# Retraining an abused horse :( advice needed.



## Odissi (Jul 18, 2010)

Greetings everyone, 
I found this forum while looking for a resource website to help me with a training issue. *(be warned... this post includes a very sad story.)*

Firstly, I grew up with horses... Im 25 now and by the time i was 16 I owned 3 which I trained from green babies to be awesome bomb proof hunter jumper show horses pretty much all by myself.  
I donated them to my stable I rode at to be school horses when I was 18 after being offered my dream job in London... 

Soooo.. it's been 7 years since I've done anything with horses... (but it's like riding a bike right.... it's not something that you forget when it was your passion and life for so many years...)

Anyways.... 

I just had an opportunity "fall into my lap" 

I have a friend who has two full blooded arabians, once upon a time she used to ride them and work them every day... and then she fell very ill with cancer which she has been battling for 8 years... 

When she got sick... her horses became pets...(like two big dogs really) Of course she has had someone looking after them in that time... but only basic grooming / feeding....(they're overweight, underworked and have forgotten A LOT of their manners)

But here's the sad part.... in addition to having to deal with cancer she's also had to deal with an abusive husband which she has FINALLY gotten a divorce from... This dude is the lowest of the low... not only did he beat his terminally ill wife... _he would go out to the paddock and beat her favorite horse as well_ :-(

(yeah I know... disgusting right?) 

his favorite methods of abuse included beating the horse with a 2x4 and tying him up for hours in the stall with his head as high as it could possibly go.... (nose straight up in the air) 

(when I heard all this on my second day of working with them I burst into tears... how ANYONE could do that to a horse is beyond me...)

But now that this history has come to light... It begs the question...

How the hell do you erase those kind of emotional scars from an animal? :? 

He REALLY freaks out when you try to touch his head (behind / in between his ears mainly) ... lashes out with his front hooves and tries to bite... 

and also he HATES it when you go into the stall with him... he turns violent and tries to kick and definitely won't let you get ANYWHERE near him with a halter if you're in that space. 

I desperately want to help this horse learn to trust people again... I know it's going to take a lot of love and patience on my part... but i could really do with some creative training techniques to try to reprogram this kind of behavior... I've dealt with "problem" horses before... but never in this context.... 

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. (I know it was kind of long) 

If there's anyone out there who might have some advice to share your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

-Hailey


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## Punchie25 (Jul 17, 2010)

If I were you, I would take things slow. I knew a horse whose owners were never around and he had been neglected. He started to not trust people, I'm not sure why. I fell in love with him immediately. I started going to the ranch every day and step by step, he began to trust me. I just took it slow, started off petting him where he was comfortable with, then once he gained my trust I tried to get him to trust me petting him where he wasn't as comfortable with it. Good thing is, by that point, he does trust you. Just take things with him really slow, and don't rush into anything that is very uncomfortable for him until he is pretty sure you won't hurt him.


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## yukontanya (Apr 11, 2010)

WOW, great job for taking this on. Pm me, and we can talk back a forth. Where is this horse your place or theirs? Is there a safe paddock you can get him to? And stop trying to do stuff with this horse. He needs to regroup and not be pushed right now. How much time have you put into being with him? I have only just now started to work with my abused gelding and he's been mine for 7 months, but I did not start anything big until i saw his mind change.


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## wild_spot (Jan 30, 2008)

If I were you, I would PM Flitterbug on this forum - She has a ton of experience and great advice for working with abused horses.


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## kitten_Val (Apr 25, 2007)

What a hell! I'm sorry about your friend and horses! 

I'm very sorry to say that, but for some horses mental scars will never go away, doesn't matter how you treat and work with the horse. BUT you can smooth them out (or even erase for some horses). It takes lots, lots, lots of time, efforts, and patience. Just take it easy, and move 1/4 inch a day, or 2 days, or a week. Slow introduce him to the fact people can be nice and treat him with love. Talk, treats, feed, anything pleasant you can think of, then start petting - from the areas he's OK about and go up and up towards the face. 

I did work with the horse once beat right in head with the manure fork number of times. He had 2 permanent bumps on his head after that (which never disappeared). From what I was told some "stall cleaning" workers went mad when he didn't move in stall and just hit him. End result - horse wasn't just head shy, he was terrified of ANY movement next to him. I worked him up to the point I could deal with him, he let me mess with his head and all, but unfortunately he never was a reliable mount. He was too unpredictable. 

I wish you best luck with the horse! I really hope it'll turn out really good for both of you!


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## draftrider (Mar 31, 2010)

Go very slow. I would put them out in a nice pasture with a calm, sweet buddy. Begin by just being around them, and by offering delicious treats. Work your way towards having them stand quietly while you pet and brush Buddy horse. Once they will stand quiet and accept your close proximity, up the pressure by starting to pet and stroke the new horses. I tend to stroke the neck first, working my way outwards. Once they accept petting all over, then its time to start retraining.

Go slow. Start at the beginning with round penning or lunging. Work your way up to each step slowly.

Be careful and always, stay safe.


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## Silvera (Apr 27, 2010)

I would also suggest putting the horse out with a calm trusting buddy. I wouldn't try to stall this horse until you have gotten the trust back more. If the stall is where he is most afraid it is best to avoid it until he is more comfortable. 

I would suggest (in a smaller paddock with the buddy) to take a chair and sit in the paddock with them. Have some treats to give but don't go into their space. Wait for them to come over and when the scared horse touches you first with his nose then you can give him a treat. Don't worry about touching his face until after he is accepting your presence and touching other parts of his body. If he walks away that's fine, let the assosiation be on his terms for a while. Do this as often as you can until you can touch his face without harsh problems.

Once he is comfortable with you in his space then you can work at getting him accustomed to you working with him. Once you get to the point where you are re-training him remember to not give him allowances for bad behavior, it is ok to dicapline him if he acts out, just don't hit him in the face. Use your voice to let him know he has done wrong. When you get to lunging work at getting his respect. If you have a round pen that would be ideal as you can really work at moving his feet. Work on change of direction and try to get him to join up with you.

Remember that through out this process you must stay safe. When you are in the field don't let your gaurd down, but don't be tense either. 

The other thing you can do is if it get's to the point where you are stuck, find a trainer in your area that has delt with this kind of thing to help you through this.

Good luck and I hope everything works out for both of you.


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## White Foot (Jun 4, 2009)

Others have given great information. If it were me I wouldn't even try to touch him until you can see him visibly calm down and just get used to you coming in everyday to feed. Or give it a week or two.

When you do start doing things with him, like others have said, GO slow. He needs to build of confidence again and know that you won't hurt him. When you need to go into his stall or touch his head offer him a treat. After all you are going into his house, uninvited. At first only take one step in, offer a treat, and leave. And every day go in further and further. Talk quiet around him, sing to him, touch his soft and nice. Everytime he lets you touch him, tell him he's a very good boy. 

Don't get mad if he gets scared or accidentally hurts you. That's the worst thing you can do.


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## Kawairashii Ichigo (Jul 18, 2010)

Watching paint dry. No more exciting. treats, patience, patience, love and more patience. Never get frustrated, if something you try doesn't work, be calm about it, simply either try repetition (Repetition in the way that if he shys, don't take it as a this way doesn't work. It takes time.) or find a new taktic. don't rush into touching his head and ears. Start slow and try to gain trust that way. If you can get it to a round pen, perfect. Free lounge it. Daily. Don't be scared. That only reassures its unease. stay calm, like I sometimes say "deaden your nerves, but ALWAYS know what they can do." In other words, deaden your nerves as not to be scared, but know what it can and will do. Best thing, free lounge, offer treats after (Everytime you see it, that way it gets to know you for something good). Praise for anything good. be careful. after a while of everyday free lounging (If you need to set food and water in it to have it as a correl so be it -If bringing it back and forth everyday if going to be a dangerous challenge, do it the once and work your way up to leading after a LOT of work and bonding.-) Also, don't think everyday has to be just work. Work your way up to when it lets you touch it, bring a soft brush and just give a small groom. I don't mean all over legs and everything, nor do I mean to even try to remove dirt. If all you get is a few strokes every now and then fine. It's not about cleaning, it's about showing love and helping to show trust. Your not there to hurt. Be aware this isn't going to be an over night thing, maybe not even a month, you might be able to make a lot of progress in a month, but be aware, this is something that's going to take a long time. Rehabilitating and training a horse should be no more exciting than watching paint dry. Don't feel sorry for the horse. They can pick up on it, they don't know why your sorry, simply show it what love is. Remind it of love. Love is protecting, caring and confident. If you always feel bad, the horse won't pick up on what it is doing good or bad. It's not going to know your safe if you feel unstable/unsure. But be proud of any accomplishment. let the horse know.There's lots of things you can do down the road, but in the meantime I hope this helps a least a little.


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## Kawairashii Ichigo (Jul 18, 2010)

I agree on the buddy thing though.


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## mls (Nov 28, 2006)

Odissi said:


> But here's the sad part.... in addition to having to deal with cancer she's also had to deal with an abusive husband which she has FINALLY gotten a divorce from... This dude is the lowest of the low... not only did he beat his terminally ill wife


When did your friend pass away?


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## draftrider (Mar 31, 2010)

If you want to call me, I would be happy to talk to you about abused horses. I've rehabbed many- had to put down a few- I am a realist. I can't save them all, but I will try with each one. I'd like to talk to you about these arabs too. And how you trained 3 bomb proof jumpers. I've never met a bomb proof horse, let alone a jumper.

Pm me for my phone number. =)


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## Speed Racer (Oct 21, 2009)

draftrider said:


> And how you trained 3 bomb proof jumpers. I've never met a bomb proof horse, let alone a jumper.


Yes, I'm curious about this as well, since she supposedly did all of this by the time she was 16 y/o.

IME, the only truly bombproof horse is a dead one. But then, I've only had horses 32 years.


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## draftrider (Mar 31, 2010)

I was once thrown from a "bomb proof" horse. I tell ya, it don't matter if the horse is "bomb proof" or not, it still hurts when you hit the ground.


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## kitten_Val (Apr 25, 2007)

Speed Racer said:


> IME, the *only truly bombproof horse is a dead one. * But then, I've only had horses 32 years.


I'd also add deaf and blind 40 years old!


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## draftrider (Mar 31, 2010)

OP, where'd ya go? I want to compare training with you.


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## Odissi (Jul 18, 2010)

mls said:


> When did your friend pass away?


She's still alive  hence why I've been hired to look after her babies. 

I want to thank EVERYONE for the absolutely amazing advice... so many good things said here.. Im definately going to try the "chair in the paddock" with a bag of treats thing this morning, and start putting him with the buddy horse more as the other arab is actually really sweet 

as far as the questions about bombproofing jumpers... IT CAN BE DONE... the magic trick is literally "dropping bombs" next to them.... (my home where my horses were kept was in between a bombing range (no joke) AND a shooting range.... 
when I first got them they were green but rideable... and when they moved into their "new home" they went from green rides to unpredictable spooks that would panic at every loud noise...(understandable really given the location) 
LOTS of patience... LOTS of more extreme sacking out (making loud noises mainly using garbage can lids... randomly beating oil drums... often whilst going through a course of fences) Lots of love and praise... and Lots of falling off in the process... but after about a year... they were literally "bomb-proof" ... loud noises... explosions... gunshots... thunder wouldn't even make their ears twitch...

Of course no horse is truly bomb-proof... animals are unpredictable and you never know what is going to scare them... but as far as horses go (after a year of working with them) those three were the most "un-phased" docile and sweet animals I've ever been around.. every time i was ever thrown from any of them it was always due to something silly like the horse stumbling and falling down itself... and even in those situations they would never run away... they would just get up... stop... and look at you on the ground like... "hey, you okay? what'cha doing down there?"

how did I do it all at a young age? 
My parents train police dogs and rescue dogs... they have a kennel... and my mother has studied animal behavioralism to great length... 
She knew nothing about horses but always had some great advice as to how animals "think" and while she stayed away from the stable insisting I had to "do it myself to build character"... she always sent me out there with great advice.

Sadly she's not had any experience with abused animals or she would prolly be helping me now... although she was the one who suggested I go online and talk to some horsey people about it so i guess in a way she has. 

thanks again everybody! I'll report back with my progress as i go along

<3
Hailey


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## mls (Nov 28, 2006)

Odissi said:


> She's still alive  hence why I've been hired to look after her babies.
> 
> Sadly she's not had any experience with abused animals or she would prolly be helping me now... although she was the one who suggested I go online and talk to some horsey people about it so i guess in a way she has.


Terminally ill means there is no recovery from the illness. 8 years is a long time to be 'terminal'.

I am hesitant to believe this post. Your friend was seriously ill - so I would understand having some type of frequent treatment and yet no one would help her for that period of time?

My husband has treatment for a chronic illness 3x a week. They notice if he wears a new t-shirt. I am very sure if he was hurt, they would be on top of things.


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## Odissi (Jul 18, 2010)

mls said:


> Terminally ill means there is no recovery from the illness. 8 years is a long time to be 'terminal'.
> 
> I am hesitant to believe this post. Your friend was seriously ill - so I would understand having some type of frequent treatment and yet no one would help her for that period of time?
> 
> My husband has treatment for a chronic illness 3x a week. They notice if he wears a new t-shirt. I am very sure if he was hurt, they would be on top of things.


Err... that's kind of a rude and insensitive comment to make.. why would I lie about my friend's condition? that would be a bit dark and screwed up?!
I mean... this is a horse forum and a horse issue so I didn't really see it necessary to go into the details of my friend's illness....but that being said if you MUST know... 8 years ago they found a tumor in her brain which pretty much took away ALL of her mobility (just like that)...she's needed 24 hour care and has been unable to walk / eat / go to the bathroom unaided since that day.. 3 years later she was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer of the throat and lymph nodes.. which despite her disabilities she decided to fight even though the doctors said it didn't look good.... 
chemo and radiation helped a bit but over the past 5 years it's spread throughout her body... it's moved to her lungs and her pancreas about a year ago and that's the point when she was diagnosed as "terminal" .... im sorry if my terminology was wrong or murky... I was just trying to keep things short and the overall point is that she's been unable to do anything with the horses herself since the day she lost all her mobility (8 years ago) ... sorry if I sound rude.. it just seemed like an odd thing to say :?

I want to thank whoever suggested the chair idea again today.... I did this earlier and after the buddy horse got curious enough to come see me for treats the abused horse decided to come too... he let me pet him and even (very very cautiously) came up to me on his own accord the second time I came into the paddock to top off their water troughs ... yay for baby steps! thats a huge improvement in one day for a horse that normally runs to the far corner of the paddock anytime anyone steps foot into it


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## draftrider (Mar 31, 2010)

I have to point out- I was deemed terminally ill. I had stage 4B uterine cancer which spread to my colon, liver and had lymph node involvement in 63 out of 76 lymph nodes in my chest and pelvis. I was given 3 months to live.

On July 3rd 2010 I celebrated my 4th year of remission.

So terminal is not always, terminal.

I haven't really heard of anyone with pancreatic involvement to live more than a few months. If she's made it a year that's a miracle.


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## mls (Nov 28, 2006)

Odissi said:


> Err... that's kind of a rude and insensitive comment to make..
> 
> sorry if I sound rude.. it just seemed like an odd thing to say :?


Insensitive? It is a legitimate question. As I said - I live with a chronically ill person. He requires treatment 3x a week in order to live. His health care providers take wonderful care of him. If I were an abusive spouse, they would quickly find out and not hesitate to contact the authorities.

I am very defensive of those who are ill and all of the people who care for those individuals.


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## Alwaysbehind (Jul 10, 2009)

The way I read MLS's post is not so much she is wondering about your friend's illness but about her being beat by her husband and no one noticing.
I believe MLS is saying that with the constant required medical attention that someone would notice the injuries from the beatings.


Edit, darn it, I typed too slow again....


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## Horsetrader (Jul 15, 2010)

*Back to the beginning..*

This sounds so sad. What a rotten reflection on the human potential for cruelty. Now something needs to be done. If this kind of situation came onto my horse ranch I would go right back to the beginning as if I was dealing with a very green broke horse. Short tie (is it a gelding?) your horse and start with lifting the feet. Will the horse allow you to lift the feet and pat them and rub around the hoof and massage it's lower leg.This you do every day for as long as it takes for you and the horse to build that trust factor you need to be safe around it. If you cannot pick up the feet then you have a lawn ornament and a hay burner. If you cannot pick up the feet you cannot help them. You need to be able to trim and shoe. We have a fool proof technique to get them to pick up their feet. A realy neat system that is very humanitarian and worked like a hum dinger. But you have to be consistent. This means everyday. I wouldn't take on the big stuff until you got your info on the feet being lifted. Eat the elephant one bite at a time.On the matter of rearing...unacceptable... One solid flat hand on the head everytime it appears the front feet are coming up. No repetitve discipline. Just the once and then step back and talk to your horse and tell him in your best authoritative voice what a good boy or girl you know he can be. Be safe!!!


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## draftrider (Mar 31, 2010)

Horsetrader, I would really love to hear more about your humanitarian humdinger. Please do you have pictures of how you get a horse to lift their feet?


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## Horsetrader (Jul 15, 2010)

*Problem getting your horse to lift it's feet*

In our experience when a horse won't lift it's feet there is always other behavior that comes out. Like rearing or kicking out at you. Even had horses throw themselves onto their back and have a temper fit. It's always alarming to see what they can get themselves into. Yet once you begin this process you must go until you have won the battle. We have come away from this process with several horse's injured and exhausted and so we have adopted the following technique from a New Zealand cowboy. I had serious doubts when I first took a problem horse to him but he won the day and he won us over by doing the following. The process requires a very solid tree. a long piece of thick soft rope (sailing rope is the best) and a single hobble. You also need either a tall post behind you with a notch cut across the top. We use a strong limb on a tree where we throw one end of the rope over. You start by tieing your horse to the tree with a bowline knot. This insures that the rope will not tighten on your horses neck and create an emergency cut away situation. :shock: cont....


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## Horsetrader (Jul 15, 2010)

*I'm describing working on the back feet here...*

Whichever is the offending foot you place the single hobble on this foot. Then using the free end of the rope you first run it through the attachment on the hobble and then using lots of rope you tie your horses tail to the rope. While your getting the horse ready there is a second person on the other end of the rope that is over the limb that when they are told they slowly begin to pull the rope tight like a pully gently forcing the hrose to raise up it's leg. With this controlled tension on the line and the fact that their tail is engaged in the process you can then approach safely to de-sensitize the bottom of the hoof and leg and take the foot up and down multiple times teaching them that this is a good thing.


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## Silvera (Apr 27, 2010)

Odissi said:


> I want to thank whoever suggested the chair idea again today.... I did this earlier and after the buddy horse got curious enough to come see me for treats the abused horse decided to come too... he let me pet him and even (very very cautiously) came up to me on his own accord the second time I came into the paddock to top off their water troughs ... yay for baby steps! thats a huge improvement in one day for a horse that normally runs to the far corner of the paddock anytime anyone steps foot into it


You welcome  I have found over the years that this is the best and easiest way to gain the trust of a nervous or abused horse. It allows the horse to be in control of the association, they don't feel pressured into being social but because they are social creatures they do come around quiet quickly. I had a horse that was basically wild at 5 when we got her, she hadn't been handled at all and was very nervous around people. After a week of sitting with her (and her baby who was very friendly after a day) she came around really well.

I'm glad things are starting to improve and he is starting to want to be with you a little more


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## draftrider (Mar 31, 2010)

Horsetrader, I just don't understand the concept. So you tie the horses foot to their tail and then hike them up in the tree? Do you have pictures or a video?


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## SorrelHorse (Apr 9, 2009)

Nice and easy. Maybe take a book and read by the horses stalls and just ignore him. Gently get closer and closer but he learns you aren't the one to be afraid of.

As for the head sensitivity, this is one of my favs to retrain 

First off, you want to nit let the hear expect you to touch his head. Run your hand and rub where you can. After doing that fir a few minutes just run your hand ice, swift and smooth, over the ear and go back to rubbing the spots you cab touch. You di it fast enough that they don't even know what happened until you already did it. Don't make a Big deal out if it. Just one stroke and then retreat. Eventually you can do more and more.

I've never rehab-ed an abused horse before though. Just neglected ones.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## FlitterBug (May 28, 2009)

Like mentioned before, just take it slow, don't have an agenda, and don't push things. Leave the horse curious. Don't worry so much about him liking you, just allow him to become part of your world and the security that goes along with it.

I do put horses like this out with a buddy that is already quiet and friendly. However, I do not treat the abused horse any different than I do the other horse. Do not look at the exact actions, just at what can successfully be done without causing too much resistance. The biggest mistake that I see made with abused horses is that they are treated as abused horses, people tend to be very hesitant around them and that in itself will make the horse worried. Horses have an incredible memory, but they are also extremely forgiving. The horse, however, doesn't sit around and dwell on the fact that he was treated unfairly. The horse lives in the moment and deals with what life gives him. If we treat him like he is something that should have exceptions in his life, then he will always have them. 

I don't put a time limit on a horse with emotional issues that they have to get through. They will give you everything in time as long as you don't try to get it too much. Horses are like little kids, the more you want them to do something, the more they will resist, the more you push them away, the more they will want to be part of your life. The abused horse has to earn its way into my herd just like any other horse. Any aggressive behavior from the abused horse is met the same way a dominant horse would react, they are not sheltered.

He should come around fairly quickly with consistency and fairness from you.


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## HorseTricks (May 4, 2009)

I've been working with a horse recently that was hard to catch and wouldn't let anyone touch his ears. He was very hard to bridle because of this. I think that he had been ear twitched on many occasions. I completely disagree with this practice because you end up with horses just like this – very head shy.

I believe in slowly, slowly with abused horses. It is very important that you gain their trust. If you have their trust you can work with them. Even though horses will never forget any cruelty done to them, I believe they can trust people that treat them well.

I am quite happy to spend several months working on a particular problem. I let the horse tell me what they are comfortable with and this dictates the speed at which we move through the problem. It's now been 2 months and I can hold both of his ears and move them back and forth. Bridling is no longer a problem and he is easy to catch.

I totally agree with the comments about putting him into a paddock. If a stable is where most of the horror happened he needs to be in a place where he will feel safe and with room to move. 

The first thing I did was turn this head shy horse out into a nice paddock with my quiet dependable horse, who trusts me and will come up to me as soon as he sees me. I make sure that there is a bit of grass in the paddock but not enough to fill them up. They then need to depend on me for their feed. 

I then got this new horse into a routine. I would feed him at the same time each day. I did nothing but feed him and talk to him for the first two weeks. After about a week he realised I was the food dispenser and he would look up expectantly when he saw me. Then I would add a few extra visits each day. I would go out a several times during the day with some pieces of carrot. My horse would come straight over and the new horse wasn't usually too far behind. No pressure. Just talk to him and give him a treat.

Eventually he was happy to be near me. As soon as I felt he was relaxed being around me then I would move my hand slowly toward him but only as close as he was happy with. The minute he looked worried I would retreat. Any time he moved toward me I would tell him what a wonderful boy he was and give him a bit of carrot. From this point forward he only gets a "good boy" and a treat if he moves toward me or let me touch his face. If he moves away I do nothing. Each day I could get a bit closer to his ears. You only need to spend a few minutes a few times a day on this – a maximum of 10 minutes a day.

This routine and moving toward the horse and retreating can go on for weeks. Sometimes you might feel they have gone backward a few steps but just keep steadily working at it. It takes a lot of time and patience but the feeling you get when you know that this horse trusts you is SO worth it. I also find that because you have worked through one problem and you have this horse's trust it will now be much easier to work through other problems.

Good on you for wanting to help this horse


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## thunderstruck (Jul 25, 2010)

the buddy idea is good, also for the first little bit, get him used to the idea that everytime you come around somthing good happens, either feed him, or get him used to the idea of liking being touched by a human. Over time u will have to establish yourself as the leader and get the horse respecting you, its so sad because what horse wouldnt lash out at humans after being treated like that. Some people dont deserve to even be alive!! its a great thing you are doing though! good luck! and be safe!


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## New_image (Oct 27, 2007)

Its hard to give you pointers with out meeting the horse but right off the bat I have to say WOW... What a man. Someone should lock him up on several accounts if he hasn't already been!

As for the horse, you cannot erase his memory per-say but you can help him learn to cope. Do not stall him, leave him out in a large round pen with a calm, old, wise buddy near by (sharing fence) but not in with him if possible. A stall is an un-natural place for a horse to begin with (you don't see many wild Mustangs stalling themselves) and its the place where "things happened" to him. 
My second piece of advice would be don't treat him like the kid whos mom died or the disabled kid from down the street. Hes a horse and he needs to learn to be one yet. YES its horrid what happened to him and he is totally expected to react (strike out and bite as mentioned) but your a human and he has to re-gain respect as well as trust. 

Handing an abused, mis handled, neglected or any other sort of horse cookies and talking baby talk wont bring them where you need them. Your body language needs to speak LOUDLY to him. You are gentle, kind and here to help but if he plays dirty send him around the round pen a few times, don't back away and come back in a minute with a cookie. Re-train him being understanding of his life and condition but not coddling him. His aggression towards you isn't going to go away with kind words, its still a No-No.

I get more horses sent to me that "were abused 3 years ago" and still are allowed to have a chip on there shoulder. Its time to start the new chapter in life  Like-wise I've taken some strait out of bad (similar) situations and can have them completely turned around with in a few weeks. Feel free to PM if you'd like - I haven't read many responses here but I'm sure you've gotten many different "ways it could be handled".


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## SugarPlumLove (Dec 27, 2009)

I have just one tip and I don't mean to offend anyone AT ALL!

To the OP:

I am very glad of you that you are trying this on but since you have not worked with horses for this long it might be in the horse's favor to go to soomeone who has more recent experience with this sortof stuff. I have seen way to many horses being messed up more because even though the owner had good intensions they did not understand the body language.

Once again before anyone gets mad at me I am not trying to offend anyone but just trying to give some advice in my best intensions for the horse.


Oh and riding a horse is not like riding a bycicle. Many people get on a horse after not riding for many years and go for a trail ride or something and end up being scared and thrown off the horse because they can't remember how to handle it or their emotions. TRUST ME IT IS NOT LIKE RIDING A BYCICLE!!!!!!


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## Alanaahhh (Aug 6, 2010)

My first horse was abused! not a very good first horse but he hated men! i know that when he was broken in he was beated to flesh.... pretty sad but any way he wouldnt let you touch his nose or neck and would always try jump over the fence or charge at you when going in but all i did was chuck him food over the fence and sit there and watch him eat and at night i would go and give him treats he got so used of me being around! soon he would let me go into his yard then pat his neck! but i still couldnt touch his nose!!! but evry day i woyuld go out there and give him a carrot but as he reached out to get it i would touch him on the nose with it....he soon got used of me touching his nose and after a few months i could touch him all over. I TRIED RIDING HIM MANY TIMES BUT WOULD ONLY LET ME RIDE HIM BAREBACK STRANGE! I EVENTUALLY LET HIM RETIRE AND PUT HIM ON 200 ACERS WITH MY FRIENDS HORSES STILL GO VISIT HIM! i give him kisses on the nose to!


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## New_image (Oct 27, 2007)

SugarPlumLove - I second that.


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