etc.
It was found that he had an old fracture in his pelvis that had reopened and was causing him pain (he was completly sound in all tests).

3 months of box rest, drugs and heartache we finaly started to bring him back into work. I decided to go right back to the beggining and rebreak him from the beggining so that he doesnt associate being ridden with pain.

Tommorow is the day we get back on him!!! Wish us luck
 
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#5 ·
I didn't know the full backstory, but wow, congrats on all your progress. Hope your first ride meets your expectations!

PS- as a totally random aside, I know I've seen his picture before in your avatar, and I always thought he had a flaxen mane because in that picture, (as I now see) there's something brown on the wall behind him that I thought was his mane. I'm no color expert, but I couldn't imagine how that mane would ever be possible :) But the full body shots made it obvious that I was looking at an optical illusion.
 
#6 ·
Thanks all, the only reasons I have persivered with him is that he is a lovely horse to have around, extremely affectionate and for a horse with a bad past he is very very trusting, he has not got a nasty bone in his body it has all been pain and fear. It broke my heart many times when he would bolt in the long reins and go to a corner and shake, he was clearly expecting to be beaten and was terrified that he had been bad.
He is also absolutly stunning and if i can get him undersaddle he has the conformation, presence and intellegance to go to the top in showing and to do very well in dressage

Egrogan, he often mistaken for being black and white when he is actualy a very very dark brown and white, he has a few lighter areas around his flanks but it is only visable in his summer coat so in theory he could have a sunbleached brown mane (appearing flaxen) however he doesnt his mane is true black interspersed with muddy white bits.
 
#8 ·
Egrogan, he often mistaken for being black and white when he is actualy a very very dark brown and white, he has a few lighter areas around his flanks but it is only visable in his summer coat so in theory he could have a sunbleached brown mane (appearing flaxen) however he doesnt his mane is true black interspersed with muddy white bits.
I did think he was black from the pics. Regardless, gorgeous boy. Good luck!
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#10 ·
It went brilliantly today, 15mins with wesley onboard and then my instructor jumped on him with me holding him.
He walked a whole circle with a real person on his back and his ears forward.

Picture of him with wes today

and a very funny video of a drunken Wes
 
#12 ·
dashy, I would change that to:

"You and your pony are proof that with patience, understanding great skill, determination, a lot of money and 2 very very experianced trainers, any horse can be trained."

I have litteraly taken my life in my hands several times training this pony and it is not something i would expect anyone else to be willing to do or have the skill/trainers/money to be able to do. At one point he was with a trainer who charged £280 a week and he was there for 10 weeks, his vet bills are in excess of £4000 alone not including the stabling at the horsepital or transport costs.
 
#13 ·
Well today my instructor popped Reeco on the lunge whilst I rode him (the meany took away my reins). We did lots and lots of trotting and he was happ, relaxed and swinging along with his ears forwards.

He even let me do up his girth with me onboard (prior to rebreaking he would have gone out from under you in spectacular bucking as you went to swing your leg forwards!
 
#14 ·
So happy things are going well for you! You have an amazing story! To give the time, money, heartache, and probable injury, all points to a very strong person, who believes in what they can do. Good for you! Looking forward to more updates.
 
#17 ·
Actual injury, Reeco has caused permanant damage to the nerves in one of my knees and muscle damage to my mums leg when he paniced, drilled me into the floor and went over the top of my mother. My knee has the sensation of being under water when i touch it which feels very strange.
And I have a good few whiplash type injuries and a minor concussion from hitting the floor.
 
#15 ·
I love hearing stories like these! I'm glad to hear that he found a great home like yours with someone who had the patience, knowledge to get a good trainer, and the financial means to see the struggles including health through! I hope to hear more about your progress :)
 
#19 ·
thankfully i'm not in any pain from it, it just feels very very strange and I dont like people touching it.

I've had far worse injuries from other horses (some of whom had no excuse to be difficult, unlike Reeco)
 
#20 ·
Wouldn't it be so much easier if horses could talk?

So many times I hear people saying that their horse is just evil because they "know" he is not in pain. Yet so many times I hear how these "bad" horses have been discovered to have trigeminal neuralgia (nerve pain on the face) that means a wind blast into their face is excruciating, or kissing spine or a fracture. Personally, I will never give up on a horse until I investigate every possible area that I can influence and find out what is truly bothering the horse.

My bias is that horses will not act violently unless they are reacting to pain or extreme fear, whether past or present. Of course you must be very careful, because a more minor pain could trigger the memory of the severe pain this horse has experienced and he may over react to pain in the future.
 
#24 ·
Unfortunatly training has ground to a halt due to the weather. We will get there but working a young horse who didnt bother growing a winter coat in a snow storm is probably not a good idea and now the snow is frozen solid so i am struling to get him out of his stable!
 
#27 ·
Just a little update for those interested.
Recently we have been working on the trot to canter transition as this is where he used to panic and bolt, normaly resulting in me flying head first into what ever solid object happened to be at the edge of the school (so fence, wall, Tree etc)

However last week I managed to get him to canter on his left rein once without panicing and I left it at that for the day.
Since then I've had many lessons with him and today we cantered twice on each rein. The first time we went into canter on the right rein he paniced but rather than his normal bronking bolt, he tucked his bum went 2 or 3 steps and then stopped dead!!! We seem to have gotten through to him that he doesnt need to run any more.
We then did anouther transition into canter in which he didnt panic and we left it at that for today.
Love my splodgey pony and i'm realy realy hoping we have turned the corner now!
 
#29 ·
little update I've recently had several canters on each rein and am now off the lunge in walk and trot.
i've also been hacking him out

Today we hacked out in howling winds (I nearly chickened out but my instructor MADE me, she came out on her connie with me), we had a bit of a disasterous start as we decided riding along the edge of a field would be better than the road, unfortunatly Reeco sank up to his hind fetlocks in mud and that paniced him slightly, the man behind the hedge making monkey noises realy didnt help either and for one moment I did think he was going to go, but credit to him he tucked himself into winnies bottom (Winnie being my instructors connie) and kept going at walk.
we then got back onto the road and he settled beautifully, well untill the blizzard hit us! there was so much snow I couldnt see where we were going and Reeco kept trying to turn his bum into it.
We got home in one piece (somewhat frozen) and not having hit the deck so I'm counting it as progress!!!
 
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