back from being stolen but quirkier than before

[joeymisty]

Joey is my wonderful 9 year old ex racehorse. I bought him roughly 4 years ago a very confused,aggressive,scared and dominating lad. i worked hard with him with hel0 from dan wilson and michelle cure he still had hang ups but was easy to lead perfect to ride no longer terrified of having his feer don3 and if bridled from the right no longer reared,his aggression also stopped. I put him on trial and the woman sold him. I finally got him back may 2011 in horrific condition (he was under rspca monitoring and vets only gave him 20% chance of survival) he had liver damage,was so underweight and weak he couldnt stand and needed a blood transfusion due to such severe lice infestation giving him a blood infection. He is now back up to weight,looking good, and although not 100% hes pretty close.
Anyway his behaviour is back to his original state (not quite as bad though) he will now stable which we conquered a couple of weeks ago (whole time ive known him hes been terrified of stabling) he was always slow to load but would load without pressure and with reassurance, he will now bite rear bolt and kick and physically shake. When coming in from field if slightly late or if someone else ca5ches him he is like a horse being led to starting gate and will jog,bite and rear becoming more anxious if we need to walk past other horses, he is quite nippy in the stable and will spin and bounce up and down if you are in stable too long with him, he just generally seems terrified by any change to routine. Ive been trying to change what i dp daily but it doesnt seem to help. He also gets anxious if he can see me but someone else does spmething with him,for example in field if i catch my mare and someone else catches him he will avoid dually,bite,strike out and will keep placing himself behind me and nudging me and if I am leading him he will walk almost on top of me if upset and if very anxious he will tip his head on the side and roll his eyes back.
Any ideas,exercises i can try with him etc greatly appreciated.currently not being ridden as needs to improve physically and have full mot first.

[helenj]

Blimey, what an awful situation for both of you. Unfortunately, being sold whilst on loan does happen more often than we would like to think and reinforces the need for really good loan agreements and regular owner visits.

I think if you look at this from Joey's point of view, he must be totally out of confidence. Having come to you with many problems, he learned to trust you, then had another set of awful experiences at the hands of humans. He is now back with someone that he can trust, but he has also learnt that this is not necessarily permanent.

You do not say if it is your intention to keep him at home with you or if you want to put him on loan again.

I think that if you are intending to keep him, I would go for just you handling him for now, and basically, start again from scratch, with you taking the lead as the safe place to be. Unless you need to, don't worry about loading for now, but get the leading and personal space back on track and safe, and build from there.

You say that you conquered stabling a couple of weeks ago, but from the behaviour you describe when he is in the stable, I think that you still have a lot of work to do in terms of his confidence. Does he relax completely when you leave the stable or is he still bouncy?

Some further conversation with dan and michelle, who know you and him, would probably be most useful.

[joeymisty]

He is now with me for life and wont be leaving me again. I moved 2 weeks ago from dorset to cornwall which is why i had tp load him then.
In the stable he is calm and relaxed as long as only i am around with me in or out of stable if anyone else comes past or stops to speak to me he becomes anxious. It is usually only me handling him as i know he sees me as a safe place but twice due to other horses on yard escaping someones assisted to bring my 2 in.and once when i couldnt get there the yard brught them both in but joey was horrendous that evening apparently.

As i now live near dan wilson im planning on doing several cpurses This year with him and he is going to possibly use joe for some demos.hes giving me advice and said it sounds like a routine and anxiety problem. (the handling) was just curious as to ideas,and activities other people could reccomend.

[jen1]

give him time, im glad you have him back is this the chap that was on face book before xmas, im sure dan will help when your horse is ready to receive it,

[rifruffian]

There are many difficulties here, almost overwhelming, the best way is to start on just one, or two things.
Since the horse is upset by change to routine, then do not change it, stick to routine.
As far as handling goes, the first thing to achieve is calm. The handler must set the ambience of confidence and calm. As far as leading goes I think the dually is one of the best tools to be used to train the horse to lead safely. The detail of how to achieve that is probably available at Monty's online university.
After calmness and safe leading is achieved you can move on to something else. .
.

[joeymisty]

Dont think i wrote about him on ih fbook psge. Once he trusts you hes the sweetest horse

[joeymisty]

I was doing things routinely but dan said to avoid routine with him as any changes would intensify his anxieries if he got used to an exact routine.
Have just brought in for the night and despite the gales and torrential rain,npbody else here-came in like a dog despite my mare jogging next to him

[calekio]

Echo give him time. You don't know the horrors he's been though.

Few years ago my 10 month old miniature colt got stolen from his loan home (not by his loaners might i add), we got him back 10 days later in a horrific state. At 10 months old he'd been subjected to be bundled into transit vans, moving from one place to the other (we found him a few days after he got stolen, but due to the unhelpful police found myself chasing him) and they had kids riding him.

When he came back.. he refused to load (we had to effectively bundle him into the trailer in a fit of rearing, as we just wanted to leave the place there and then! He was found by police in a travellers camp!) was a shell of his former self, had zero confidence, i couldn't even lead him 50 feet away from his friends, even though he could still see them without him having a meltdown. He was terrified of kids, refused to let us touch his legs (we think they tied his legs together).. the list went on.

It was about 6 months before we made any break though.. and about a year before he had any confidence enough to just walk up to the top of the field so i could tie him up and groom him, pick his feet up gradually, load into a trailer and generally a bit more settled and happier with routine things. 2.5yrs on he still has very minor issues with his front legs (fine if you don't fight with him for his foot.. he seems to still sometime need to know he can take it back if he gets scared) and with all mine i will lean over them with no weight to just cuddle them, groom the other side etc.. he won't accept this at all and has hind legs problems as a yearling (spending almost 6 months confinded to a small paddock) and still has niggly back issues.

He's just found a new home, a lovely loan home.. i'd really come to the conclusion he wasn't going to find the home i'd approve of when they came along.. and to be honest almost tried to talk them out of him! lol But they completely adore him and he has them and there 2 big horses wrapped round his little hoof and living the life of luxary and being spoilt rotton and loving being the pampurred baby where he is now (he was one of 12 with me.. so whilst was well loved and cared for.. getting more attention where he is now)

[megansmum]

bringing back memories of my girl' let her out on loan when she was 5yrs old I had her from 3ys old' she was given away and I got her back a shell of herself' she is 19 now but seems as though she has never forgotten she is a dream to handle on the floor ' when you can catch her' but have not ridden her'