I have a horse that I've been working with for a while. She's a small Rocky Mountain Horse, barely clears 13.2hh. When I bought her she was severely underweight, only around 500lbs and all of her hair was falling out. She was insanely scared of baseball hats and men, very headshy, and partially blind in her left eye. I came to find out the person who owned her before she went to the dealer was a guy who wore baseball hats and found out she was locked in a stall all the time for the majority of the 2+ years they had her. Her only outside time was in a small 10x10 pen. Now, 4 years later she's put a lot of weight on, 750lbs last measurement, and she's still blind in that eye (uveitis from being locked in a stall for so long along with bad allergies every year)
She's still very spooky. She jumps away snorting every time anyone bends down to pick her hooves up, very hard to catch in her stall or out in the field (she's started turning her butt at me with the cocked leg), she jumps clear to the other side of the stall and won't come near me when I bring her feed until the bucket's been secured and I'm a few feet away, and she freaks out rearing and wanting to bolt at every little noise while riding. When I'm on her, I can feel her shaking. I ride her in a hackamore only and bareback as she has problems with a bit being in her mouth. She's fine while grooming and she's fine with me picking her hooves up as long as I move very slowly, fine with being clipped and bathed, trailers good, she works great on a line from the ground, and she's also the low man on the totem pole in the herd. If any of the other horses give her so much as a look, her head goes down and she just skitters away quick.
I'm not sure what else I could be doing and how to correct the stall catching problem without causing her further distress? I have not tried join up yet with her as I'm no sure how or if she would respond to it after how she's been treated in the past.
Also before her, I've never had any experience dealing with a partially blind horse before. Any tips or help would be much appreciated!
Oh Holly, what a sad story. This horse is so lucky to now be with you. I guess her experience is equivalent to being put in a dark cell in solitary confinement for years. How freaky for her and how freaky it must be now to be out and exposed to the world with so many new experiences. Her partial blindness would make it even more freaky. Sounds like you are doing all the right things but it will take time and a lot of patience for her to adjust. She has such a huge adjustment to make that I wouldn't ride her out for some time. I wouldn't ride her at all initially until she settles down . Just spend time with her in a safe enclosed area such as a round hard. Plenty of dually work and long lining and once she has settled and is accustomed to the area just short rides there. Before riding her out I would first lead out with the dually and a long lead rope so that you can hold her if she spooks. Wear gloves and a helmet and talk to her constantly with plenty of stroking on the neck and nose to re assure her. It is better to spend time now familiarising her to all those spooky things she is seeing for the first time in her life than risk having a serious accident. My father had a one eyed horse and it seemed to learn to use it's one eye effectively but you do need to be mindful of her blind side. Good luck and keep us posted.
I agree with all that MaggieF said; i wouldn't be trying to ride her for quite a while yet, it's asking too much at this point. Sit quietly with her, not looking at her, so she gets used to you being there in her space with you putting no pressure on her at all; in that way, she can come to you in her own time.
I think I'd wait for that before doing join up in this case as she's had such a huge change to deal with.
You say she's partially blind in one eye, in the long run, that shouldn't affect her too much, but you do have to bare in mind that you may scare her coming to her on that side, so talk to her so she knows you are there.
My little Welsh pony was similar to this, but she was scared as she'd been dragged off the Welsh hills at a very old age; she too was very worried about being handled & touched etc. What i did with her was to have her next to my other boy & do whatever i wanted to do with her to the other horse first, so she could see he was relaxed about it & he was stood right next to her for comfort while i handled her.
He looked after her & she gradually stopped shaking like a leaf if there were any strange sounds etc.
He went blind in both eyes as he got older & there had to be a role reversal where she had to look after him which she did beautifully.
Thanks beryl and MaggieF, I'll continue working with her from the ground. I just ordered a dually halter the other day in size small so hopefully that will be arriving in the next few days.
I just received my dually halter last night. The mail delivery around here is very weird. Now I just have to fit the halter on her so I can start working with her so hopefully I got the right size. She has a little big of an odd shaped head for her size lol
*bit of. Very much a Tennessee Walker head on a pony body.
Holly how it going with you horse?
Hi Holly, good work you are doing. I personally would do join up with your mare, but only on the side with her good eye. The purpose of join up it to create trust, if this can be achieve early on it would help her bond quicker with you.
With being as badly treated as she has, gaining that bond during join up will help her to come and trust you more. I would work only with her good eye side until she is showing signs of confidence. You can get her to turn both left and right in hand on her good side using keywords. Use wording with requests when you ask for something on her good eye, then when she trusts your verbal commands and responds to them, you'll then be able to retrain her bad side with voice commands. When you get to a point of riding her, she'll be able to know what you are asking and will trust you that you are taking her safely even if she can't see.
Our Barney I've had to do things differently with him, when catching him he turns his butt to me, but not in disrespect, he is extremely head shy and I'm sure with reason, so for him first to come and trust us to catch him he would turn his butt to me and stand shaking until I touched his butt, then I had to work my hands forward giving him a good itch until I got to his head, then I could put the head collar on. Although he's not as head shy today, we've had him about 18 months he still has moments when we go to catch him that he has to turn his butt to us as that where he feels safest from.
I think what I'm trying to say it do things how your mare responds, if she's turning her butt to you and raising to kick, ask yourself why, where is it happening and what could have caused her to act that way. It could be something really small that you've done that reminded her of past bad treatment.
It doesn't have to be something you're doing that is bad, but perhaps an action or quick movement that invokes a reaction. Horses see things so much faster than we do and what might seem nothing to us, could to the horse.
to show you what I mean, have a view of Monty's lesson Fergus Surprise. A horse that suddenly became a bucker that Monty wasn't aware of. I took 2-3 seconds as a clip and stretched it into a 53 second clip to see what the horse actually saw. I've added it to Youtube, look at the horses face and see his expressions change. Make sure you do watch the full lesson too. Nothing Monty did was wrong, but the horse interpreted something which was a very big sign that he'd been hit before.
http://youtu.be/4EHS8dWUECc
Just so you're aware guys, Monty is aware that I've this video online, with a promise it won't go viral :D
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Not sure if I made that clear about the join up, don't run her both directions, join up on one side only the side she can see from.
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