Unwanted horses may be cheap and easy to find, but they often suffer from physical neglect, emotional abuse, or gaps in their training. Evaluating one of these horses to determine if he or she could be cured is never easy. Bringing them back to physical and emotional health is always a gamble and may require extra time, effort, money, or special skills.
For many years, I have been training my own horses. Two of my horses had been rejected by their owners as dangerous, but I decided they could successfully be retrained. My first one was relatively easy to salvage. After he had spent weeks cooped up in a stall, he had bucked his previous owner off. All he needed was some pasture freedom, exercise, and firm hand to become a well behaved horse that anybody could safely ride.
Unwanted horses may be cheap and easy to find, but they often suffer from physical neglect, emotional abuse, or gaps in their training. Evaluating one of these horses to determine if he or she could be cured is never easy. Bringing them back to physical and emotional health is always a gamble and may require extra time, effort, money, or special skills.
For many years, I have been training my own horses. Two of my horses had been rejected by their owners as dangerous, but I decided they could successfully be retrained. My first one was relatively easy to salvage. After he had spent weeks cooped up in a stall, he had bucked his previous owner off. All he needed was some pasture freedom, exercise, and firm hand to become a well behaved horse that anybody could safely ride.
Pippin's other problem was that he had been punished for being afraid. This is one of the worse things you can do to a horse because it increases level of his fear. Months of patient work were needed to resolve this issue. One day he panicked when ice began sliding off the arena roof. When I didn’t punish him, but reassured him; he suddenly realized that he could trust me. After that day, he started running up to me and hiding behind me if anything scared him. He became so anxious to please me and turned into the gentlest horse I have ever known.
Four of the pictures with this article are of Pippin and they were taken over a period of three years. They really are all of the same horse. What they show is the gradual change in both his appearance and attitude.
RESCUE HORSES
By
Janice M. Ladendorf
46 Love Thy Horse Magazine