What do I do with my hyper horse?

Question

My horses name is Trickk, he is an appaloosa, whom I rescued from Short A Buck Ranch, the ranch is a rescue like shelter. I bought him, and the ranch owner told me she thinks the last owners tied Trickk, beat him, then starved him.

As a result, Trickk will not tie, and it's impossible to saddle him due to him always moving around. And not to mention, he has NO idea how to lunge. He has no ground manners whatsoever, and WILL run me and anyone else over in his path.

I didn't get him without knowing this information, but I bought him because of that, and I want to try to get him to be a normal horse who stands to be groomed, and can be saddled without having 3 people to keep him still.

Although I must tell you, once you are on his back he is like an angel, nothing is wrong with him when you are on his back. It's just when you are on the ground around him. And the vet cannot do his feet because he flips out and begins to be all dramatic.

Answer 1

You need some help.  There is a lot of work to be done in order to help your horse.  With the behavior you describe, this horse is not safe to ride and you are courting disaster.  Because you ask what the basics are to help this horse, it is obvious you would not be able to safely accomplish this by yourself.  Please be safe.  If you find a good person to re-start this horse, it will not damage his personality, it will enable him to relax and be the wonderful horse he is because he will lose his fear and become and willing partner who is happy in his work and safe for you to handle.  good luck.

Answer 2

ok iam thinking you will have to start over on this horse dont get your hopes up but teach him to love and trust u and people in genral also get his ground manners down work on him even if u cant hold him put a stud chain on him and show him your not going to hert him good luck with him i have also been in a simular place several times its just like if u wold get sent into war your going to be scared of getting injurd not noing realy whats going on because you didnt go to boot camp u dont now all the commands the genral is yelling i hope i helped u

Answer 3

HI

I hate to be negative, but  I think you are in over your head. I would steer so so clear of the "natural" horsemanship guys, especially Parelli (you don't get to ride anything in their program until you have spent your entire life savings on clinics and tapes - he is a professional clinician, not a professional horseman, know the difference?)  His program is Cult-like.

If you are dead set on keeping this horse (and shame on the people who let you take him home in this mental state) you need to find a local trainer who can work with the horse one on one, and when the trainer feels the horse is safe for you they will teach you how to keep his poor little brain from regressing to the state he's in now.  

He sounds dangerous (not necessarily mean, probably more scared) and needs some professional intervention.  I'm not surprised that he can't have his feet trimmed but that is a job that should be done by a professional farrier (horse shoer) not a vet.

good luck to you, I hope you don't get hurt.

Answer 4

I would say ground work before riding, he sounds like he could be dangerous to you and others, he needs to learn how to trust people,a horse like this needs alot of patience, it is going to take alot of repitition to gain his trust. I would suggest a trainer who specializes in horses like this, not only for the horses sake but for your safety as well, we all have good intentions but sometimes forget how easily a horse can kill or seriously injure a person(unintentionaly). be careful and good luck.

Answer 5

YOU don't, hon.  Nice that you rescued a horse, but all of this behavior that you have described is radical, and for sure not for even a rather good trainer.

Sometimes this sort of behavior has some radical cures.... like throwing the horse on the ground, tying him up, and having a trainer walk all around him touch him with blankets, talking gently, etc, and so on.  Obviously this is nothing you can do, and nothing I ever, ever had to do, but then I never had one with these kinds of problems.... the worse one I ever had was one who would not tie. (and just using five halters and 6 or 7 lines isn't the cure.... he'd have just sweenied his shoulder.)  That one we cured by 4 inner tubes  that were put between the lines, and the posts....that gave a bit when he hauled back, but there were several of us around just in case he flipped over backwards, and he was in cross ties, and sawdust..

Sweetie, if you plan to keep this guy, find a real pro...a REAL pro, who has had experience in dealing with these major and dangerous problems.  You'll get hurt.

Answer 6

Aren't these some things you should have figured out BEFORE you bought him?

OK first work on the tieing.  Use a solid (strong) round pie gate to attach the rope to.  However do not tie it.  Just wrap it around a couple of times.  Use at leat a 25 foot lead to do this.  Then step back and let him pull.  It will give but tension will remain until he quits pulling.  Then after a while bring him back to the gate and let him stand again.  After a few times (2 to 5 depending on how bad he is and how relaxed he is) Give him a break for the day and do it over the next.  

When he gets to where he will stand at least an hour begin work with the holding still while you are working with him.  To do this I prefer a 'Be Nice' rope halter.  Tell him to whoa.  Each time he moves give the halter a little tug and repeat the command whoa.

Answer 7

O.K. I reccomend Pat and Linda Parelli ( of course you won't be able to get the actual ones but you can get there DVDs (yes I know its alot) but they are AMAZING you get so much advice, tips, and you get alot of trust and a very good bond with your horse and its F-U-N! to teach and once your horse is an expert all you need to go a little farther with this is imagination. I strongly reccomend them and there website http://www.parelli.com/home.faces;jsessi...

Answer 8

*Ahem* all of you natural horsemanship people, while some horses have been saved by this method, others have been ruined. Anyway, I guess just give him time and slowly introduce him to the lunge line etc.? IDK, but good luck! :)

Answer 9

I would lay off riding until he has some ground manners.

Could you describe what manners he does have? If I know what he can do, I could figure out where to start from.

Answer 10

I would work  from his strengths.  Ride him, and get some kind of positive relationship with him first.  

Then work on things that bother him from on top of him.  Have someone lead him while you ride.  At first, you supply the cues, but let the leader take over slowly until he's used to it.  Then, try again from the ground.

Go slow, but try brushing him while you're riding.  Get him used to having his ears touched, the top of his tail, and so on.

Once he leads well, try lunging on a short line - always be aware of your own safety and don't panic him on the lunge!

When you're doing this, remember to always end the ride doing something he enjoys as a reward.

Is he food aggressive?  If not, you can try brushing him and so on while he's eating.  I'd be careful here.  Take it slow.

Gradually, he'll get to trust you, and become more desensitized to handling.  It'll be a long slow process, but don't rush him unnecessarily and it'll work.

Good luck!

Answer 11

Ok, so parelli is definatley a great suggestion - but here are a few tips just to help you out.

The first thing you need to do with your horse is have a bit of tough love with him. I'd definately start out like horses do together, to show him that you are his alpha. The alpha horse (lead stallion or lead mare) is the one who is in charge, yet the other horses have bounded strongly with and trust to take care of them. If you show you are the horses fair, but firm leader he will understand that you need to be respected, but you will protect him.

I understand where you're coming from, my horse Cisco who I've owned for two years came to me after being starved, beaten and getting away with everything from kicking, biting, rearing and laying down with a rider. I had the most disrespectful horse I've ever dealt with and he even instilled a bit of fear in me, but I was too determined to quit. What I did with him, a horse that was fearful and agressive, was begin with the primitive thing, as I'll describe.

You put the horse in a round pen of sorts (I just used his own pen) and begin by lounging him. Free lounging, just go for it. Begin slow and patient, but dominant. When you say whoa, expect him to stop - if he doesn't, drive him on more and continue lounging him. Swing a lead rope or something similar in your hand, never hit the horse but use it as a prop to drive him on. Keep in the middle and him on the outside, when you want him to switch directions, switch the prop in your hand and swing it in the direction of his head/neck, clucking to him. He should swing around. He might look like he's running frantically, don't worry too much unless he's absolutely panicing, in which case, slow down, let him relax and just use your hands to guide him. If he doesn't respect your leadrope, you may have to upgrade to a lounging whip and gently tap his hip/hindquarters to get him to move.

Then, when he finally does stop (And he might be sweaty, but a good sign to look for is him l*****g and chewing and lowering his head - it shows submission), just stop lounging him all together and turn away. If you've done it properly he should curiously come up to you - if he doesn't, I usually don't take the time to get them to the stage they follow to begin with, instead I just slowly approach at their shoulder, walking at an angle to look not aggressive, then I pat their shoulder and gently put my hand under their chin and see if they can't walk, halterless, with me. If they push you around or turn away from you, drive them on again.

They'll understand what you want, it's a calm way of asserting your dominance that says "listen, I'm lead I tell you where to go, just come follow me and we'll be fine together." It's what any lead horse does, except they usually chase the other and bite them to get respect - we don't even have to do that, we do it psychologically. And, ever single time you go to catch that horse, if he swings his butt to you or walks away, drive him on. Lounge him where ever you are, assuming you have enough room to keep him going. When I go into my horses pen with a halter, he turns to me and stops, waiting for me to halter him - then he politely pushes his head into the halter.

Then, I'd definately do a bunch of work with your hose walking next to you without a halter, this'll help when he does have a halter on. If you absolutely can't get him to walk next to you without the halter, put a halter on (no lead rope) and gently tug it to get him going, then let go of it. If you need to you can touch his neck to signify "keep coming with me" which I have to do with my TB to keep her interested, or else she fades off and wanders off lol. In either case, teach him how to lead next to you so that when you're on the ground with a real lead rope, he'll plod beside you. Again, if he shoves into you or anything similar, lounge him right away for respect. I even do it on the ground sometimes, grab the leadrope and have them move around me a bit, if that doesn't work I march them over to a pen and do a bit of work there.

I don't even tie my horses when I saddle to begin with, because tying oddly gets them hyped up. Instead I begin by bringing my saddle over to their pen, clearing out all other horses and holding him. Get him patient standing where ever he's normally going to get tied, and when he doesn't stand, you can start loungeing him (find a good open spot and stand next to a trailer, for example - after you've taught him to lounge in a round pen by you just driving his butt without a leadrope, you should be able to lounge with a lounge line later, get this worked on too) and just lounge him when he acts up. He'll finally decide "it's easier to just stand still" and he will. You aren't hurting the horse, but you're saying "no, you can be calm and stand still or you can work".

Also, if your horse kicks you, I firmly discipline mine. I have kicked them back before, when Cisco kicked me for no reason at all (except that he was mad I was getting ready to tack him), I gave him a little kick in the side with the flat of my foot. It was just enough to sting, but not enough to hurt him. He was sure he was going to get beaten at this point in time, but like everything - after a horse misbehaves immediately punish, then move on. Because there is no reason to keep grudges on silly things. I gave him a treat at the end of his grooming because he behaved perfectly after that. This was one of the moments he truly became bonded with me, when he realized I would punish him but never keep him punished.

Then, work on tying, long after you've done everything else. Never have 3 people around, because if you begin trying to use force to control a horse you'll ALWAYS have to use force. Work with him standing still and getting a blanket on him.

You can keep riding him to keep him fresh, but ground manners are actually the most important :) Good luck with your horsie!

Edit: Sorry for writing a novel, but I thought it might help. Also -- you won't ruin his spirit this way, in fact Cisco - the horse I retrained - was actually emotionless in a way, seeming distant and scared//angry about everything. I used to think he was a horse that would kick you rather than look at you, and he probably was. But now, he nickers at me from the pasture, comes running in and generally loves being played with. If I play with the other horses and don't touch him, he sulks and won't look at me for a few days until I get him out and ride him and he is an angel under saddle now. Your hose needs some serious TLC PLUS! a leader. Be the leader, tell him that pushing you around is unacceptable, be firm about it, but when he does something right, lots of love and treats!

I'm a firm believer of love + treats :D