bringing a horse back into work

floppy

Active Member
Feb 25, 2001
4,173
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germany
ok..this girl has a horse that hasnt been ridden the last 10mths. Basically because it went through injury after injury etc (v. long story) ok and this girl has been riding for ehm 2 yrs and is not very experienced and this is her first horse.
The owner of the yard says she will re-train the hrose but it will cost her £1,500.00 which is about $2,200.00 for anyone else reading from over the waters!

Any suggestions? do you think there would be experience riders out there willing to help? or do you think its safer to get this horse professionally done? what else could she do with her hors ein the meantime..apart from the obvious thing to sell it which is what i would do becuase the horses probelms have been no fault of its own...
ehm yeh..how actually does a horse react to being ridden again after such a long break?? i rode a mare afte she was out of work for months because of pregnacy but the craziest thing she did was canter lightening round and roudn the jumping arena is was birllant :D..but this horse is alot bigger and is a full blood thats all the girl has told me
dotn get me wrong though..this girl wont try this alone..im also just interested to knwo what oen would do...when a hrose at the yard where i ride went lame and was out of work for 2motnhs the owner just got back ont he hrose and took it for a walk aroudn a familiar route and the hrose was fine...didnt buck or flip out of anything...

[Edited by floppy on 30th Apr 2001 at 11:37 PM]
 
I guess it depends on how used to and happy the horse was about being ridden previously. My friend keeps a horse that hasn't been ridden for over a year - prior to that it was only lunged or ridden for about an hour a week. Whilst she is 11 she wasn't ridden much previously and goes absolutely wacky if a saddle is put on her back (bucking bronco wacky) so there is no way this horse could be ridden without some serious groundwork training first. Others can have months off but be happy to accept saddle and bridle again but obviously bear in mind the horse needs to be worked back to fitness gradually
 
Agree with Murphs

It certainly depends on the horse. I just finished working with a mare who had a post driven through her chest well over a year ago. After much vet work, she is once again able to be ridden. Her owner, who is inexperienced, was rightly afraid of how she might react. To make a long story short, I worked with her in the round pen a little while and she didn't like lunging at all. I just decided to put a saddle on her to see what she would do. I led her around with no problems, ponied her with another horse and then got on her myself. Guess what? No bucks, no fuss other than not paying good attention to cues and the reins. In 7 days she was ready to go back to her owner! Now I think this was a special mare. I have known horses that tend to revert to being a little wild after not being ridden that long, so it just depends on the animal. I would first have an experienced rider have a go at her, maybe do the things I did for a while and then get on and see. I see no reason to spend that much money on "re-training" if it really isn't needed, unless of course, she is planning to compete in some way with the horse. If she is only pleasure riding, I would ask an experienced rider to evaluate her before I went to a professional trainer. Happy Trails!
 
thanks outrider :)
The horse was only used for pleasure but the silly thing is the girl couldnt control the horse out riding so she would only walk the horse anyway..I have no diea why this girl bought this horse and or the owner sold the horse to this girl. But until this girl realises herself what is best all ic an do is help her. I ave already put a few posts aroudn the yards where my hrose is to se eif a capable rider is able to help and the girl is going to put an advert in the paper. In the meantime all she does is groom the horse and give her baths and buy equipment for the horse that she doesnt know how to use.
 
hi floppy, my horse was also out of work due to illness for nearly twelve months. we put a saddle on him and walked him round the yard,then i carefully got on him with my husband lead reining him and walked again around the yard. i finally walked and trotted him around all in the space of 15 mins. i know all horse are not the same, but i also spent time just grooming him and giving him loads of tlc i think if they trust you and respect you, they know you are not about to hurt them. he didnt buck or rear the only thing he didnt like was the bit in his mouth again he also hasnt been rode much in the past so i suppose it irritated him. what ever we did we made sure we did it quietly and calmly with not too many people around, he was fine...good luck
 
yeh the owner of my horse has another horse that was lame for a long time and he was the perfect gentleman when she started to ride him again!

but this other girl that has had her horse and to date she still hasnt ridden it but she is scared to...someone apparently took it for a gentle hack and the horse was really brave but this girl still wont ride it. so the hrose just stands in the stable all day long everyday..now its at new yard wherea t least it can go out in a field everyday and exercise herself. i was going to hlep her but i dont have time because im commited to 3 horses at the moment. But the girl hasnt even bonded with her horse ebcause she only sees it once every week-4weeks and doesnt groom it properly..she asked me once if i could go with her to se eher horse so she could clean the tack she hasnt used yet and i said ok (the girl is only 16) and she ignored her horse and just played with the tack and so i said if i coudl tak te hrose out of the stable and groom ti adn she said ok...so i gave it a good brush and cuddle and talked to it and the horse was well behaved..but then the girl decided she wanted to clean the hrose herself and the horse tried biting her and kickign her...i believe it was because she was tickling the horse with the brushes.
i have copied the parelli games for her and given her them but she doesnt care so im lost and cant help no more if she doesnt want the help!
 
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