Post by skipka on May 12, 2016 15:21:58 GMT 1
Hi, I'm new on the forum and need some advice on a little rescue pony I got 10 months ago.
Bella is a Welsh mountain pony, about 11hh, and was abandoned in a field up in the Welsh hills, where she spent 6 months by herself. We know very little about her history but she is approximately 10 years old. I re-homed her last year through a charity, as a companion to my two mares, who she gets on with really well. She is the sweetest little thing, never shown any aggression, but is terrified of people. We don't know how much she has been handled in the past (probably not a lot) but the only experience she seems to have had has been negative - she is really frightened if you lift your arm up, which suggests she has been hit.
After 10 months of quiet and careful management she now lets us within a few feet and will follow us in and out of the stable at night. The vet has sedated her a couple of times to trim her very overgrown feet, check her teeth and vaccinate etc. She will never be ridden and I only want her to stand quietly for the vet, farrier and grooming. I have built a round pen and done some Join-Up. I can move her in either direction and she gives all the signs, licking, bowing etc and will turn towards me and follow from a distance, but will not approach me! There seems to be an invisible barrier which she just won't cross!
Has anyone come across this before? I just don't know how to move forward as she frightens so easily and I don't want to undo the progress we have made so far. Any suggestions would be gratefully received.
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Bella is a Welsh mountain pony, about 11hh, and was abandoned in a field up in the Welsh hills, where she spent 6 months by herself. We know very little about her history but she is approximately 10 years old. I re-homed her last year through a charity, as a companion to my two mares, who she gets on with really well. She is the sweetest little thing, never shown any aggression, but is terrified of people. We don't know how much she has been handled in the past (probably not a lot) but the only experience she seems to have had has been negative - she is really frightened if you lift your arm up, which suggests she has been hit.
After 10 months of quiet and careful management she now lets us within a few feet and will follow us in and out of the stable at night. The vet has sedated her a couple of times to trim her very overgrown feet, check her teeth and vaccinate etc. She will never be ridden and I only want her to stand quietly for the vet, farrier and grooming. I have built a round pen and done some Join-Up. I can move her in either direction and she gives all the signs, licking, bowing etc and will turn towards me and follow from a distance, but will not approach me! There seems to be an invisible barrier which she just won't cross!
Has anyone come across this before? I just don't know how to move forward as she frightens so easily and I don't want to undo the progress we have made so far. Any suggestions would be gratefully received.
