I bet he’ll be ok with more time to reacclimate. It must be so strange for them.
My horse was shockingly relaxed with the whole import experience, but it ended up being a pretty quick trip and he was with a group of other horses the whole way which probably helped a lot.
Did you pull blood during his PPE? If yes you could have it checked just in case they gave him something to gentle him during the PPE?
Just myself and boyfriend have handled him…which consists of lots of snacks and trying to get him to warm up to us! He met my vet but we did bare minimum to not upset him.
Yes I did and had toxicology done on it a few weeks after getting him. Came back negative for any substances
IME, having watched this play out several times, is that the Irish have fairy dust in their breeches and have a way of making the greenest of the green horses go around quite big courses like they know what they are doing. When we mere mortals get them, we discover they are quite feral.
I would treat your horse like he’s a complete baby and send him off to a colt starter.
What does your vet think? I get not wanting to overwhelm him further, but with how unsettled he still is after 2 months scoping for ulcers would be high on my list. Putting it off may just be prolonging his unhappiness. I’d probably want a neuro exam too just for peace of mind but that may not be possible if he’s that reactive.
How big is his paddock? Does he have space to run and get his energy out? He may not have had as much turnout during mud season but he was also getting solid workouts almost every day and probably still going out in a big field when not in a stall.
Also wondering what your trainer thinks. The suggestion to send him off for a restart is a good one. He may be happier in a busier program anyway if that’s what he was used to.
I’m not saying to be a big meanie with him, but do you think you are perhaps not setting high enough expectations about manners? You’ve mentioned lots of cookies and not wanting to stress him out. What expectations are you setting for him? It also sounds you’re not working with a trainer. Do you think having someone else look at him and work with him might help? Even just a less invested pair of eyes?
I was thinking along the same lines. I can understand being careful for the first week, but being extra cautious and baby stepping around them like you don’t want to upset them can often make things worse. Maybe start treating him like a horse who needs to behave himself (I don’t mean a CTJ meeting) might be a good idea IME. Treating them like they are made out of cut glass tends to make them act like that.
With his history, I wouldn’t bother scoping. Just treat him with both ulcerguard and carafate.
As mentioned by others, i would also start treating him like a normal horse expecting the same amout of respect and good behavior you expect from any other horse.
Body clipping and pulled shoes could make any horse miserable, especially if they are used to UK weather and are now in the NE. It may be he is so uncomfortable in his own skin right now that just being touched triggers him.
I agree with the comment about Irish people and how their horses are broke. They have an entirely different mindset around horses than people in the US do. It may be he has had a lot asked of him in the last two months and is at his limit. I love irish horses but the ones I worked with were not quiet. I’d call them good internalizers.
If you haven’t already, finding someone used to working with young horses should help you.
Take a look at Warwick Schiller’s stuff. You can get access to his video library for a trial period. While you are waiting for the weather to change and his to settle, there is some excellent relationship building information. (He is also on FB)
Does he have a buddy to turn him out with?
I watch my young horses and they are out there wrestling and chasing each other for 3+ hours at a time, pretty much every day. No one comes in with marks except for some surface scratches/scrapes.
I think I would treat for ulcers and start some round pen work and start moving his feet, gaining trust, and respect.
I’ve imported 3 over many years…the first 2 were pretty much adjusted within a week or 2…both could be ridden and were pretty much consistent with the behavior when I tried them before import.
The third was a disaster…mare was in a longer quarantine (as a mare)…and I got a call from them that she nearly killed one of the staff trying to put her into the walker. They offered to just do turn out at my risk of her injuring herself…we did that option to let her move. She reared and struck at me when I went to visit her. She was not safe to ride and very difficult on the ground. We did all the things to help her acclimate and medically investigate. She also came over with her own bottle of vet prescribed sedatives from the seller.
We never made progress…she had multiple colics which ultimately led to us having to emergently euthanize (it was really bad and the vet didn’t think we would make it to the vet hospital). Turns out she had acute on chronic pancreatitis…the colics were episodes of pancreatitis. Nothing we could have done…she was likely having episodes before I bought her that weren’t disclosed. But it explained why she was often so grumpy and reactive.
Sorry I don’t have a better experience to share…probably the last time I will import a horse. I’ve switched to buying US bred youngsters instead.
I would treat for ulcers without scoping. You may also find some clicker training of use, since he likes cookies. You can use it to shape some better behaviors and trust, and hopefully the ulcer treatment will help.
I’m going to suggest the 3+ months you’ve had him might not be enough time for him to settle after the Major upheaval shipping presents.
The Good News is you report he’s interested in being with you.
Even if it’s only the treats talking it’s a positive action on his part.
I can’t give you a time table for how much time is enough, they’re individuals.
I hope Tincture of Time helps both you & your new guy.
As general comments, Irish horsemen, as mentioned above, can often make a horse appear to be a saint and “hunting experience” is often “put on a saddle and kick on”. The Irish horse culture is not especially cuddly as horses are working animals and expected to do a job so interaction with humans might be brief and businesslike. The saintly character of Irish horses can be exaggerated too: they are often stoic and internalise their worries. As a tradionally bred Irish horse, he is still very immature as they don’t reach full maturity until 7 or 8. Any horse will vary in their response but it can take months and months for a new horse to settle into their new home.
A friend purchased a beautiful ID youngster, via video and a respected sport horse auction, during the Covid Lockdown. From his Irish home farm, via the auction process, on to a professional horse shipper for a couple of nights, a sea crossing and then the final journey to his new permanent home took about four days. His eyes must have been out on stalks the entire time! He was really headshy when he arrived and had to be gentled into accepting anything on his head, which took several weeks. Presumably when passing through the system, no one was unkind but also no one had the time to be quiet and gentle.
He is a happy horse now and won his first showing classes. But 4 years later he is still growing and growing.
Another thought - what type of barn was he at before? Busy and hectic or quiet?
Is he now at something almost the opposite of that? It sounds like you have him at home.
Some horses do better with the daily chaos of a busy boarding/lesson/training barn, where some horses like the quiet of a small place with very little activity.
If home is now quiet and he is used to busy, he might be fretting himself into being stressed.
This. If I took my saintly ho hum mare took her out of work, clipped her, took her somewhere 30 degrees colder, pulled her shoes, and put her in someone’s backyard, you would think she’s an absolutely terrified feral horse. As a horse that needs structure and isn’t innately brave, if a rider then was giving her cookies for everything and treating her like she was terrified of her world it would become a deeply reinforcing cycle.
Pop on shoes, put her in a routine, give her buddies all around, regular work, have compassion for the spooks but hold clear personal boundaries, and in a week you’d have the same plodding unbothered horse.
Personally, I’d send horse to a low key but fairly active training barn with a heated ring, put shoes back on, scope for ulcers, and if everything looks clear have a trainer start putting the horse back into a routine even if that’s light lunging and tack walking. Either the horse will settle in or you actually have a horse that has no foundation and all of the cookies and coddling aren’t going to put on the foundation the horse needs to process horse life.
X2 on what GraceLikeRain says.
Work and structure, horse needs a routine to realize this place is like last place, he’s still a horse and all will be ok.
Plus being ridden/routine will hopefully get energy (mental and physical) out safely and allow horse to gain confidence by showing what he knows.
If a training barn/program is not an option, then at least get the horse into turnout with friends. And try to establish a daily routine of brush, tack, lunge and (hopefully when you feel safe) get on and at least tack walk. Build from there. Involve a good young horse starter if you can.
You are building the foundation of your relationship - these months are the most critical.
Edited to add: He likely doesn’t know how to be cuddly or that being loved on is a good thing. He was treated as a working horse - in, groom, ride, back out. By putting him into a program, you give him the chance to show you that he knows how to be a good working horse, from which you can then build.
My first ‘import’ came from over 4,000 km away. Got ET kidnapped as I said, landed in a strange new world but still Canada and we still all spoke English and had the same(ish) food. He didn’t know how to eat a treat as he’d never had one, we had to start him on carrots with green tops as he liked to eat the green part and then realized the carrot part is also good. It took him about 6 months to fully come out of his shell and settle in. It is a huge transition when they lose all their people, barn mates and friends.
Irish import syndrome. People who import regularly say “ he had a bad quarantine”. As others have said it is a variety of factors. They are generally kept very simply in Ireland and the idea of training ( outside of top level competition stables) is very different from your middle level US barn. Transit is a very stressful week or two, depending on how well the connections work. Workers and technicians in quarantine are not always as skilled as one might hope. And the somewhat common side of the ID comes out. No one brags about it but many single horse imports get resold because they were not what the owner was hoping for. Professionals that do a lot of importing know that some horses will be ready to sell on the American market in a month and some will need six months. The good news is every one I have known did become a citizen in time. Stay safe, don’t take it personally, set firm boundaries. Most of all take advantage of professional help. Some will need a rider that is strong enough and patient enough to show them the path to righteousness. Hopefully in 10 years when someone compliments on your wonderful horse his first year will just be a great story.
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