# Trainer Anxiety



## violetsky888 (Dec 6, 2011)

I've sent horses off to the trainer before, but this time I'm very anxious and can't stop worrying.
I got this filly in critical condition last summer.    She had hurt herself badly in some kind of accident and I got 
her very cheap despite having an outstanding bloodline and potential.   I felt since she was so young
she'd heal up fine and she did.  The filly is close to two now and recently had a bad session with a tough
farrier where she got a few scratches because she over-reacted.    A friend told me there are some horses
that have a very strong reactive nature and have trouble getting into a thinking mindset and will always
be getting hurt.  Now I'm wondering if this might be true.   I believe the trainer has a good program and 
knows his business very well, I just don't know why I'm so worried.   This filly has some odd personality traits
like starting out the bottom ranking horse in a large herd, (the first owner) now she shares leadership with
my old tired mare.  When I got her she bonded strongly with me and very gradually shifted her loyalty to the 
old mare.  Has anyone had a good/bad experience with a not typical young horse going off to the trainer?


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## goodhors (Dec 7, 2011)

Sounds fairly typical for a young horse, not even 2!  Being so young they do tend to have
very short attention spans, over-react to MANY things.  Have to say if you can get them to
4yrs old without some cuts and scrapes, you have done very well.  We laugh about it, call 
the Stooges at your horse's age. They are just idiots trying to gain some information that 
will allow them to survive and live till their next birthday!!

You need to remember that young horses have NO BASIC experience in how to deal with 
things in their minds.  Foals are really the worst, but the strong attachment to Mom helps
because he will run to or with her, away from scary things.  Yearling and Weaners, just run.
Could be thru the fence, over it, if you have a small field or paddock they don't think allows 
them to get far enough away to look back, while out of reach of the scary thing.

As such a young horse, she is BOUND to get attached to the old horse, she is with her more
than you and it is a HORSE, like filly is.  Same species attraction trumps the different species 
attraction.  Being in with other horses will keep her more civil, they administer discipline to 
those pushy youngstrs pretty fast.  Really old horse might be too old to put up with filly 
energy, that happens too.  Have to say our oldest gelding takes NO SASS from any young 
horses.  He doesn't work at being mean, they try to shove in, so they get bit.  The three
geldings worked over the bratty filly, but she gave the first kick EVERY TIME, and then they
ran her around chewing her rump despite any kicking.  She had bite marks for quite a while,
the boys don't tolerate THAT STUFF!  Have to say she may ACT kicky now , she DOES NOT 
actually kick to hit anymore.  More of a rear hoof stomp now.  And any ear pinning look sends 
her off FAST.

Not sure on the Farrier thing, how bad she was being, and if she knew better ways to behave.
I would probably fire a Farrier who thumped a baby and left marks.  But sometimes if they 
KNOW the horse can behave better, it may be a herd dominance thing, with horse needing 
some correction to stand better.  3-second rule.  You thump them for 3 seconds, then you 
are done.  Try again to trim.  May just not be her day!!  So you pay the Farrier, get her on next
visit after YOU WORK HER FEET twice a day.  She SHOULD be improved at least a couple notches,
at Farrier's next visit.  Not the Farrier's job to train horses, that is YOUR job.  Farrier can't take 
the chance of being hurt, that is their total income!  Being hurt is always possible, so Farrier 
may over react with crabby horses fighting them.    

I do know that babies are in quite silly, so if Farrier can trim quickly, not have to pull legs out 
sideways much, horse and Farrier usually get along better.  Some growthy babies, foals and 
yearling, may need a solid wall to lean against, for help in keeping their balance.  Really helps 
because they just can't manage to stand still with only 3 legs to stand on.  I am willing to give 
them that wall as a crutch, we keep working on feet picking up, holding leg up quietly, standing quiet.  
Eventually they WILL be able to stand on 3 legs and not need the wall to help.  We had one
who grew SO TALL, he was late 4yrs before he could manage all his body parts for standing
alone for hoof work.  And no, he wasn't getting ridden either, almost threw him over when a 
rider mounted, moved on his back.  Just gawky, uncoordinated, for a long time.  Now he is 
graceful, lovely to watch move.  Just took a LONG time to grow into himself at his finished 
height of 18.1H.  The owner now gets offers to buy him almost every time she goes anywhere
with him.  She said her face gets cramps from grinning, he is just so much fun to ride.  Excells
in Dressage now, with very good marks as he moves up the levels.  

Sending your horse to a respected Trainer will give her a glimpse of how things are done in other
places.  She should get calmer with many new things to see going on around her.  Being well
handled by others, should make her comfortable with changes and more accepting.  Not sure how
long you plan to leave her there, but 30-60 days will probably be real helpful to filly.  I am not 
big on doing much training or riding such young horses, but letting her wear a saddle when 2yrs
old is not going to hurt her.  Gaining respect for YOUR SPACE while being led, standing tied for a 
couple hours learning patience is good for her.  Our young horses do that too.  We don't lunge or round
pen them at that young age, too hard on soft bones going in circles so much.  But they may be 
led around with saddle on, tied to our "wall of education" for a couple hours of learning patience.

Doesn't hurt them, they are learning the DESIRED response to what we ask of them.  Saddle
squeaks and flops, doesn't hurt getting snugged up with the girth.  We CAN walk quietly with the
saddle on.  I NEVER turn young horse loose to "buck it out" with a saddle or harness on.  When horse
is wearing tack, halter or any other thing, they are to BEHAVE, and just get over themselves!!
Horse can run and buck on his time.  With tack on?  He is WORKING for me, needs to act civil, 
follow directions.

While you have a lot invested emotionally in this filly, you need to trust your trainer.  Have you been 
over to see them work any animals?  That might help set your mind at ease.  You can see what they 
plan to teach her, steps she will learn towards the final goal.  With the short time of 30-60 days, you 
don't want her pushed hard.  She needs to have EVERY STEP of learning down well, before progressing
to the next one.  These are her BASICS, from which everything else will be built on.  Some animals so
learn faster than others, get the lesson so they move along faster.  However if EACH horse doesn't 
understand it WELL, demonstrate that she "got it", trainer needs to keep at it until they do.  Might need
a couple methods tried, until she finally has the "lighbulb on" moment of understanding!!  

Filly HAS to learn to do as requested from someone.  Learning from you and others, will give her a 
better chance at a good future life.  If filly is slow in gaining understanding, she may just be too 
young at the moment to learn much.  You take her home with what she has learned, which may appear to be 
only a little, then let her grow, think about what she did at the Trainer's  Bring her in to practice what 
she learned at the Trainer.  Stand tied, wear a saddle, get clipped, feet handled.  Send her back in the Fall next year,
or Spring of 2013.  Maybe her brain will have developed more by then.  Don't expect the Trainer to 
have her Walk, Trot, Canter, like a show horse by the end of the first 30 or 60 days.  That is pushing 
horse MUCH too fast for their age.  Basics are not being emphasized well enough.  

Our horses just are NOT READY for much learning or lessons, until about 4yrs old.
They CAN NOT pay attention for more than a few minutes, so we do lots and LOTS of basic stuff.
No higher education is asked of them, just makes them crabby and argue if you try to push the 
situation.  Better to wait until they CAN listen, pay attention for 30-40 minutes, just soak up the 
information and ask for more!  At this stage they just are all forward learning, "get it" quickly and
enjoy the training times.  Training progresses quickly, and knowledge is retained WELL.  If we 
suddenly can't train them, they go back to being pasture pets awhile, they will do fine with a review session. 
We run thru what they know, make sure the commands, buttons still work, get the correct YES answers,
and then continue with training.  Ours don't forget, give you the look of "I KNOW THAT, see!  What is next?" so
you are confident moving to the next step.

She is a horse, not a child with human kind of thinking or reactions.  I bet she has a real good time
off at "Trainer Camp" making new friends, learning new things!


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## Chickie2378 (Dec 7, 2011)

you have to 'read horse'

what did the trainer have to say about the behavior?

most times a bad horse is a work of human ownership.


So it is hard. kinda darned if you do and darned if you don't.  especially when you have standing next the offender a perfect horse you trust.

good chance the horse has trust issues.  And those come out in all types of problems.


time.  time will tell.  but most times patience and truly understanding 'horse and flight animals' comes thru in the long run.



best of luck and lets hear about the outcome down the road.


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## violetsky888 (Dec 7, 2011)

A couple years back I did the basic ground work with 3 qh fillies straight off a breeding farm without a lot of handling.  (a friend out of state needed to board them with me till she could pick them up and it wound up being a lot longer than anticipated)   I understand completely about
young horses getting a bumps and nicks in the learning process, what I'm worried about is this filly has already hurt herself badly.  I'm not sure how it a happened but I did see her over-reaction to the farrier.  I did look around for a different farrier there just isnt many to choose from in the remote area the horses are boarded in.  My choices are a  fast but somewhat brutal farrier that does a good job trimming or a young inexperienced girl that is very sweet but takes forever and I don't like the end result.  The sweet one has every horse fidgeting and complaining by the fourth hoof and I wanted a good trim before starting any round pen work.   I'm talking hours for 3 horses well behaved horses.    Thanks for all the advice, I never thought about wall for young horses and that might of helped with the farrier.  One of the reasons she reacted was she did not get enough handling with her feet.   She was so badly injured the vet accidently blurted out, "I hope you didnt pay anything for her" implying either she wasn't going to make it or might suffer permanent damage. I wish I could post the before and after photos but the before might upset some people.  (One other time I thought about buying a colt that had been cut to pieces by barbed wire and got a fire storm of negative posts that it is more humane to put a suffering animal down. )   Anyways I couldn't lift her feet as she barely could stand for a couple of months.  When she did get up her hind legs were way behind her.  It took months for heal and I focused on her many skin wounds not lifting her feet.  The filly was also way underweight so it was balancing act trying to keep all systems going.   She looked like a HERDA foal where big patches of rawhide thick layers of skin were peeling.   Luckily the patches didnt peel all at once but over several weeks.  The vet believes she was hung by her hips for a couple of days and was suffering from necropsy from many pressure wounds.  Well all of a sudden she went from a very frail, broken little filly to a big agile filly.   I'm worried about her because she fought very very hard and against the farrier.  It wasn't like she'd never been handled, quite the contrary.  I'm guessing the breeder may never had picked up her feet but I did for a couple of months before the farrier visit and actually put it off.  It's true I'm probably at fault for babying her and worrying so much.  I think that started when everytime I went to see her for the first two weeks I had to prepare myself for the worse.   When I saw her reaction to the farrier I kept thinking she is going to fight any situation that reminds her of her original injury in an insane way.    I know I need to get over worrying about her or my emotions will transfer to her.  I wanted to know if anyone got their horse over a major obstacle to become a trustworthy mount.


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## Chickie2378 (Dec 9, 2011)

sure they can get over it

some horses need a small shot of ace or same for shoeing.  I did it a few times on a horse I bought but sold because it wasn't the horse for me, but a baby tranq. never hurt anyone and made it safe and more for everyone/critter involved.


but my best riding horse was nasty to start.  would not stand to mount.  went ape*sh*t when that first foot was raised into the stirrup.  Hubby was a horse trainer from way back.  He was called in to fix this.  They fought rough, he won.      And many years later I bought this horse and she was perfect for mounting.   AND AFTER we got married I came to find out he broke her of this bad habit.  Who knew lol  it was wild knowing he fixed it, she went on becoming a great trail horse and I ended up buying her


so yea, most anything can be fixed.  time and the right person can do wonders
don't be upset.  it is all about time and dedication to me and the potential you see


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## 77Herford (Dec 9, 2011)

goodhors said:
			
		

> Sounds fairly typical for a young horse, not even 2!  Being so young they do tend to have
> very short attention spans, over-react to MANY things.  Have to say if you can get them to
> 4yrs old without some cuts and scrapes, you have done very well.  We laugh about it, call
> the Stooges at your horse's age. They are just idiots trying to gain some information that
> ...


Wow, good answer.


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