[Vengeance]

Me and my best friend messed with my cousins horse today. I woke up at 8”30 DETERMINED to mess with Patch, and my friend came up around 10:00 and helped me. I had already gotten Patch out, so she just kinda helped.

Before I go any further, maybe I should explain Patch’s personality and what happened to her during her life.

~

Patch was given to my cousin for free when she was about a week or two old because she had been shot in the leg and the people who owned her didn’t think she would live. She lived…she hobbled around on that leg for a few months, but eventually healed and the leg doesn’t even give her trouble today…but during the few months that she was hurt, my cousin and her two kids and husband spoiled Patch…they let her get away with things like biting and nipping and pawing at them and stuff like that.

When she was one year old, they pretty much just quit messing with her, and Patch wasn’t even taken out of the pasture ‘til she was about two. When Patch turned two, my cousin and her family had moved to Altoona and had just left Patch in the pasture. Me and my best friend took her out every now and then and brushed her, but we never messed with her…because Patch was so spoilt and everything that she was pushy and mean and we really just didn’t have time to mess with her, since I had Gypsie to get rideable and was always messing with her.

My cousin got mad at me and my friend because we cut Patch’s mane and tail (they had to be cut, her mane was extremely long in some places and nonexistent in other places and everything in between and so was her tail) and came and got Patch one day. (We had put small saddles on her before, and had got on her bareback a few times but never rode her). She took her to the place where she got Patch from, a man named Goob’s house. Goob tried to breed Patch to her sire…

He also started riding her and made her terrified of the saddle and saddle blanket and everything…if she did something wrong, either he would literally beat her or he would make her run until she was really tired and her hooves were bleeding.

My cousin moved Patch closer to her after about half a year, but by then, Patch was terrified at the sight of a saddle or saddle blanket and would nearly kill herself trying to get away from it or, if you were holding her lead, she would try to charge at you. My cousin was scared of the horse, and wouldn’t let her kids go near her. They put her in a small fence in their yard with a pit-bull and a deaf bulldog that barked all the time and nipped her all the time. (Patch now hates dogs).

Patch got out of the fence a lot, so my cousin and husband took her to where her husband worked and just left her in his boss’s pasture with his horses. They didn’t mess with her for the next year and a half, not even going to see her hardly at all. Her husbands boss tried to put tack on Patch, but quit when she literally ran him through the fence.

Patch was also in foal, but she was really young, and long the foal about 6 months into the pregnancy…she got really sick and wormy, and couldn’t hardly stand or walk. She lost a lot of weight and seemed depressed all the time.

Then, after that year and half, when she could walk again, my cousin brought her back to her house and put her back in that little pen (without the dogs this time), thank goodness. Patch regained her weight and seemed happy, then she began getting out of the fence again.

My cousin finally decided to just bring Patch back down here. She did, and the day she put her back in the pasture, the other horses beat her up and ran her through the fence. I put Patch in the corral for three days, and when I let her out, the other horses were fine with her.

But, Patch is never going to be suitable for a nervous rider or a child like my cousins kids because she is a really nervous and jumpy mare and has some major attitude problems…and she has a few mental imbalances from the way her life has gone.

~

Now, I’ll tell you about the saddle problems that Patch has had…and sometimes still does.

Patch grew to be terrified of the saddle and saddle blanket. If she was tied and you tried to put it on her, she would pull back as hard as she could, kick, try to rear, try to bite and just be terrified…nearly killing herself to get away.

If you were holding her lead, she would try to run, bolt away from you, and even charge at you. I learned that last one from personal experience.

It was suicide to go in her pasture while holding a saddle or a blanket.

~

Now, I’ll tell you what happened today!

Today, I woke up at 8:30, determined to mess with Patch and get her a little bit calmed down. She hasn’t been worked with in about 6 months, is as wild as can be and doubly dangerous…but I went and caught her. I led her across the pasture, and we had a standoff after she bit me (which included her pinning her ears at me and starting to come towards me and me running towards her shouting and throwing my arms around like a ‘rabid’ idiot…she got the point to not try nothing with me, but nearly drug me ten feet trying to get away from me…

I got her back to the house a little while later, and she was really nervous and jumping at everything, so I tied her and brushed her for about an hour, letting her calm down and get used to me. After she was a little calmer, I took her up to the barn and let her sniff around for a little while before picking up a small, 5 lbs saddle and tossing it next to her. She jumped about a mile and snorted like crazy for a few minutes before sniffing the saddle for a little while. After she lost interest, I picked up the saddle and slowly set it on hr back. She jumped, but let me keep it on her back.

She let me tighten it up so it wouldn’t fall, and I led her around for a bit. She snorted a lot, but didn’t object much to the saddle. (it was really old and didn’t have any stirrups or anything). She did sidestep for the first ten minutes of leading her.

I tied her and just let her stand still for a while to let her get used to the weight, and once she was used to it, me and my friend (who had arrived by then) took her back up to the barn and tried putting a saddle blanket on her. She didn’t like it at first (once we got it on her) and was sidestepping and snorting real bad, but I got it where it would stay on and my friend led her to the house and back.

When she got Patch back up to the house, we tried putting another, bigger saddle on her. She didn’t like it one bit and turned in circles trying to get away from the saddle, but eventually she calmed down and let us put it on her and tighten it just enough to stay on.

We then walked her down the road and back a few times, letting her sidestep and everything until she got used to it, and when we got back to the house after the fifth time of walking her, I tightened the saddle up more and stood up in the stirrups, leaning over the saddle. She sidestepped a few times and I just kept getting off and on like that until she wasn’t sidestepping any more.

Then me and my friend put Gypsie bridle on her. I rode Patch (well, my fried led her) up and down the road a few times, but Patch didn’t seem to like the Tom Thumb Jointed Curb bit, so we changed it to a Snaffle bit, and she didn’t like that one wither. We found out that she didn’t like Jointed bits, so we tried a Straight Bar Curb bit on her and she worked pretty good with it, better than she had the other two, so we left it on her.

We walked her again a few more times and I eventually told my friend to give me the lead rope. I rode her by herself and she did pretty good, so I did it a few more times until I could control her a little better, then my friend went and got Buttercup and we decided to ride Patch and Buttercup to a friends house and back.

I put my saddle on Patch, since I feel safer in my saddle, and it was a little trouble putting it on her (I think it was because my saddle looks like the one she used to get ridden in a lot, and was scared at first). Then we left.

We met my cousin Earl and uncle David at the back gate of the pasture…David stopped (he was in the log truck) and talked for a bit. He was surprised to see that I was riding Patch, and told me and said that she was doing good, then my cousin Earl came around the truck…

Earl’s facial expression was PRICELESS! He was so jealous, because he’s never been able to get a saddle within 20 feet of Patch, and there I was riding her WITH a saddle!

He was so jealous…

But we left them after a few minutes and kept heading towards our friends. We got there and turned around and started back. I got Patch to rack a few feet, and she did really well.

She didn’t try to buck once, but we kinda need to work on her stopping and standing still. Lol. She didn’t really want to stop or stand still much… and she’s a kicker…she tried to kick Buttercup a few times, and tried to kick two dogs… We also need to work on her trying to bite and nip.

Pictures are on the next post!
How OLD and how TALL do you think she is (I think some of you may already know)!
Sorry it's so long!

[Vengeance]

Here are the PICTURES! I don’t have any of me riding her at the moment, but I will have some tomorrow and will post them tomorrow.



























So, how old and how tall is she?

[Vengeance]

What? No one has anything to say? I would love some advice on what to do ith Patch...who, by the way, we are calling Lil Girl.

[magicsdoublepla]

good job with her!!!
thats really good do get THAT much done in ONE day! how many hours did it take you? most of the morning?
shes gorgeous, though

[Vengeance]

Thanks! I was expecting her to go crazy on us any time...but she never did.

It took from 8:30 in the morning til 3:30 in the afternoon.

It was really cool that she put so much 'trust' in us that way...normally she's just so jumpy...she was still jumpy at sudden movements, but she wasn't 'OMG' scared.
I think part of it had to do with the fact that she's seen the other horses being saddled and bridled and ridden a lot at a walk and easy trots around her and I think she may have realized that me and my friend ain't like the people who used to own her and ain't gonna do anything to hurt her like they did.

[Vengeance]

And yeah...I know that her front hooves are REALLY long...she's never seen a farrier or anything, and she's not ready to yet (in acting...she was never trained tp pick her hooves up)...we're working on that, and I have started working on her hooves a little, trying to get then back to slightly normal and get her calmed down so she can be seen by a farrier without her ripping him up. Lol.+

[Vengeance]

Advice needed and appreciated though, I would love to hear what you all would have done differently or just what you think!

[loosie]

Congratulations! Sounds like you've done really well! She's a stunner too - I'm a ****** for coloured horses. BTW I think her feet look good, from what you can see in these pix.

I would be inclined to do lots more ground work with her before riding her.

I would also use the method of desensitising to get her comfortable with the saddle, etc. That is, introduce things to her gradually, only going so far as she's not too stressed about it, waiting for her to really relax & then taking them away. Repeat this until she's obviously happy about that level before getting her to accept just a little more. There's an article on TheHorse.com: Your Online Guide to Equine Health Care about different methods of getting horses 'despooked'.

Work at whatever you do in short, easy sessions. Try to make everything as positive as possible for her. The hour's grroming would have really helped her see you as a Nice Person. If you can find & use as reinforcement some of her preferred scratchie spots that will be good. I'd also consider using treats as reinforcement, but you'll want to make sure you teach her good manners to start with. Teaching her to take treats gently & without mugging is easy if there's a fence between you for starters.

[Vengeance]

Ok. Thanks for the advice. Lol.

[meljean]

Who owns her now? I am going to play devil's advocate here, so don't be upset.

While what you did was admirable, and I am glad you have the patience to do it with such a troubled horse, did you stop to consider that if she is not yours, the owner may decide now that you have got her "broke", and yes all of us here on HGS know that is far from the truth, they need to get her back.

You have already said that your relatives, cousins I believe don't need a horse that is nervous, and that they have some rambuntious children, so is this a good thing or not what you did with Patches. Time will tell.

If there is any way you can get ownership of this horse than you need to, but this could be really heartbreaking if the owners decide to get her back now that she is useable, and the real loser in all this will be Patches.

On another note, she is such a pretty mare, I think you need to give her a nicer name, something to fit her.

Also, what did you all do about the jerk that beat her so badly. Did you report him for animal abuse? If not you need to.

Good luck, and let me know how you are doing, and if you rename that pretty little mare. She looks darling.