not surprised at the diagnosis.
I have that T Shirt on my last QH
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Good news. Fingers crossed the the horse feels a lot better.
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Horses shut down when pressure is applied and it is not relieved. Think of the way trainers desensensitise, by shaking a scary object and not stopping the shaking while the horse is panicking. It is shaken and shaken ongoing until the horse stops, the horse shuts down. You can now shake anything at it and it won’t react. You could put a lion in the arena and the horse won’t react.
Then horse gets sold to Ammie. Ammie Loves horse and treats it with kindness. Ammie shakes out the saddle blanket every day before tacking. There is no problem.
The kindness starts to work. The horse switches back on. Ammie shakes out the saddleblanket and for the first time Horse sees it. Horse pulls back, breaks the lead and flees.
OMG, he has never done that before, you now have a different horse from the day before.
This horse had too much pressure and switched off. Lameness is still pressure. Girl not knowing how to handle a horse to start with is not pure kindness. The horse is still switched off.
If possible for this horse I suggest you move it to your barn and take over daily care. Daily care is where the test comes in to switch the horse back on.
Once sound and only once sound add lunging. Then lunge with the rider on. Lunger controls horse. This is a skill if you have not done it before you need someone who can keep the horse on the lunge quiet, who will not run the horse into the wall or fence, who will not upset it with a whip or have the rein lose and tight. Ask me how I know this, sigh! Your life is in the hands of the lunger.
Start with the voice aids. Have the rider get used to the bigger gaits. Voice aids are the softest aids you can use. Rewire the aids to soft aids instead of blast aids. To start with you might need to ride him.
If you can get him sound he will switch back on. He will be a different horse.
We didn’t need the lunging with Dodge. He was a lesson horse, the first time I applied leg, nothing, no reaction, Nada. He goes forward now no problems.
I prefer Spooky Object Training to Desensitisation. The pressure is dropped. The horse learns that if it gets a fright it stands still.
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Late on here but stick to your guns as a professional and do the right, ethical thing. A reputation for doing just that is hard to establish and maintain but its your most valuable asset. Not everybody who sees this horse work is as barn blind as these people, that reflects on you, their trainer as much as on them, if not more so since you are the expert.
Beware taking this too personally or getting too involved with the kid. The fact you like the kid and she reminds you of you is cute but she and parents are clients that can go poof in a heartbeat. Based on their past behavior, they will do as they please and there are other, more specialized trainers, possibly telling them what they want to hear, they will be meeting at all those shows. They don’t sound like long term clients you can base your program on.
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Could you get a truck and trailer together and offer them a free ride to Purdue?
If it were me, i’d offer to facilitate a good eval and if they decline, i’d tell them it isn’t fair to ride a lame horse. And that i couldn’t be a part of that. That it hurts me to watch their horse.
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I have a massive diesel truck and two trailers. It was offered. They chose to use one of the local vets, which is fine. It’s a start.
@findeight there is no program, and I don’t aspire to have one, ha. They’re the only ones I give lessons to, and it’s hugely inconvenient for me. Despite being invested in their horse-success, I would not consider them friends (of which I have a grand total of two). If they vamoose, that’s fine -they can get their licks the hard way like I did. I just want her to succeed with her horse, because she works hard at it.
At some point in the next yearish I’m going to pass them on anyways - they will need a ranch-specific trainer, and that I am not.
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Brava! Nice try then.
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Thank goodness!
Good luck!
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Please keep us posted on post-injection progress!
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I think that endlessclimb used to board at the same barn with these people, disliked the barn and the people (see “the daily dumb” in off course) and now boards at a different barn, while the "student " still boards at endlessclimb’s former barn. I think that endlessclimb does not train professionally, but was just doing a favor for a kid?
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thank you for this excellent post.
You see these on line auctions for these amazing young horses that do everything but play the bugle at sunrise. people pay amazing prices for these horses and wonder why the deadhead character and training falls apart 4 months later.
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Once the horse realizes they are no longer languishing in the dictator’s labor camp, a sort of whole new sense of spirit and optimism overtakes them. They get to have opinions! 
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I’d say he looks 85% better.
His tail carriage and facial expression tell the tale, as well. Good, good. The vet had trouble getting into one of the joints, so they were right in the nick of time to try and get something in there. I told them they must stay in FRONT of this from now on.
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I don’t think they would have done anything about this if I hadn’t laid down the law. While I don’t like being micro-manage-y, they needed to be backed into a corner to see this wasn’t optional or something to be postponed.
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One horse is a lot better off because you stood firm.
Hopefully an improvement in his attitude and performance helps convince them that in future, check an issue with the vet. And listen to the trainer! Especially endlessclimb!
[Your username checks out on this one. 
]
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He’s doing OK! No further improvement. They participated in a ranch clinic, which gave us some good things to work on. The weather was so weird this week I cancelled the lesson (40 degree temp swing in just a few hours - colic weather). I’ll see them next week!
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I was thinking same thing.
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