This is a weird thread, I guess, but it’s on my mind.
My barn is self-care, and my horse’s next-pasture neighbors are two horses that were supposedly saved from a kill pen. One is a walking horse, the other is an OTTB. Both were severely malnourished on arrival, and were somewhat wary of people but pretty docile (as half-starved horses tend to be). The man that got them has taken good care of them. It’s been almost a year and they are both in great flesh (walking horse is almost overweight). The OTTB is honestly a stunning horse. He’s bright red chestnut with lots of chrome. Built nice, moves nice…just seems like he could really be a cool horse for eventing or hunter/jumper. He was raced nine times (I recently saw flm of one of his races and he won handily) then supposedly sent to Florida to be trained as a polo pony? Then wound up starving on a feed lot.
The horse is aggressive. He’s fine if you approach him and everything is going the way he wants, but if he nips or crowds you and you attempt to correct him or move him out of your space, he retaliates. As in…pin ears, rush, strike, bite, rear. He’s dangerous. I went into his pasture once over the summer (didn’t realize he was like this). His fly mask was askew and I wanted to fix it so it wouldn’t rub his eye. I fixed it and he nipped at me. Without thinking I growled at him and kind of waved my hand to move him away and instead, he came at me twice as hard and I had to quickly duck back through the fence to keep from being hurt.
I swore I was done with him then, and I haven’t set foot back in his pasture, nor will I. I don’t trust him. His owner and another guy who feeds for people sometimes at the barn go in with him with no issue. They don’t dote on him or love on him, but they get him fed, blanketed, etc.
He stands at the fence a lot looking over to our pasture where I’m taking care of my gelding and his mare buddy. They’re like lap dogs and there is not a mean bone in their bodies, so along with feeding there is a lot of grooming, petting, hugging, and treat-giving happening in our pasture. And the OTTB fella stands watching with ears up, and eventually I can’t help but want to go over to say hello to him.
He’s kind of wary at first of being touched, but eventually allows it and I’ll sometimes give him a treat. Today I stood there just trying to rub him and talk to him. He wants to be a little mouthy, so I discovered he likes if I play with his nose/lip a little. It seems to soothe him. But inevitably, he’ll try to take a nip (not when I’m playing with his nose, when I try to pet his neck or I’m just standing there). I’ll wave my hands at him and shush at him to tell him to back away, and he’ll pin his ears and kind of rear at me a little like he’s trying to bully me and run me off. Because I have electric fence between us, I stand my ground and continue to get bigger and more insistent that he back off which he finally will do. I stop immediately when he complies and today he licked his lips and stood and I reached out and rubbed his face and told him he was a good boy.
The man that owns the horses has tried to have a couple of different people come out to work with the horse, and both became scared of him (understandably). The man doesn’t want anyone hurt and said it’s okay, he has no plans to ride the horse and he’s just going to live his life out in a pasture. I think he’s only like 9 years old or something.
Every time I watch this horse trot across the pasture my jaw drops. He’s just lovely. I feel like he’s a horse that would thrive in a program with plenty of exercise, etc. But I also wonder if he’s just got too much of a screw loose mentally.
I have no desire to risk my own health for this man’s horse, and he hasn’t asked me to, but I just can’t help wondering if the horse could be “fixed” enough that he could be handled more and worked with more, and possibly ridden again some day? For now, my interactions will be with an electric fence between us, and they may stay that way forever. I have a lovely, kind horse, and I am happy puttering around with him. But I can’t help but want to see if I could reach this guy’s troubled brain. He seems to like people, but he gets defensive very easily. I know he was probably allowed to be a bit naughty at the track and was just manhandled enough to do what needed to be done. I would also guess he was difficult to try to retrain by non-track people who want a horse that behaves, and that’s probably how he wound up in a bad situation. I wouldn’t doubt that there are people in the world that this horse has hurt.
I don’t know what I’m asking. It’s just on my mind. Has anyone had or known a horse like this that they were able to rehab into a solid, respectful citizen? Maybe even turned them around so that they became very nice horses to be around? I would love to see that for this guy. His owner is older than I am (I turn 50 next month) and this horse could well live another 20+ years. It’d be in his best interest to get him so he’s nice to be around at least.
citizen who is fun to be around, but he does push the boundaries and require reminder once in awhile. So I think a horse like this might be able to change (depending on the individual) but it’s not a project for the faint hearted. I’m just glad my guy was a mini and not big, or I think it would’ve been an epic fail.