Rough starts, good endings?

[PSD]

Does anyone have any stories that they could share about horses that were difficult to start/attitude problems, but through persistence, turned out very, very well? As, you can tell, I need some encouragement......

[Sparky Boy]

Does anyone have any stories that they could share about horses that were difficult to start/attitude problems, but through persistence, turned out very, very well? As, you can tell, I need some encouragement......

OH YES. :yes: Two years ago I bought this coming 3 yr old mare as a resale project. She supposedly had 30 days under saddle. I only saw her being ridden, didn't try her myself. Got her home, first ride, dumped me twice. Turns out when she decided she didn't need to go forward anymore, she'd rear, drop, spin and buck, until she got you off. I was not pleased.

Long story short, I felt like I had bought her (stuck with her) so it was my problem to fix her. Certainly couldn't sell her like that. I really had to get some courage and just ride through it. After a while, she tried it less and less until she completely stopped. Now, she's my favorite horse and I wouldn't dream of selling her. I just love her and she's becoming a very nice little show horse. I was also VERY discouraged for a time but I think my persistance really paid off. I'm very happy I didn't give up on her.

One thing that worked for the two of us was patience. I was always very patient and quiet. Never, ever lost my temper and got after her. Maybe that was key to our success.

Good luck to you.

[gg4918]

At the barn that I first started out at, there was a grey mare that I was assigned to ride everytime-she was a nasty thing. You had to muzzle her every time you went to work around her because she would LASh out at you with her teeth. You couldn't do anything around her without risking your own life. While riding, she would buck and buck and buck until the rider came off, and all sorts of other nasty things. However, I fell in love with her and, loving a good challenge, POURED over her.
I leased her and spent an entire summer devoting every minute to her. And it turned out all that she wanted/needed was love. By the summers end she would nicker as soon as she heard my voice, she would cuddle with me for hours in her stall, I could get on her bareback and jump around any course that was set up. The muzzle was thrown away and the mare ended up being champion at quite a few horse shows.
It was the most amazing feeling, to know that a horse can transform like that simply because of the work that I put into her.
Last I heard, shes now a total bombproof beginners horse.

Good Luck!

[bigyellowmoose]

This might not be much help, but I'm hoping my horse turns out to be one of those stories :D He's a young draft X gelding who has had no real work, was given 60 days of training as a 5-year-old, and pretty much stood in a field the rest of the time. When I purchased him he was IMPOSSIBLE to catch-- literally impossible. He just didn't care about people at all. He would spook at anything, had NO work ethic, spent a good portion of his time with me completely hysterical. I've only owned him a few months now but he has already come a long way. He's already better to catch and is starting to develop self-confidence and more of a work ethic, even though I am not able to work him as often as I'd like (trying to deal with a full-time-plus job and a 1-year-old baby boy, lol!) I spent a few weeks convinced that I should send him back to his old owners and just give up, and I'm hoping that in the future I will look back and be amazed at how far he's come. So... like I said, don't know if our story is that much help, but I love reading other peoples' experiences for hope and inspiration in my own situation :)

Good luck in yours!

[jumpingmaya]

I have one...
Saw her at the track as coming 3 year old... picked her up right then and there as the owner knew she wouldn't make it as a race horse...
Worked with her for a WHILE on the ground and lunge work...
She wouldn't so much buck me off... she just didn't feel like doing what I was asking... ever really. I had so many lessons where I would just be in tears by the end of it... I thought "she hated me.."
Either way, I gave her 6 months in pasture my senior year of high school when she was a 4 year old... she grew a LOT (went from 15.3 to 16.2 hands within a year), started her again as a 5 year old. She was HARD to ride.. red head chestnut tbd mare...
But I never gave up! It wasn't an option in my mind! The day she turned 7, her whole attitude changed. It was like... ok I've put you through hell and you've dealt with it... so what do you want from me? She turned out to be my high A/O horse...with a heart bigger than a mountain.
She did everything for me... saved my butt more than a couple of times.. and in return, I respected her for who she was and gave her tons of love :).
I just lost her a couple of weeks ago :cry: and I miss her everyday... she taught me more than I had asked for...
in my opinions, the ones that take a while to trust you and go well for you... are the ones that will stick around and "help you out" in nasty situations later on... She was worth her weight in gold :sadsmile:
All I can say is... that red headed mare taught me what it meant to be a "horse-person"... it isn't all ask and take.. you have to give a LOT to in order to have that kind of bond/relationship!
Good luck and don't give up... it will be well worth your time... :) :D

[mjrtango93]

Oh yes had one of these. A girl at the barn bred her big fancy WB mare to an equally fantastic stallion, and the colt ensued. He lived with us until he was 2 yrs old, then was sold to the owners friend as a hunter prospect. We had done all the ground work, and he had been ponied and long lined. When he was sold he left to grow up a bit then went to training at a BNT. He ended up coming back to us a 4/5 year old, 17.3h, 1300# monster! You couldn't lunge him (he would charge you), his manners were crap, he couldn't be put out with other horses, and heaven forbid you try to sit on him! Poor boy went in attitude re-adjustment bootcamp in a hurry. The ground manners came right back in about a week with a few sessions in hobbles in the cross ties and a stud chain for walking. He never did get turned out with another horse when he was with us, but he was just to big to risk one of our horses. The first 2 months was nothing but a fight. A fight to get up the road, a fight to go around the arena, a fight to go on the trails, basically a big giant fight. He ended up being ridden in western reins and got a couple spankings for inappropriate conduct and gradually decided that perhaps he would behave. By the time he left he was fabulous to ride (well besides the cow phobia), and was jumping around 3'. He went back to BNT for finishing and showing. He ended up winning everything and was sold for big bucks to an AA. Last I heard he is still with that same AA and its probably almost 4 years later at this point, and he's still winning everything and happy as could be.

[jacksorbetter]

every horse i've ever owned!!!!:lol:

[Czar]

We bought our "toughie" as a yearling. He wasn't a heck of a lot of trouble to start but he was HARD to train.

He was a big, strong WB and fairly opinionated....it took 2 years of showing (from 4 to 6) to get him actually going around decently and that was showing consistently all summer long. Before that, it was rearing in the hacks, running sideways, barreling down around his corners, refusing to go to one end of the ring etc...and none of that was from poor riding/training - he was just a lot of horse. At the end of it all...we sold him in the 6 figures as a late 6 yr old (he moved and jumped a 10++).

When we sold him, he was on a strict program - we'd figured him and finally gotten to the bottom of him.

Sold him to an ammy (who, bless her heart ;) couldn't ride one side of him) and 2 years later he was back :no: and it wasn't pretty. They hadn't adhered to the program and it had unravelled fast - he'd only had maybe 9 shows in two years and would no longer jump...even for a pro. Ironically, he never actually stopped at the 'jump'...just pulled out that 'not going to the end of the ring' bit he used to do.

After a long hard summer, we had him jumping around again but you had to do everything just so - if the routine changed, he would default to dragging & balking (not a fun combination). He was on the road to recovery but unfortunately, the owner still wanted quite a bit for him and we weren't prepared to pay it. We saw him at a horseshow recently he was about 100 pounds underweight and psychotic :cry:

Sorry for the novel....but even a tough horse that has been screwed up CAN be rehabbed if done properly.

A green horse that is naughty is super easy compared to the rehab - however, it's usually that naughty green horse that ENDS up the rehab.

[*jumper*]

Story time! :)

So my first horse was picture perfect...super cute, super talented, super fancy blahblah. He was a major step up for me (I think I was 16 when I got him and had spent lots of time on schoolies) so I came into the relationship knowing it would be work. However, I didn't realize just how things were going to go. That perfect picture I had in my head of my first horse was shattered the first ride after signing the papers--now mind you, I had had him on trial for about a week and he didn't put a foot wrong. That first night, he hacked well and so I cantered him over a tiny (like 18'' tiny) vertical, after which he buried his head between his knees and sent me flying. It shattered my confidence, but I knew that stuff like that happens, and put it behind me. About a week later, he started doing that after every.single jump. To me, to trainers, to anyone. It got to the point where my trainers stopped riding him for a few months. No one wanted to deal with him so little naive me kept taking lessons and getting tossed while my trainers didn't dare to tackle his issues (long story... :no:) We had vets check him out, etc. I still don't know what his deal was, but after giving up once and coming back, I decided to figure this out.

I don't know what I did, why he did his little rodeo routine, or why he stopped, but after months of training and patience, he quit his shenanigans. I never really understood this horse, as one second he'd land off a jump and toss me and the next he'd save my butt (like the time I lost confidence to a fence, rode backwards, caused him to almost stop, and he continued to jump the jump anyway. He put up with a lot :() He was an enigma.

Anyway, he stopped his routine, and although he still had quirks, he taught me so much. He made me the rider I am today, and I can never thank him for all those lessons, good and bad, that he bestowed upon me. I got so frustrated, so angry at times, but I learned that patience, knowledge, and determination are so valuable in a situation like this. I never thought I'd salvage this horse, especially with my limited skills. But I got through that rough patch, got him into a good training program, and he sold as a nice eq horse that has won a ton with his new owner. I don't feel accomplished, or feel like it was me; we just eventually came to an agreement and I was able to work out a partnership with this horse, and when we finally did it was so worth the hard times.

[fourmares]

My current horse... My trainer helped me start him. The first time I got on him she was going to lunge him. She told me, "don't come off, because I'm not sure I'll be able to keep him from going after you." He's eight this year and is turning into a pretty nice horse. He still wants to get behind the leg and will rear if you hit him with the stick, and he hates my friends horse and wants to get him when we ride together, but he can find his own spot most of the time, jumps anything he's pointed at, and is absolutely not spooky. He's not perfect yet, but he's getting there.

[HowDoILook]

My previous farm had abought a wonderful (what we thought) large paint pony. He was supposed to be something for me to move up on. He had been showing in the Childrens Hunters with his previous owner and was supposed to be a packer, auto everything pretty much. He was great for probably the first week we had him, and then everything fell apart.

All of a sudden he decided that the world was going to end whenever we jumped and that a pole on the ground was a scarey pony eating monster. Lessons consisted of trying to get him to walk over a pole calmly, but it usually started with launchin 5' over them first. We finally got to a point where we could jump crossrails if we slowly built them up from poles... then there were flowers. The flowers took us a solid 6 months to conquer. Just jumping jumps that had flowers next to them were scarey. But we eventually began to figure out that nothing was going to kill him.

Ive had him for 3.5 years now and I trust him to pack around even the smallest of kids (If they can get him moving. Hes VERY lazy). Hes a great ride and awesome at the shows too. Hopefully soon hes going to make some little kid happy, cause I outgrew him way to fast.

[RioTex]

I had a really fancy homebred. She had a gorgeous jump and she was a good mover. She was also more mare than I wanted to deal with. I TRIED to be patient, but I wanted her to give a little bit too. There was always a buck under the surface, but it didn't often come out.

She was my first concussion. She was DONE that night and did not want to trot up the long side one more time. She was my huge dose of humility. Had out of state buyers fly in so they could watch her canter up the long side and buck me off on the mounting block. She was my test of patience. Had DH stand out at the ring more than one night after dark asking if he should turn on the ring lights or was I almost done? Ummm...no not done until she quits throwing her hips into my leg.

She was tough at three and bossy the spring of her 4yo year. Summer rolled around and she got better and better. Still afraid to open up the stride as I didn't really want to get ditched again. Last ride, the buyer wanted her to jump the in and out that was set in the ring (for a really big strided horse that I had been schooling). Rather than whine about the length of the two stride, I smiled and galloped up and sure enough that mare had come far enough that she covered the distance, jumped in great form and went to the PPE the next day.

[PSD]

Thanks every one for all your stories!!! It makes me feel SO much better. He is a horse I bred, so I will stick with him. He just turned 4, has really been under saddle on a regular basis only about 2-1/2 months. He is very fancy, but just a challenge. His mother and full sister were SO easy to start and work with.

All of your stories have given me so much encouragement!!!!! Thank you!!

[Hrselvr1982]

I am hoping my horse to be one of these stories also! He is a 4 yr old WB cross that was supposively untrained when I bought him, but after time starting him, realized he had been majorly messed up somewhere! I love him to death, had him to the trainer's for about 4 months during the winter, and am riding him regularly now. I would not even ride him the day he was to come home from the trainer's, but on my own time line, got back on him at home, and little by little each day am challenging him on new things. I do know though that one wrong move during each ride could send me flying...:( but I'm glutton for punishment!