Smokey

[KarinUS]

Not having a great week. It feels like one step forward to steps back
Sometimes it goes well. And sometimes we're back to absolute terror over simply having a halter on.
The only pattern I've been able to detect is: the halter obviously. Person in front. (Less scary on the side). Raising my hand to take the halter off or having part of the halter flap around.
It's such a basic thing that it really feels demoralizing that after so many months it's still such an issue.
It feels like someone really did a number on him.
I'm not convinced the scars across his face are really from a trailer mishap because strangely he is really good about getting in and out of a trailer.
I wonder if his fear is related to his former job as breakaway horse. Some misguided way to teach him to back up hard to snap the rope attachment?
I'm not having fun right now.

 

[Jessey]

Poor guy, you’ll never know for sure what happened but suddenly one day you’ll just notice your calm persistence paid off as he’ll have stopped having two step back days.

My old pony Phoenix had physical and emotional trauma from a terrible fitting saddle before I got him, he was fine to saddle but lost it when I tried to mount. I worked on it loads without much real progress, it was hit and miss, then one day I tried getting on the wrong side and he stood like a rock, and we didn’t look back after that but always mounted the wrong side as he didn’t associate that with the pain from before.

 

[Skib]

related to his former job as breakaway horse.

Please can you exlain to me in England, What is a breakaway horse?

 

[KarinUS]

Please can you exlain to me in England, What is a breakaway horse?

Are we allowed to post links?

Horse and calf enter the arena. Calf gets roped and horse sits back hard so that the attachment point for the rope breaks and the calf keeps going now no longer connected

It's that sitting back hard response that's starting to bring me to tears.

I'm not talking about riding. This is happening just on the ground with a halter.

 

[Skib]

Thank you. We went to several small local rodeos but never saw that.

 

[KarinUS]

Thank you. We went to several small local rodeos but never saw that.

I didn't know what this was either!
I looked it up after I bought him and once I saw the videos his behavior made a lot more sense.
You know how they call overtrained barrel horses 'blown'? It feels kind of like that. Like that aspect of his job was drilled into him in a way that it left a mental issue and trigger response.
And it's not just a behavior but rather he really does get terrified and stays upset for awhile.
Trimmer is coming this morning so wish me luck. Lol

 

[KarinUS]

We made it. Got his hooves trimmed. Whew.
The trimmer watching the drama of something as simple as me taking the halter off also thinks he must have had some people induced head trauma.
Lots of work still ahead

 

[Jane&Ziggy]

I feel for you. The polo pony that I loaned briefly, with dire results, had also had a head trauma and would react violently and unpredictably to bridles, halters and fly masks.

Perhaps you could look for an alternative method/approach in the hope of getting a breakthrough as @Jessey did?

 

[KarinUS]

I feel for you. The polo pony that I loaned briefly, with dire results, had also had a head trauma and would react violently and unpredictably to bridles, halters and fly masks.

Perhaps you could look for an alternative method/approach in the hope of getting a breakthrough as @Jessey did?

Thanks. I'll give it some thought. On the fly I'm not sure what that might be.

 

[KarinUS]

Feeling a lot better. We've made great progress on the head issue.
Look at how handsome he's gotten since arrival

 

[Jessey]

Well done, what worked for him in the end?

 

[KarinUS]

Well done, what worked for him in the end?

Treats! And my daughter.
We found hay based treats he can have and he likes.
The problem with me using treats I'm the past is that he understood they could be bribes for something unpleasant. Catching him to do stuff he doesn't like like dentist, vet, farrier, etc
So a lot of times showing a treat actually caused him to be like "nah I better leave"
With the time change my daughter can see him after school now and she just feeds him treats and loves on him. She's not involved in any of the scary stuff. She may ask for simple things like follow me.
So the good//bad ratio really changed for him regarding treats and rather than be suspicious he really likes it now
On the head issue itself I started to correct him gently rather than feel flustered or sorry for him.
I kind of feel embarrassed how long I was stuck in the "why are you doing this" phase rather than move to "let's work on this".
He was actually much more capable of responding positively than I expected.
I was scared asking him to change his behavior would make him escalate but it didn't!
So when he threw up his head I'd gently put a finger on the side piece of the halter and ask him to lower his head. And when he did even a little give a treat.
Every day twice a day since we make putting on halter part of being fed.
I'm not saying it won't happen again.
But it's been going really well.
He also comes to check in and I can stroke his forehead now any time! Like it's no big deal!

Life with Smokey is a lot more fun now due to those simple things like coming when called, not throwing his head up and pulling back, etc.

I can also be a little more free with my hand.
Even simple things like me raising by hand to push my hair out of MY face startled him before like he thought I was going to hit him in HIS face.

Same with the hind end. I can scratch his butt now without him running away when I lift my hand.

So being around each other has become a lot more relaxing and we're no longer walking on egg shells.

Oh the trimmer also suggested magnesium so he also gets 2 scoops of something called quiessence.

 

[Jane&Ziggy]

That's fantastic Karin, I'm so glad to hear it. He looks so much happier and calmer. Poor chap, how could such a sweet horse end up getting hit in the face? People are unfathomable sometimes.

 

[KarinUS]

Magical moment this morning. I was to the right of the barn and the horses came running to the barn.
I figured they would go to the center aisle and wait for breakfast.
But right before the barn Smokey veered to come to me for a hug.
He does like me a little bit I think.

 

[KarinUS]

I don't know what he looks so ribby there.
Probably just the angle and the way he stretches when he runs?
Pic from same day in the afternoon

 

[Jane&Ziggy]

That's lovely @KarinUS , he looks so happy and relaxed.

I love his dorsal stripe too.

 

[KarinUS]

1 year anniversary!
How time flies.
He's now super easy to catch and halter and he just sort of stopped the head throwing sitting back.
He's had teary eyes from the flies and and the sun so we tackled our last scary thing: fly masks.
I cheated a little and replaced the Velcro with snaps. The Velcro was just too scary.
The other day he hugged me back for the first time! But he's been very good about coming to let me hug him for a long time.
Money has been scarce as my business is not loving all the turmoil and tariffs etc so we still haven't bought him a saddle!
But we'll do other stuff this summer while my teenager is home for summer break.
No regrets! Happy that he turned out to be quite a gentle, snuggly boy.

 

[Jane&Ziggy]

Happy that he turned out to be quite a gentle, snuggly boy.

Would you by any chance be a gentle, snuggly human?

I think horses often return to us what we give to them

 

[KarinUS]

We got to the one year mark and suddenly everything is easy.
So weird.

Got to pay for a new transmission on the car but after that... Saddle shopping!

 

[Jane&Ziggy]

That’s a lovely picture