Fred - unrideable horse, changed

This is Fred, my friend :)
he is 17 years old, on livery at Saumort and was pretty much retired in the field because he was unrideable. The reason for this was extreme headshaking, throwing himself around, stopping dead from full gallop. He was basically just dangerous to get on, and different things had been tried to fix him and none had worked, so for 6-7 years he had been unrideable.

I started out in May playing with Fred, we had no expectations for anything, we just thought hey here's an interesting horse lets see if we can learn something from him. So we started out I played with him on the ground for 1-1.5 hours every day for over a month. He shook right from the start, but the more we did things he started to enjoy them and stop shaking. He stared nickering at me when he saw me in the field, and following me around if I was there to get Kiwi. He was a complete wimp with everything, it took 2 and a half hours to get him to walk over the tarpaulin!! When I introduced the saddle on the ground, he would snort and act like it was going to eat him. His owner watched us playing and said it was a huge change that he would now trot round in circles and go over jumps because these had become impossible before.

The clip of me getting on him is the first time I sat on him - after weeks of saddle prep and leaning on him etc. from there we built it up very slowly never pushing him too fast, to having little walks, then little trots. We noticed he was quite nappy if there was someone on the ground - in the first clip of him trotting you can see as we go away from the camera he shakes.
I started taking him out wanders in hand, always doing the same route, and he got really confident with this so I decided to ride him out that route, it all went fine so I decided the field we rode in would be where we would do our first canter (the vid in the grassy field). That is his first ridden canter in 7 years!!!!

So hacking was going great, but he had a REALLY bad attitude in the school, every time I put my leg on he would buck, he went round the whole time with his ears back making faces. So we found the Parelli impulsion programmes, we used point to point, which is why ther are feed buckets everywhere, you ride from bucket to bucket and they get to stop for food and a rest at each one, you gradually increase what they do between the buckets (trotting, cantering, circles, serpentines) these vids are about the 4th day of it and the improvment is MASSIVE!!! He ended up brilliant in the school alone, I even tried riding him almost birdleless and he was so good!! The jumps are his first time jumping a course in well over 7 years, he loves jumping!

We discovered that the cause of his headshaking was irritation, Fred is a grumpy old man who is very easily irritated, by the sun, by the flies, by me! So he makes his opinions very clear! I've taken him out hacks where he's been spinning trying to run home, rearing, bucking, etc. But when you figure out what's irritating him, he loves it! So he got hacked out in a nose veil and fly mask during the summer.
He loves hacking and we were able to join i loads of hacks in the summer, the gallop up the stubble field was one of the most amazing things I've ever done, knowing how far I had come with him!
The end videos are him in a group lesson, never in his life had he been ridden in groups until this summer, and this proved to be the hardest area (he would try and buck me of :] ) so this is much improved!!

Anyway, that's Fred :)
I love Fred :D
Any questions feel free to ask!
x

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Saumort
• SeonaidGoldie
• Fred
• unrideable horse
• re back
• parelli
• liberty
• left brain introvert
• bucking
• grumpy
• problem horse
• training
• natural horsemanship
• riding
• jumping
• thouroughbred x dale

[FopHunter7]

anyways I love the video, congrats on showing people the impossible sometimes takes the most heartfelt approach. Congrats on training an 'unrideable' =) and I wish you and Fred the best of luck forever more. I have an OTTB and people told me he'd kill me - so far he's done no such thing. 3 years old, out on the trail and doesn't even spook when a deer leaps in front of his face, missing his head by a foot, he's chill like that... usually XD lol.

[SeonaidGoldie]

@FopHunter7 Thanks for the comment, I think the majority of the horses deemed unrideable or un-handleable just need someone to understand them :) I'm lucky Fred and I managed to understand each other in the end.

[Jacqui2343]

Parelli?

[SeonaidGoldie]

@Jacqui2343 Yeah :) A mixture of parelli, other natural horsemanship techniques and other random stuff we came up with :)

[twistedcowgirl11]

A lot of horses that are called "unrideable" simply have never been given the chance or had the right person with the patience to teach them. Great job and kudos to you for not giving up on him. :)

[SeonaidGoldie]

@twistedcowgirl11 yeah I agree, but I don't wanna take anything away from Fred's owner she tried everything she could think of and sent him to various specialists.. she loves him a whole lot most people would have had him put down. She sent him to live in France where she could afford to keep him, not many people would commit to paying for maybe 20 years for a horse they rarely saw and couldn't do anything with. Thats why my proudest moment was when she rode him again :) <3

[Naamah1171]

Lovely video. Great job with him. :)

[snoopy4aoife]

you did an amazing thing my horse WAS unridable but after some time and carrots and some love and lots of time and patience she is now a national showjumping champ and when we are out hunting (im irish) she is the most behaved i have had expierince with schooling horses and i knew potential when i saw it she had everything scope and i love her all horses that are supposed to be unrideable really only need a chance and some ppl like us are able to give it to them and they are so grateful!!!

[FopHunter7]

at shows, and never was winning, and such. She'd been the barn super star, and one season of trouble and they dumped her, like nothing... well yeah if you over work any of them they'll get fed up. I loved that mare, she had such an attitude issue but under saddle, and once she trusted you she gave it everything. Had I known she was being sold I would have told the place I'm at now to buy 'er. They take the 'rejects' and just let them be horses for a bit, no more shows or stress...

[FopHunter7]

Amazing. Sometimes I think there's no such thing as an unridable horse, or a problem horse, or anything of that matter... it really is about creating the bond, and trust and relationship. About showing them it's OK and that everyone makes mistakes, rather than taking it out on them when they do make a mistake. There was a horse at the barn I used to ride, Caramel, she was amazing. But I heard they sold her, or 'got rid of her' - a phrase which scares me a bit - 'cause she was starting to buck -

[FireFlyHorzey]

Well done, it's fab to see someone to understands that horses can be learned from and not just used. My first hack was a Thoroughbred who when u sat on him he would literally find and object and run around it in about a 20 metre circle. . He had a general bad manners and multiple issues. After 2 years now he's an absolute bombproof star and I learnt to much from my special man. If I were to recomaned something please take a look at Klaus Hempfling :)

[TpendragonT]

@Kisumaaku of course i did. and i think it's disgusting

[Kisumaaku]

@TpendragonT

What? Did you even read the description?

[TpendragonT]

I'm sorry.. since when is breaking an animal's will to not be ridden a good thing?