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Learning Together

669 views 0 replies 1 participant last post by  SummerBliss 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
So, I noticed lots of people use journals to record their progress and so on. So I've decided that I'm going to do the same and use this as a way to track my progress with my horse so that later on, I can look back and see just how far her and I have come.

First off, I'll introduce the two of us. I'm 19 years old and haven't been able to ride consistently throughout my life. I had riding lessons for a few months about 6 or 7 years ago. And in the last 3ish years, my grandparents had a horse that I'd go ride on school holidays and summer vacation. I was also the only one to ride him as I was the only one he'd ever listen to. He was getting old but he still had plenty of life left in him. I got such an amazing bond with him that as soon as he'd see me or my voice (even after MONTHS of not being there) he came happily to greet me at the gate. He would follow me around and even try to groom during the winter XD If I had a bad day, he'd stay close until I felt better and even gave me hugs. He refused to listen to any other rider that was roughly 13 years old or older and would literally bolt to test them or go in all the directions he wanted to go instead of listening to them. However, as soon as I stood my his side (be it his head, shoulders, or farther back), he instantly started to behave but then would only go wherever I went. I also had a friend who's been around horses her whole life. She couldn't get him to trot no matter what when she rode him and I was around. It wasn't until I called out to him and started running that he'd pick up the pace and come along. But for as big of a pain as he could be others, he was the sweetest and gentlest horse around little kids. As soon as they were on his back, he'd walk slowly and keep his pace even. He'd make sure to never harm them either when they were around his legs.
Needless to say, I had an amazing bond with this guy for the little amount of time I got to spend with him.

But now, I have Echo. She's a 5 year old mare. I was told she's an appaloosa quarter horse cross but don't know for sure. She's green broke and has a huge personality. The guy who owned her before me had owned her since she was roughly 5 or 6 months old. So she was used to only him ever handling her. Then in June, I got her as a grad gift from my parents. She's about 14.5 hh and very smart. The way my sister and i have come to describe her personality is "Sassy". She won't hesitate to pin her ears back to let you know when she isn't happy about something and likes to test the boundaries a lot at times.


Now that I have that done, I'll give you a bit of background info of what's been going on with since I got her since I'm sure it'll help explain some of her behavors.

When I first got her, I moved her out onto a feild with 4 other geldings who were all owned by one lady. They were all real sweethearts and Echo loved being with other horses. At first, things were pretty good. But then her attitude started to change. She was always easy to catch, but she didn't really want to listen. At this point, she'd also only ever had about 5 rides on her throughout the last 2 and a half years. But she hated to stand still (which wasn't a surprise since she never really had to do it before). But at some point, i finally noticed just how much she'd changed by being there (this was after 1 month of being in the field). She was more likely to pin her ears and did so every single time I led her around. She would walk behind me with her ears laid flat. When we stopped, her ears would go forward but the start walking and back they went again. She didn't care much about personal space either. Then there was a saddle i was allowed to barrow to be able to ride her. It wasn't an easy or smooth ride but I never really knew the true cause of it till one day. I was riding her around and things were finally getting better and she was relaxing. But then the person who owned the field another horses showed up. Echo saw their vehicle and at that moment, her behavor changed. She stopped listening to me and started to throw fits with everything till there was no point in even attempting to ride her. (though it never got to the really dangerous point).

After that, I told my family about everything that'd been going on and I started to listen and observe things a lot more too. I don't have physical proof but we came to the conclusion that the lady was abusing Echo. She'd told us that she wasn't about to let a thousand pound animal run her over and beat her so she wouldn't do it. Those are almost her exact words. Basically, she'd smack Echo around to force her to behave. The reason why she even handled Echo was because the horses couldn't be left out in the tall grass during the day because the heat brought out too much of the sugars and it had already caused too much trouble for her other two horses who got sick from it. There were also a few strange marks that showed up on echo that didn't make sense unless you put the pieces together that she'd been hit, not to mention her attitude change that made her into a more dangerous horse than a good one.

So by the end of August, I had her vaccinated and dewormed. I moved her to the stables and for the first week, she was clingy to me due to never being in the stables before. But after that, she went back to being sour. She was so bad by that point that one day when I was saddling her, she actually tried to kick me and narrowly missed my head since i was bent over to get the cinch. At that point, I knew I seriously needed some help cause at this point, she was almost dangerous to handle. I was too scared to saddle her up again and also found out the saddle didnt' fit her right anyways. I also had never done ground work before so I was at a loss as to what to do. So i started to think about selling her and just getting an older calmer horse. But then I got some help from a lady who has a horse in the same alleyway as me which started to change things but not enough. But at this point, she had stopped pinning her ears when I would lead her which was good, but she'd pin her ears and turn her butt to me as soon as I stepped into her stall. Then a Doug Mills clinic came along and I joined in on that. It's made a huge difference. I can finally saddle her without any worries and she greets me at the stall door every time I come to take her out. She follows me more easily and will backup when asked and I can finally ride her without too much concern.

She's never been a naturally mean horse. She just went through a rough spot that I think taught her to not trust strangers and so became dangerous as a way to protect herself even though I would never hurt her.

Anyways, I think that's long enough for now. I'll do a more recent update soon.
:runninghorse2:


MOD NOTE
This journal has been closed due to prolonged lack of participation by the author. Journals that have no active participation by the author for a period of time greater than 18 months will be considered abandoned and will be closed until the author asks for them to be reopened.
 
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