Hello everyone!! VERY excited I found this place! I am clueless about horses first of all. My boyfriend grew up with one and thinks he knows all but I can see he must of had a wonderfull horse as a child cause we are having some problems that he doesnt know what to do about or even who to ask. We now have Ellie who just became a momma 6 weeks ago and she is perfect!! She has been on 2 trail rides with us and other than being young (3) and not used to different things she great. Doc is 12 I think and he is a sweet heart but doesnt like our newest horse Drifter who is 7 and was traded to us for our biting horse sonny. Drifter is a kicker! So instead of getting bit now we worry about getting kicked. I think I want Sonny back. So we are in deep with Drifter cause we traded Sonny and $500 and now we are clueless what to do. We took some advice cause it sounded good but it actually made the problem worse. The colt by the way is coming along nicely. We didnt get a chance to mess with it from the start like we were told to do cause I was very sick and Jason had to deal with work and kids but now we can halter him and rub on him. He doesent want to walk with us on a lead yet but slowly he is coming around. Before I ramble on, a big question I had was how to put weight back on the 12 year old. We had hay all winter but I found out the other day the guy we were buying it from wouldnt feed it to his cows but was selling it to us. Not sure if that has anything to do with it but Doc is skinny now and we have kept them all wormed so now we are just moving him around the pasture and feeding hay (he doesnt want hay now). What can we do to get him back up or do you think time in the pasture will fix it? Wish I could find my cord to the cam and I would show you my babies, Thanks for reading my long post!!!
newbie here needing some advice (long)
- Thread starter jan mathues
- Start date
When I I got my 4 yr old he was recovering from mange and very underweight. We let him have free run of a 4 acre permanant pasture and stabled him at night with ad lib hay. I also fed him 500g of cool mix twice a day with only light excercise for a month. He was also given a vitamin E tonic mixed in with his hard feed. Here in Europe I have to tell you even most hay suitable for cattle wouldn't be considered at all appropriate for horses, ideally it should be at least 6 months since it was cut, completely 100% dust and mould free and consist of grass types suitable for horses. Horses have very different dietry requirements from cattle. As well as different grass types cattle thrive on new grass while horses require more established growth. To me this is very basic knowledge which is essential to any horseowner. The **** in the states seems to be that hay is hay, and I have no clue as to whether the situation (with agriculture etc.) is different or what the reason is, maybe someone else could enlighten us on this? Personally I am very, very picky about hay. Maybe you could ask a knowledgable person local to you what to look for?
I realise this doesn't help your situation now at all in the slightest, but will be useful for next year all the same.
I realise this doesn't help your situation now at all in the slightest, but will be useful for next year all the same.
Sorry I should have added that I would seek a horse vet's advice on feeding your 12yr old to get him/her back in shape, the outline I gave is what I used on my horse, yours may have different needs.
With drifter who/what is he kicking? (other horses, all people, vets, farriers) does he do it all the time or only in certain situations? If he is fairly new to you he may be testing you to see if he can dominate you easily, think about his point of v.i.e.w and maybe this will help you think up things that might help with him (i.e. why is he kicking?)
With drifter who/what is he kicking? (other horses, all people, vets, farriers) does he do it all the time or only in certain situations? If he is fairly new to you he may be testing you to see if he can dominate you easily, think about his point of v.i.e.w and maybe this will help you think up things that might help with him (i.e. why is he kicking?)
I am in mid Illinois if that helps any. That helps alot to know not to feed what farmers consider ok for cows. Like I said we are kinda new to all this and want to do it right but the people around here are looking for the cheapest way and most are selling horses due to the cost. I went to an auction the other day (my first) It was so sad. Colts were going for as low as $10 cause no one wants to feed them.
Welcome to the board 
I'm up on foalwatch so I'm passing time here
Ellie and the colt first, 6weeks is fine, handling and rubbing is a good stage to have him at, yeilding to pressure is the next step, that'll help you teach him to lead. Push him or pull him gently towards you to move over, increase the pressure slowly if he doesn't respond - as soon as he does, release the pressure. This is the basis for teaching him to lead. Don't fuss him too much, handle him for a few minutes daily if possible but leave him the rest of the time to learn how to be a horse You'll have to wean him at 6months, go easy with Eliie at least until then, 3 is young to be in work and also have had a foal.
Drifter - what is his kicking behaviour like? Where/when does he do it? Whats th 'advice' that you were given that didn't work...
Doc, no idea about the cow hay - here we feed cows silage (wet heavy smelly stuff) which definitely isn't suitable for horses
If you have good grass pasture thats the best thing for him, leave him grazing as long as possible. If he's turning his nose up at hay, sounds like you might have. Might be worth considering getting some physical checks done? How are his teeth? One way to tell if he might have problems if he drops hard food when he's eating it...
I'm up on foalwatch so I'm passing time here
Ellie and the colt first, 6weeks is fine, handling and rubbing is a good stage to have him at, yeilding to pressure is the next step, that'll help you teach him to lead. Push him or pull him gently towards you to move over, increase the pressure slowly if he doesn't respond - as soon as he does, release the pressure. This is the basis for teaching him to lead. Don't fuss him too much, handle him for a few minutes daily if possible but leave him the rest of the time to learn how to be a horse
You'll have to wean him at 6months, go easy with Eliie at least until then, 3 is young to be in work and also have had a foal. Drifter - what is his kicking behaviour like? Where/when does he do it? Whats th 'advice' that you were given that didn't work...
Doc, no idea about the cow hay - here we feed cows silage (wet heavy smelly stuff) which definitely isn't suitable for horses
If you have good grass pasture thats the best thing for him, leave him grazing as long as possible. If he's turning his nose up at hay, sounds like you might have. Might be worth considering getting some physical checks done? How are his teeth? One way to tell if he might have problems if he drops hard food when he's eating it...
Drifter tried to kick me getting him loaded from the horse trader place and i just kept my hand on his butt and moved with him so he couldnt get me. We got him home and in the round pen just fine. We let him out to pasture and he got shocked by the fence and ran back into the round pen. We gave him some feed and Jason was petting his side while he ate and he turned and as Jason was backing up he kicked with both feet and knocked Jason into the gate. This was all in about 15 min. Now when you walk toward him he turns his butt toward you. We have to grab his halter from outside of the round pen cause he loves attention and hold him there then a second person go in and take him. He acts like he is starved for attention but doesnt want you to come to him he has to come to you. We watched a girl saddle him and ride before we bought him and she put him on a lunge line first and ran him around the pen before she got on. We heard that was a bad sighn??
The advice that didnt work
We were told to use a whip every time he turned his but toward us. We bought a whip that to me looked like a fishing pole with a short string on it. In the round pen Jason went and Drifter turned his butt so Jason popped him lightly and Drifter just took off like a bat out of hell! Jason got out of there and said thats not going to work.
We were told to use a whip every time he turned his but toward us. We bought a whip that to me looked like a fishing pole with a short string on it. In the round pen Jason went and Drifter turned his butt so Jason popped him lightly and Drifter just took off like a bat out of hell! Jason got out of there and said thats not going to work.
I hate auctions myself anyway as they tend to be full of neglected or unsound horses that people are trying to offload. I've been to 2 here, don't think my stomach could survive another
Unfortunately my knowledge of any region in the States is 0
. Here is a link that gives good advice on what to look for (it seems I am wrong about it being 6 months old ) We can't get bright green hay here and conditions are fairly good for hay-making. If you look around though you will be able to compare though and you will quickly find you can determine which is better between two batches I often find that hay advertised as suitable for sheep is generally good enough for horses (if the seller is being truthful that is
) Not sure if you are in a 'sheep' area either though http://horses.about.com/od/basiccare/a/mainhayfaq.htm
A thing I do is break open a few bales selected randomly by me (not the seller as they could give you their 'best' ones) to see what they look like in the middle. So what if you have to pay for a few that are no good, it's better than buying a trailer load of them that are no good
Hmm... both those instances are kind of tricky, he might not be and agressive kicker so don't lose hope.
Loading into a trailer, especially if nervous and having a stranger come up and poke him in the butt, might cause a horse to kick. The same with feed, alot of horses are possesive when it comes to feed and that reaction sounds typical (infact my mare did the exact same thing to me, same feed situation when I only had her a month - she hasn't ever attempted to do it again but thats because she is totally turned around since then) Just be careful, give him a while to settle. Try not to provoke him, It is important though that if he puts you in that sort of dangerous situation that you react immediately, shout at him as loud as you can and smack him hard. I know its sounds bad, but he needs to know that its not acceptable. If you reprimand him lightly, he will learn that he can ignore this and kick harder then next time!
The whip thing - will cause him to distrust you and he may become even more agressive or react badly out of fear. It is warranted in some cases but depends on the reason the horse is behaving like it is. For now, definitely don't do that!
Does he kick other horses in the field? Turning his hind end to you and yet wanting attention sounds like it could be a dominance issue, in a herd, the submissive horse always has to be 'invited' into the dominant horses space. What you are doing at the moment is good practice, you are catching him on your terms, not 'going to get him'. Let him settle, spend time grooming him and going over basic handling and hopefully when he settles and begins to trust you you will see an improvement in his behaviour and work from there.
As far as lunging, could be a few reasons - to show the potential buyer that he could lunge or had nice paces, was he well behaved on the lunge?
Otherwise, it could mean he is 'fresh' or 'hot', needs to be lunged to take a bit of energy out of him before a rider gets up. 'Fresh', if he doesn't get enough turnout, or doesn't get ridden/hasn't been ridden. 'Hot' can be his temperament or maybe whatever he is fed.
Another reason, but not as common, is if he was 'coldbacked' had problems with his back or a saddle usually resulting in him throwing a few bucks in at the start of a ride. People try and prevent this by lunging first, some say its to warm up the muscles- so the horse isn't sore when the saddle is put on or has a chance to start working before he has weight on his back, others, its to let him stop bucking before the rider gets up! Most cold-backed horses are actually in pain or have physical issues.
Loading into a trailer, especially if nervous and having a stranger come up and poke him in the butt, might cause a horse to kick. The same with feed, alot of horses are possesive when it comes to feed and that reaction sounds typical (infact my mare did the exact same thing to me, same feed situation when I only had her a month - she hasn't ever attempted to do it again but thats because she is totally turned around since then) Just be careful, give him a while to settle. Try not to provoke him, It is important though that if he puts you in that sort of dangerous situation that you react immediately, shout at him as loud as you can and smack him hard. I know its sounds bad, but he needs to know that its not acceptable. If you reprimand him lightly, he will learn that he can ignore this and kick harder then next time!
The whip thing - will cause him to distrust you and he may become even more agressive or react badly out of fear. It is warranted in some cases but depends on the reason the horse is behaving like it is. For now, definitely don't do that!
Does he kick other horses in the field? Turning his hind end to you and yet wanting attention sounds like it could be a dominance issue, in a herd, the submissive horse always has to be 'invited' into the dominant horses space. What you are doing at the moment is good practice, you are catching him on your terms, not 'going to get him'. Let him settle, spend time grooming him and going over basic handling and hopefully when he settles and begins to trust you you will see an improvement in his behaviour and work from there.
As far as lunging, could be a few reasons - to show the potential buyer that he could lunge or had nice paces, was he well behaved on the lunge?
Otherwise, it could mean he is 'fresh' or 'hot', needs to be lunged to take a bit of energy out of him before a rider gets up. 'Fresh', if he doesn't get enough turnout, or doesn't get ridden/hasn't been ridden. 'Hot' can be his temperament or maybe whatever he is fed.
Another reason, but not as common, is if he was 'coldbacked' had problems with his back or a saddle usually resulting in him throwing a few bucks in at the start of a ride. People try and prevent this by lunging first, some say its to warm up the muscles- so the horse isn't sore when the saddle is put on or has a chance to start working before he has weight on his back, others, its to let him stop bucking before the rider gets up! Most cold-backed horses are actually in pain or have physical issues.
Wow lots to think about. We havent turned him in with the other horses yet cause he paces the fence line with Ellie and the colt and bites at Doc on the other side. He has been in the round pen for a week now.
With the kicker one thing I would try is too turn him out alone in the biggest field you have, leave him for a little while then go in and walk about completely ignoring him, pull up weeds or something like that, if he eventually starts to follow you out of curiosity, by default you have become the 'leader' and have taken the dominant role and he has accepted it, it may not work and won't cause any negative effect as long as you don't follow him, but if it does you then have a great starting point and will have an idea of how long it took for him to follow you, the time should reduce if you try it again the next day, if it takes longer at least this will tell you that he is the type of horse that may continually test your limits. I find this a great way of 'assessing' with no risk of negative training. (Both of mine will now come to the gate immediately when called). Make sure you stay safe though, maybe get a second person to observe and warn you if he looks like he's going to do something dangerous.
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