How do I gain an abused horses' trust?

Question

I have just recently aquired a 3 year old gelding (grey I think). I know nothng of his origin, except that he has been shipped from left to right over and over and was on his way to the doggers. I saw him by chance when out looking at a TB 4 sale and was told he is uncatchable, but had been halter broken at some time and not ridden since trainig. He has been bought by 3 people all with no time and somewhere along the line he has been hurt, he shakes when you walk near him, he bolts if you get too close to him, he is constantly backing up, and I mean constant. But he will work with no leads, I can get him to walk on, stand up, halt, back up, change direction, I just can't catch him. Obviously I caught him to get him on a float, but I had to bucket feed him for a week to get him close enough to snap the lead on him, and when I did, he was perfect. He floated himself perfectly, sqared up and all, when we got back to the yard I brushed him and he was great, he was nuzzling me.

Answer 1

Dont actually go toward the horse just hang around him. maybe sit and read, or one f the easier ways is to just sit there. maybe turn your back and pretend you dont notice him, maybe he'll get curiouse. but remember this takes time.

Answer 2

I can only vouche for a horse we have at the ranch I work at here on Guam. We have a couple horses that came from a ranch from the southern part of the island. They were abused, used, and malnutritioned. Each horse is completely different, but one has been worked with a little more than the others. She at first wouldn't allow anyone to touch her head, pick her feet, let alone let anyone on her back. When we started working with her, it just came down to patience. I realize it's not the same situation, but really it's just a matter of persistence. Everyday, give him something new to be interested in. A different hat, anything. Make him interested in what you are doing. He'll eventually be overwhelmed with curiosity and have to see what you are doing. At that point, offer him a carrot or treat of some sort. If he is not responsive to your hand, toss it on the ground in front of him. He'll learn, you're not the bad guy.

Answer 3

i always just puttered around, talking all the time, but not approaching, sometimes for weeks. eventually the horses would come up and start sniffing. after a few days/weeks of this. i'd start extending a hand. nothing overt or sudden.

every victim is different.

Answer 4

Just try to speak softly to him, keep him company for a while, and when/if he does start to gain your trust, slowly try moving toward him, crooning to him, just something he likes, even try singing!  Always make sure you have treat just in case!  Anything can happen!  When/If you can close enough to have contact, don't rush it, just sooth him anyway, then try putting a halter and rope on him!  If he starts spooking just put you 'gear' down and start soothing him again.  Keep trying, like I said before, DON'T RUSH!  It might even take a couple days.  Even if you can't rope him, try to stroke him.  If he doesn't want contact, don't try.  He will come around sooner or later, I bet he will be a great horse!  A good bond between human and horse makes a good team!  You say he does good on rope, then when you get on his back(not for a while I guess)he will be wonderful!

* Marie

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Answer 5

Do not clip the lead on him every time you get close enough to, instead give him a treat and just pet him, talk to him, brush him, then walk away from him (not him walking away from you)

When you do clip the lead on him do the same things, treat, pet, talk, brush, unclip & walk away. After doing this awhile move on to working with him a little more. Don't make him work every time you can get him.

You could also try not letting him out for a few hours unless he approaches you.

Answer 6

Wow - good on ya for taking him on!

Sounds like he has had a chain on over his nose as a "training aid" ...with some moron yanking away on it...being an intelligent horse he will no longer allow this.

I'd go back to basics and treat him like a foal. He will eventually allow you to feed him from a bucket again - this time snap a catch rope (no nylon just nice soft rope with a knot in the end) on him that is about 2 - 3 feet long and leave it on.

  He will step on it  - he will freak out - he WILL teach himself that it does not hurt and he WILL teach himself to give to the pressure, something he has forgotten/associated with pain.

This way you are not viewed as "the bad guy" !

It can take a long time ( I'm talking a year or two till he is "normal") and prepare yourself to be happy with baby steps.

Good luck - he will return your kindness and care 10 fold when he is able and be a great horse!

Answer 7

Wow!  This sounds somewhat like a foreign language to me - I wish for some education - email me - about "floating" waht's that?  Is the "yard" the pasture for the horse?  The round yard sounds like a "round pen" - it's so interesting to read these questions from people outside the US to learn their terms, I love it.

OK - from experience starting youngsters.

trust and confidence comes slowly.  The main things to remember are patience and consistency.  It sure sounds like the poor thing has been terribly abused by people who know nothing of a horse's nature.

Some books that might help you could be The horse whisperer by Monty Roberts and some of his videos are now available.  The best natural "horse whisperers" I can think of are Chris Cox and Clinton Anderson from Australia, Pat Parelli, Ray Hunt, Buck Brannaman, Dennis Reis, Monty Roberts ....I know there's more but can't think of them now....they all have books, videos and shows on television here in the states to teach us.

You must start from liberty to gain his trust.  It's strange to hear you say he's good and trusting when on a lead, but awful when at liberty.  You must do two things: establish leadership and establish trust.  A horse in his wild state lives in a heirarchy and has a place that's constantly tested in his herd.  You must establish yourself as his leader.

Monty Roberts books and videos will teach you the first steps of "join up" that basically look like this:

A horse at liberty in a round pen that's safe - not a portable one that he can easily hurt himself trying to get out of.  Turn him loose and watch his actions for a moment.  Use your body to cause him to move.  Pretend there's a long stick coming out of the middle of your chest - if that stick is pointing directly at the middle of the horse - right in the middle of his barrel or the space between his shoulders and hip, he interprets your body language as saying "you are good where you are and doing waht you're doing - equate this to "neutral" in a car.  If that stick is pointing behind the center point the message being sent is "move forward" and the farther back on the body the stick is pointed, the faster the horse thinks he should go - the stick pointed right as his rump with a step forward says "move forward very quickly NOW".  Likewise, if the stick is pointed in front of the center point this is saying either "slow down" "stop" or "turnaround the other way" depending on how far forward the point is.  the point at hte horse's eye and a step forward says "stop now or you're in trouble".  Get it?

Now that you understand that - Monty uses a soft rope to encourage the horse to move off.  In the horse world he who moves his feet first loses - so a horse that is mistrusting of you will move a way quickly from you.  a horse that is highly dominant may actually challenge you when you try to move him off.

You would start by pushing the horse off in any directions around the outside of the pen.  Watch him - at first he may be looking outside the pen and ignoring you - keep him moving - then he might c**k an ear toward you, now he's thinking about you and focusing on you.  Maybe the nose tips in - watch for him to l**k his lips and/or look at you and pay close attention to you.  Immediately turn away, taking all pressure off allowing him to stop and rest - this is his reward for focusing on you as you desire and you've taken your first step in becoming his leader - you've made him move his feet until he's asked to stop and listen to you and you've rewarded him.

Ideally, he will even walk toward you and stick his head out to sniff you or ask for a pat.  A this point reward and pet him.  Maintain his focus, do not halter or impede his choice of movement - the end result you are locking for is his desire to stay focused on you.

You'll want to touch him anywhere he'll let you - if at any point in time he loses focus on you and moves away, force him to work again around the pen until he asks to stop and agrees to focus as he did before.  Start the process again.

You will even want to walk around the pen and see if he follows you - if he does, wonderful - walk around a bit with him following you and then stop and reward with rest and praise - this is truly leading a horse and it's the way to properly teach him to follow your lead.

You should be able to accomplish this in a  short session. Alway stop the session when it's good - never stop when he's being forced around the arena and away from you.  If the best you can get in an hour or two is him l*****g his lips and walking towards you, stop there and begin again next session.  Then set a goal for next time such as walking about with him following.

when he's following you, and standing at liberty in front of you for more than a few moments - start praciticing with your hands touching and rubbing him.  Find his favorite itchy spots - usually the middle of the chest or mane where they have a hard time reaching are itchy spots - the upper lip will get stuck out and the neck outstretched and you'll almost hear him say"yeah , right there, right there, that feels good - thanks".  This shows him that your close proximity and touch are not harmful things.  Get where you can touch him anywhere with your hands.

You CAN overdo the sending off and re-focusing.  You will find as you move toward his back end, he'll turn to face you - simply push him back to where he began - reinforcing through consistency you wish him to stand - only if he gets belligerent or lays his ears back should you send him off again for re-focus.

After he'll stand and let you touch him all over with your hands, progress to touching him all over with the lead rope, then the halter, then the lead attached to the halter,  rub it on his face, body and ears - you want him to look very bored before you count this a successful - he doesn't care what ya do to him.  A simple "stick" or whip touching him everywhere is also good as it teaches him a different feel of a sharp, stiff object touching him and his accepting it speaks volumes of his trust in you.

After a few sessions - or maybe even just one - if he's accepting all this, standing still for your actions, begin putting the halter on him and taking it off - focus on making the experience as comfortable and quiet as possible.  when he'll let you halter him easily yo ucan begin ground training him and will probably progress quite well if he's accepting of halter handling now.

This is starting the foundation of trust and leadership - there's LOTS more to it than this and after this.  If you can do it, Pat Parelli's first 3 levels of natural horsemanship are great tools - they offer halters and leads made to work well on the horse without pain.  A "carrot stick" used to communicate and de-sensitize the horse, work booklets and videos and a journal in which to write your notes in and refer to later.  these will take you through all the basics of building the trust on the ground and from mounted for him.

Remember that quiet and consistency  and patience are the utmost importance here.  Also at 3 years old, he's a baby - he's still growing, his mind can't handle hours and hours of stress - working in short sessions are best for him - if you find yourself feeling like you've hit a brick wall in a session, go back to repeat the last successful interaction and end the session after that is completed successfully - this is the meaning of 'ending on a good note'.

Finally, you need to instill in the horse further trust by NOT always catching and making him work.  Spend time a leisure with him.  when you've gotten him accepting of you as his leader, when you enter his yard/pasture/paddock he'll focus on you and perhaps come toward you.  When he's got to the point you can walk right up to him in the pasture, make it a point of coming to him 60% of the time for something other than work - walk up and hand him an apple, carrot or other beloved treat - pet and scratch him a little while, then leave.  another time, take the halter or lead with you but rather than put it on him, rub his itchy spots with it and massage him with it to show him it's not a tool for control, it can cause nice back scratchin's too.

It would suggest this will take you the better part of a summer to establish this trust and leadership, but that when you get to each level, the trust and confidence you build won't be easily broken - you may find he only trusts you so protect him from others than don't know how to interact with him or that make him nervous otherwise he might trust you personally when you're alone, but think you'll allow him to come to harm from others who are present.  Teach your girlfriend these tactics and involve her in your learning through books or videos - then she'll know how to interact with him and he'll begin to trust her too.

Sorry so long - you ask a question that's years in answering through practice - not a simple thing, but one when you look back you'll be in awe of what you've begun to understand and accomplish.

Good luck!  If you find a certain thing or person you are interested in, I'll be happy to help you find books or videos or answer other specific questions.

Answer 8

what i would do is;

walk him around everyday for at least 5-10 mins.

and give him alot of treats but dont make it

so you spoil him. when you go and get him from the pasture

ALWAYS have a treat. so he will learn to come to you and

think you will have a treat with you. just spend alot of time with him. and also i herd if you blow in there nose they will learn your sent faster. :P

Answer 9

you just have a nervous horse who was probably not associated to humans for some time and when he was he didn't have a good experience.start by not pressuring him to do much,feed in one spot at first then move the feeding spot around so he has to rely on watching you to see where you put the feed this will get his natural curiosity going,mostly he is unsure about humans so use a horses curiosity in your favor,do things that will peak his interest and pretty soon he will be following you around like it is nothing.i used to take an old halter and a long lead rope and put it thru one of my belt loops so it drags behind me so one of my horses who had the same problem would get used to seeing me with it all the time,pretty soon he started to follow me around just to see what it was and then he figgured out it was a lot of fun to chase it ,now he sees a halter and lead rope he gets all excited and runs up to me.

Answer 10

you should try natural horsemanship....i bought a rescue thoroughbred a few years ago he wasnt as bad as your horse but very similar, he had been flipped over, beaten, etc. we started using parelli with him and now we can rub him all over with tarps and ropes. it really does build up trust with your horses. it does take some time but it is all worth it.

here are some websites:

http://www.parelli.com/home.faces

http://www.downunderhorsemanship.com/

http://www.montyroberts.com/

Answer 11

Keep in mind that everything you describe also goes hand in hand with a horse that has been spoiled (allowed to get away with whatever he wants out of fear or indulgence of an inexperienced handler) or just unhandled.

Sometimes WE get a mindset that a horse has been abused, thus there is a huge mental issue for the horse to overcome before we can even begin to make progress.    

So don't give up on the idea that you can socialize this critter yourself just yet.  

Time, patience, and repetition are your keys here.  Your first goal, it seems, is you want him to be easily caught.  Focus on that for now...all the other work should be secondary.  I'd keep a safe breakaway halter with a SHORT lead (Just enough to grab on to while you fasten a lead, not long enough to step on) on him.

Sometimes, I'd just go out and mess with him.  You know, take the bucket out there with just a sniff of grain to entice him.  Once he approaches, you pet him, talk to him, let him have the grain, and go in...no other "work" at those times.  He needs to associate with you on a positive level. ALWAYS end your work on a positive note, praising him for something he's already mastered.