Complete retraining

[Billy]

Well I suppose I should explain the whole thing before asking my question..

My welsh cob mare has been out-of-action for just over a year now, last November she came in lame and has been fairly consistently off since then really. I bought her off a friend (who's had her vetted but was herself inexperienced and a bit rash in getting a horse to be honest! She was just very lucky to get such an easy to look after horse). She sort of did the right thing by putting her at BCA which is an equestrian college where the horses are on working livery (and in return get full livery treatment and to be fair to them there, they take good care of them). But as in any working livery arrangement, the horses have to endure a couple of hours a day of boring school work. I think this made Dobbs lose her passion for it.

I bought her about 2 and a half years ago - must've been - and I haven't had much luck! Summer before the one just gone she did her back in, and I spent 2 months easing her into work, and when I left for Uni in the September she was fit as a fiddle. Jumping and working well. Then lo and behold a week after the college students get back, she comes in lame (hmmm, interesting). And has been ever since.

It took 3 vets and two trips to big horse clinics to find that she'd torn a ligament in her left hind. Fun fun fun. So using the last of our insurance we put her through shockwave therapy and plasma irap, and we were told it could take a years rest to heal, if it heals at all. So we moved her to a lovely little yard (the best thing I've ever done) and she had 6 weeks box rest, 6 weeks in hand walking, and was then turned away. And she has been turned out for the whole of the winter.

In spring I plan to start the whole fiasco again and get the vet out when I'm on my Easter holiday but for now I'm just letting her be a horse and take it easy. Seems stupid to rush the whole thing, and no point getting the vet out until I'm ready to work her again.

Anyway, enough ramble. My question is two fold. Firstly, could anyone propose a complete retraining timetable I could use when I start her back again? It would really help me if someone could help me put together a day-to-day thing which I could follow, as I'm shocking at deciding what to do each day, and usually I end up going for a short hack when I should be schooling! FYI before this she loved hacking and jumping but hated flatwork, and I want to change that by bringing her back into fun and interesting work.

My second question is would anyone be interested in loaning a horse like this if they knew he/she had been off for so long, but was really easy to handle and manage? While I'm at Uni my mum can't go up during the week, so if she does come in sound, I'd want to loan her or share her during termtime?

Anyway, enough ramble, thanks for getting this far! Any help or advice much appreciated!

Billie

 

[AengusOg]

OOh.................this will be a good debate when it gets going.

I waited to see if anyone else would start it off, but you probably picked a bad time to post.........hangovers

The program will depend very much on your views and abilities as a horseperson, so maybe you could give an idea of those.

Personally, I would be looking at at least three months' work (working most days) to be able to establish whether the mare is likely to remain sound as she is brought back to fitness. If she remains sound that long she will be fairly fit by then too.

If you are involved in any of the so-called Natural Horsemanship methods of training, there will be ample advice from which to choose.

From a more general horsemanship point of view, you may be wise to consider walking out in hand/retraining compliance and obedience, and generally just getting your mare to enjoy being out and about with something simple to do, for the first week anyway.

That will give you a rough idea of how tractable and compliant she is, and will help you judge when you can start to train her on from there.

You'd be wise to restart her slowly over the first month, keeping lessons fairly short, and ask for advice as you need it.

Good luck

 

[Billy]

Many thanks!

I'm interesting in natural horsemanship but not had any experience of it yet, but would be willing to give it a go. If anyone has any suggestions in where to start.

Yesterday we walked her up the driveway to the road to see her reaction to traffic and she was a docile as always, but very interested and excited to be doing something new. That was encouraging. I togged up into my hat and put her bridle on just in case. It must be a good six months since she saw cars close up, but she is going on 15 and always been good in traffic so perhaps not surprising, I did feel a bit silly and overcautious - but you never know!

She's not shod at the moment and I'm hoping for it to remain that way, as she's a native hardy little thing and I think able to survive without shoes. But that will depend on the vet's advice regarding soundness and her ability to cope on the roads barefoot - we'll play that by year I think!

Yeah time is the best healer, and I will be taking it very very slowly indeed. I don't really want to rush the whole process!

 

[Englishgirl]

Ground work definitely. Weather it's NH or whatever, find yourself a good program. If you don't know what to do, start with Clinton Anderson's program or the 7 games of Parelli, Monty Roberts... or whatever structured "curriculum" you can find.

 

[Dooley]

I did feel a bit silly and overcautious - but you never know!

You can never be too careful with horses. You did the right thing. Carry on wearing the hat no matter what you do with her - groundwork or ridden. Better safe then sorry. It'd be a real shame if SHE was sound but YOU were in hospital with a fractured skull.

Beware - the first time you do stuff with her after such a long break she'll be good, but the second or third time is when she's likely to get silly. Mine did. First time handwalking was perfect. Second time was still good. Third time we had massive explosions. He wanted to just buck and buck and buck... and buck some more. He had to get that out of his system. Your girl's been out, so hasn't got that pent-up energy, but she'll still be likely to overreact at some stage. Even just to try it on.

You're right waiting til Spring I think. I can't give you a full programme, it all depends on how whe's doing each step of the way. But basically start with longreining or lungeing or both - lots of walk frst, if you can, to get her a bit fitter. Then when you get to the rideen stage walk short periods and increase the time by 5 minutes each day, then slowly introduce short bursts of trot - just on straight lines to start with , not circles or even corners, then when the trot tin gon straight lines is good introduce some corners, etc etc.

Get a book on getting horses fit, there are a few around.


And most of all ....enjoy the time you spend together ! Hope she stays sound.

 

[inhs]

Yep, time is a great healer, if you can give your horse time, you avoid so many issues

You're completely right. Take it slow, like AengusOg take it easy, see how she goes.

A little groundwork, walking around, either in hand, longlinging if she's ok with it or in the saddle if health permits...

Focus on:

1. nice well behaved horse
2. having fun again

Forgot the serious stuff for a while.

I heard a good description of dressage last summer.......

this is what it is often...

but this is what it should be:

 

[Billy]

I think this has gone into the depths of the forums )

Any more suggestions?

Vet has pronounced her sound (yay!) so I've spent a week just walking her, both on grass and roads. No trotting but the vet has said I can trot her if I want, just a for a few minutes at a time. But oh no, not until I'm sure she'll be okay ).

No problems of bolting as of yet, only sluggish and mostly lack of interest!

Billie

 

[Billy]

Btw, I love the quote Inhs!! Sums it up perfectly )