A Rocky Road

No, not the cake kind although that would be nice too!

This is about my newest project at FOH. His name is Rocky and he is about five or six I think. He arrived at the rescue centre as a surrender from his previous owner. I don't know a lot about him except that he was being trained as a racehorse. He looks more quarter horse than tb to me as he is really very chunky so I suspect that he was training for QH races over here. However, before he could complete his training, whilst being shod, he apparently ended up with a nail straight through his frog. I think there must have been complications/ infection as he ended up in a field for four years until he arrived last week at the rescue.

He is being stalled (stabled) there and is very quiet and happy in his stall. I went in and spent some time in his stall getting to know him before I brought him out for the first time. In the round pen he was quite tense and jumpy so I just spent some time doing some quiet in hand work. We didn't do much as he wasn't in the right place mentally to do much more than react rather than learn so I just wanted him to get to know me a bit and see what he is like with ground stuff. He is very inquisitive and affectionate but he is a strong, big lad and will need nice, clear boundaries too. We finished the session with a groom which he really loves.

Butter wouldn't melt...

The next session I only had access to the indoor arena as the round pen and all outdoors was cover in a foot or so of snow. Again, he sparked up the moment he left his stable. The indoor arena had another horse being lunged so it was good for him to work around another horse. He was very alert again and on edge and we just walked round in hand for quite a long time. The window in the arena was a big draw for him to spook at but also to be fascinated by. Again there wasn't much point in trying to 'work' him yet as he is very unsettled but we did do some basic moving from pressure stuff, turning etc. He doesn't understand being led from his right hand side. I have seen this with a HUGE amount of the ex racehorses over here so we worked on this today too, sandwiching the tough side with the easy sides for him. A little desensitization too but this is more helpful in his stable where he is less reactive at the moment. After the other horse left we did a few more bits in hand and then I wanted him to be able to run for a bit and just have a chance to view the new surroundings in his own way. I allowed him a while of just being silly, running, bucking, farting- as they do. After a bit, when he started to try to hang around the gates in, I started asking him to pay some attention to me. Moving him forward when I wanted him to- asking for more speed and then less. This work is the bit I have found just fascinating with the horses here. That without any prior training you can have them responding to body language and you. He did great and basically popped himself on a circle around me, working in trot and canter and whoa too. He is a bright horse and really responds well to people but is probably by far the greenest horse I have handled here. I think he needs time seeing the farm first without too much pressure to work but also with an understanding that he needs to listen and respond to his handlers. Once back in his stable I wanted to see how he was with feet being picked up. He had no response to the usual cues so I moved him to be able to shift his weight onto the other side so he had no choice but to allow that foot to be lifted- timing is everything! Once I had his foot he didn't want me to keep it for more than a seconds and tried his best to tug it away and wave it around. I kept a hold on it until he relaxed which didn't take long at all and then let him have it back. We finished with a grooming session and he was super chilled by the time I had finished with him.

I am sure lots of the people at FOH think I am super slow and pretty weird at times. I think they would have been on him by now to see how he reacts but everything about him tells me he is far from ready for this. Even when he is ready I think he will need a total reback and someone to be able to get on him with me on the ground. From what I have seen so far - I won't be the first one getting on this boy!

UPDATE!!!

Day 3 of working with Rocky today and he did great. He was much more relaxed heading into the arena and wasn't holding his breath today. He allowed me to lead him on both sides. I changed directions turning him in front of me to keep putting him on different sides. After a short while, he settled nicely and we managed some small left rein lunge circles. He did very well in both walk and trot and didn't over react to anything. We finished on a good note and back in the stable I popped a saddlecloth and then saddle on him, he was quite happy with this too. He is still a spooky horse in the arena but he really did well today.

*after working Rocky I spoke to another girl who had worked once with Rocky before I did, she found him very difficult and apparently he kept reacting like he was going to get hit and she couldn't get him to do anything much. I think she went straight in with him tacked up in Western tack and tried to lunge him- all of which would have been sensory overload for him. I think he is my project now so hopefully I can continue to take it slowly with him and move onto the next thing when I think he is ready.