At 02:17:01 on 23.05.11, JessAndGrenville123 wrote:
Basically i gave my cousin's friend a couple of lessons on her horse and schooled him a bit for her because she was having trouble with him. He has since gotten worse and now she is scared to ride him without her instructor there but what she didn't tell me is that she doesn't hack him out, ever. He just schools and schools and schools and i mentioned to her he was being nappy at the gate and he bites when tacked up, bridle or saddle. I think he is bored stiff and he dreads being ridden because it bores him, he hasn't been on a hack in months, maybe a year i am not sure how long she has had him but i suggested this to her and made examples of how she would feel being taught the same thing at school over and over but she seemed to get her back up saying her instructor is helping and he is getting better to tack up and her instructor said he is good for a TB to tack up, i am sorry but he isn't and if her instructor says he is then she needs a new instructor, i have experience with TB's and know some can be sensitive when you tack them up but he acts pretty vilently and i know she is scared to hack him out but i also know when she does eventually go out he will explode and she will completely lose her confidence because he hasn't been off the yard in so long and i doubt he will get better in the school with him schooling or lungeing day in day out i was going to offer to take him out for her the first few times and encourage her to do a few months just hacking but she went offline after i seemed to annoy her a little (facebook chat) and all i want to do is help her and the horse, he is very inteligent and learned alot in the few days i helped her, he learned to stand at the mounting block on 3rd attempt and learned to work propperly within minutes (he had never done it before) and i am certain with stimulation of different sights and sounds he would be a great all round horse, schooling and hacking but i am not sure whether to try and talk to her again or to leave it as it is and let her get on with it? Advice please? lol

At 02:19:15 on 23.05.11, JessAndGrenville123 wrote:
violently** spelling is rubbish

At 11:50:42 on 23.05.11, ToriSilverson wrote:
thats really frustrating, i agree a horse needs some chill time out hacking, and the tacking up is definately not good, charlie (fair enough hes not pure tb) will stand with out a headcollar at a show ground and stand quietly to be tacked up. i would leave her be for a while but let her know if she wants your help she can just ask. if she doesnt want your help thers no point in getting yourself stressed and annoyed, just enjoy and be thankful that you and grenville dont have that problem, and be be ready to help if she asks.

At 18:42:43 on 23.05.11, NoraPieterse wrote:
i agree with ToriSilverson. Also if she does ask for your advice after a while, tell her you think she should let you hack her horse out a few times then she can come along and have little goes on him to see that he's ok. It can be scary if you have to go out hacking by yourself for the first time on a unpredictable horse. I definately had trouble with that in the begining but then my sister took me out for one hack and the following week i hacked out nearly every day. give her time and if her horse still gets worse, politely offer to hack him. maybe to her face :P XX good luck

At 20:44:44 on 23.05.11, JessAndGrenville123 wrote:
I normally would go to see her (its like a 5 min hack to her yard) but it was literally talk to her asap kind of thing lol thanks for the help though i didn't want her to lose confidence but i didn't want to intrude either lol

At 21:11:01 on 24.05.11, Cowboy wrote:
That's hard. I have a friend who is in sort of the same position with her horse, but she wants to do things she can't. I would try to talk to her again, because if something does happen, it wouldn't be on you, but you might feel guilty knowing you didn't get through to her. maybe explain to her that every horses needs a good run every onece in a while. I know our horses get major upset if they've been out all winter and don't get to run and do a few bucks the first ride. That's just trail ponies too. A horse in an arena all day is bound to just keep building all that energy until there's no way to hold it in.