Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Working with Nervous Nelly!

Lucy is a 14 year old Thoroughbred mare rescued from the Enumclaw Auction this summer. I took her on because I'd just placed Petersburg Knight, and as they say, nature abhors a vacuum. A friend of mine had her all summer and put some rides on her, and now she's back for me to continue with.




Lucy is interesting. She's broke. She got ridden around all summer, no problem. But the horse is scared. She's truly nervous about people. Oh, she's 500x better than she was when I first got her - back then you could barely touch her head and she would not take food from your hands, not grain or grass or anything. Now, she only gets upset about her head if something happens like the reins hit her in the ears as I flip them over. I can touch her everywhere, she will lower her head and snuggle, and she was even letting me pet her ears today. She knows all about cookies and carrots now, will seek out attention, and is getting easier to catch.

Now I'm trying to fix her fear of mounting. I get on the block - she swivels the other direction. I have someone stand there to block her, and she stands but the head comes up, the whites of the eyes show, and she starts breathing faster. She's genuinely scared. Why? What was done to this one? I don't know, but I'd like to fix it. So I have been tacking her up and just going out to the block and standing there, and petting her, and scratching her withers, and leaning over her like a green horse. She seems to be less nervous but I still feel like she's waiting for the ax to fall. Very interesting.
If only they could talk, right? Well, I've got all the time in the world...we'll figure this out!

34 comments:

Kim said...

Amazing the transitions shes made with the people and time shes been getting from you good people. The more time and attention she gets, I see her eventually love being ridden, and it being a joy to her. Maybe someone should give her treats after mounted, or before she gets nervous. Once she knows it's alright with you good people, she will be an angel for you good people.

Oh, and.. first :)

green_knight said...

If she's scared of you getting on a block and preparing to mount, I'd bread it down even further.

Put a hay or straw bale in your grooming area and step on and off that a hundred times.

SOSHorses said...

Fugs - Please contact me offline about Lucy. I rehabed a mare that acted very much like Lucy and think I may have some suggestions you can try.

I just need more info and it is to much to go into here.

Serendipity said...

The little guy I've been schooling did the exact same thing. As soon as I'd gather up the reins, his head would pop up,his back would sink, his nostrils would flare, and his whole body would lock up like he was petrified. He'd also get that sad, worried look all quarter horses seem to do when they anticipate something bad.

My trainer said she thinks when he was broke, a bunch of assholes just jumped on him and started kicking and yanking him to train him. So now every time he's brought to the block, he feels, "Oh my god, here it comes..."

We've got it pretty much fixed to the point that he'll only try to walk off on occasion to test his limits. It was pretty simply too, no Parelli goofiness necessary. Just gradually easing into the whole mounting process and pausing with each step to reassure him. As he got more relaxed over time, fewer pauses and less praise. After a month or so he was no worse than anyone else in the barn.

fuglyhorseoftheday said...

SOS, you have mail!

Serendipity, good to hear. I don't mind taking a month or two to fix this. It'll make her a better horse and it makes it much easier to adopt her out. I have ridden enough OTTB's that I don't mind getting on horses that are walking or trotting off, but that's not a selling point to most folks :-)

Deer Run Stables said...

Well, I guess I'll be the one to jump in with the "Parelli goofiness", which is, of course, going to sound an awful lot like all the other good horsemanship suggestions people have given-- since that's all it is.

First, go get a big blue tarp... kidding.

Seriously, I know that you know it's the release that teaches. If you pick up the reins to stop, it's not the fact that you're pulling on their mouth that makes a horse stop; it's that they know you'll stop pulling when they stop moving.

In this case, Lucy has, in the past, been able to secure a "release"-- however temporary-- from her fearful feelings about being mounted from a block, by moving away/swinging her butt/pitching a fit.

You need to replace that with a release from her fearful feelings (again, temporarily) when she stands still next to the block in a calm frame of mind.

If she were my horse, I would try to engineer that situation by saddling her as if for riding, but having no expectation in my own mind of riding that day. I would take her to the block and set up whatever situation caused that tense, fearful reaction you describe, whether that was me standing on the block as if to mount, or simply her standing next to the block while I held her.

Head comes up, eyes roll back, and I do... nothing. She is not allowed to move away, but I am not allowed to go to the next step of the mounting process. I have to hold that delicate balance where she's scared, but not escalating. (If she *is* escalating, then I needed to start farther away from the mounting block.)

After some amount of time, which may be 2 minutes or 5 minutes or 30 minutes (but probably not that long, thankfully), she will do her version of the giant horse sigh, with licking and chewing. I would then feed her a treat, walk her straight away from the block, and do something else for 5 minutes. Then I would repeat exactly the same thing again, not progressing any further with the fake mounting process than before, and wait for relaxation, then walk away.

I would keep doing this until she no longer becomes frightened by that particular aspect of the mounting process. When she predictably walks up, stands next to the block, and looks around to say "Where's my carrot?", then I would add the next step of the mounting process (putting a foot in the stirrup, or whatever). Head comes up, eyes roll back, and I once again wait 2, 5, 30 minutes until the sigh of relaxation. Then she gets a treat and walks away for a bit. Lather, rinse, repeat, until this next stage of the mounting process only gets a "Yeah, whatever" response. Then add the next step, until, at some point, your sitting on her back next to the block and her only response is "Hey, don't I get an apple for that?".

The thrust of my suggestion has less to do with desensitization, than with rewarding with a release (by feeding treats and walking away) for correct behavior-- which in this case is relaxation next to the mounting block.

As long as mounting happens while she is frightened, there is no mechanism for change present-- no reason why she should suddenly wake up one day, and not be frightened.

The treats, by the way, are completely optional. The retreat from the situation in which she feels pressured is entirely adequate, as a positive reinforcement. Treats speed the process with some horses, don't work at all with others, and turn some into raging treat monsters, if overused.

Alternately, you could try putting a big blue tarp over her like a blanket, but as a Level 3 Parelli student, I, erm, really wouldn't suggest it...

Jessica said...

Are you sure she isn't in pain?
I mean, she could just be nervous as a result from poor training/bad experiences but maybe her back is sore and she's afraid because she is in pain and it hurts when someone lands?

Although, you've ridden her, correct?
Because...in that case you would have noticed if she was in pain.

I would just continue taking it slow and making her feel comfortable.

Fyyahchild said...

We have one that is exactly like that. We bought him from some old ropers that obviously didn't care about him as anything more than a business deal. I told the guy he'd be going to a good home and he told me he actually didn't give a damn. Nice. When we did get him home we found what looked like rope burns on his fetlocks. I should also mention while we were there the guy was using his rope to catch the saddle horn and to hit Promise in the feet to get him to move around the round pen. I think they had been roping his legs for some reason. He's also terrified of our barn owners husband but only when he wears his cowboy hat. Imagine that.

We're trying to desensitize him as well as teach him to stand for mounting. We had a bad day the other day when my sister accidently brushed his hoof with her foot while she was cinching up his girth. He flew back and thrashed his head until he snapped the cross tie. I feel bad because then he just stood there looking worried and you could tell he felt pretty stupid when he realized there wasn't a horse eating monster at his heels.

For the mounting right I'm working in the round pen. If he swings his butt away from me then I hop down and immediately ask him to move around the pen. I know it seems counter intuitive but my thought process was that if he didn't want to stand then he could move but he'd move where I told him to when I told him to. The work also seems to distract him from his fears and relax him a bit. I ask him to trot and change directions a couple of times. Then we go back to the mounting block. If he stands I get on very gently and sit still until I feel all of that scared tension start to go out and then I gently get down. I usually get the big horsey sigh of relief. If he steps away again we go back to working. When he's let me mount quietly a few times I end the exercise for the day. He's already getting much better about letting me on him. Now it's sister's turn too so he gets used to more than one person.

Let us know if you find something that works with Lucy because I'm willing to try anything. I think Promise is really going to be a great little guy if we can get him to trust people on the ground a little more.

Anonymous said...

My Casey sounds so much like Lucy! I also wish I was in a position to adopt right now. Might be nice to have an almost matched pair! lol!

My gut reaction the first couple times I approached Casey with a halter was pretty similar to your mounting thoughts with Lucy. I had a "what did they do to you?" I am happy to say that last night Casey did not back himself into a corner and get that worried look Serendipity describes for quarter horses. This time, he was eager and happy to see me, met me at the stall door and stood still at the door while I haltered him. It's taken a lot of scritches and cookies and calm people to get him to this point. He now prefers being with ME to being turned out. We're still not riding. Farrier is scheduled for after the 1st and we'll need to get him in a bit better shape before I ride. I'd like to send him for a 30 day refresher after Xmas, but I haven't found the right person here yet.

Still have to work more on the headshy. I can stick my finger in his ear with no problem. Now I just have to work on getting him ok having his face brushed and then we'll work more on lowering his head.

The Hubs, who isn't very horsey, is so marveled by how good Casey is. After the VTA, GFJ and his ex-wife's "Moose-Cow-Pig-Whale", MCPW for short, (An older, dressage soured Arab), Casey must be a real eye opener and a treat to him.

Now, with Lucy, I recommend breaking it down like Deer Run suggested. It's what we do with dogs and it works. I'd add in the treat too. It'll definitely get her associating the mounting block with good things. And, I recommend using her favorite treats to start with. Something of high value tends to get them started down the path we want faster.

CrownKorhelEquestrian said...

Lucy did AWESOME with me all summer...BUT yes *sigh* when it came to mounting i'd have to have her up against a fence so she wouldn't move, head raised in the air and looking very serious and nervous. HOWEVER, bless her heart... once you're on her, you're SOLID!!! She will be nervous at first, but she remembers what she's supposed to do:):)an may I say she ROCKS at it!! She was probably one of the funnest horses I've ridden and very comfy!! She's come along way, and Fugs... she LOOKS FABULOUS!!!! That pic is BEAUTIFUL of HER!!! :):):):):):):):)

Char said...

Sounds like you've got it undercontrol, Fugs. She looks GREAT in that picture, it's amazing how far she's come and how content she looks in that picture as opposed to the first one you posted of her.

By the way, how's the VLC's injury coming along? Have you found anything to work on with him while he's laid up from "real work"?

chickenrider said...

I have ridden enough OTTB's that I don't mind getting on horses that are walking or trotting off, but that's not a selling point to most folks :-)

Ah yes, the old one-legged OTTB mounting leap! I don't think I could do it physically now without slamming the horse in the back but I spent years getting on that way. He was a one gal horse and as it didn't bother me I just didn't work on it! He wasn't scared just eager. As he got older he just sort of gave up and stood there. XD

fuglyhorseoftheday said...

>>By the way, how's the VLC's injury coming along? Have you found anything to work on with him while he's laid up from "real work"?<<

LOL, does making him learn to deal with wearing a tail bag count? :-) I need to teach him to clip but we can't find the clippers. I don't know how you lose stuff in a small barn...it's like how you lose socks in a dryer.

I've been very busy trying to get horsereunions.com up so my barn time is mostly just cleaning and feeding right now. I am actually doing JUST what Deer Run said...I tack her up and we work at standing still and I don't get on her. I believe Stephanie that she rides fine, but I want to fix this mounting issue ... we are not going to a show next weekend, we have time, so why not see if we can overcome it? If she rides great AND doesn't have this issue, it increases her chance at a perfect home by a hundred percent. The horse is freakin' adorable. What little girl doesn't want a black mare with a blaze and four socks?

We have been doing the whole treats at the mounting block thing. I'm going to incorporate in the "go do something else for 5 minutes" thing, too. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

ezra_pandora said...

Hopefully this didn't happen to Lucy, but my first trainer I ever took lessons with was telling me about one horse she got in for training where the owners admitted they used to DROP ONTO HER FROM THE RAFTERS because she would not let them mount normally. WTF?? And they wondered why her head was always up in the air and she didn't like anything above her. Crazy stuff happens and you will never know what happened with miss Lucy, but hopefully you can her through it.

MsFoxy said...

Remember Ms Foxy was the same way! Remember that day we had the brilliant idea for you to give me a leg up onto her bareback in the roundpen? And she shot off like a rocket? And if we even got on the fence near her she would keep her body far enough away to prevent you getting on? She dumped the trainers who tried to ride her simply by jumping out from under them when they tried to mount her?

It took ages and ages of me "being above her". I stood on fences, I stood on mounting blocks and leaned over her, we walked and I would find something taller to walk on next to her (a bench, planter, bleachers, etc) to just keep me higher than her. I used to lean over her and feed carrots from the opposite side, so she had to crank her head around to the side to reach them (like carrot stretches, from above).

I also used to give her treats from her back and a treat after I dismounted. I just had to make it NO BIG DEAL to be up high. Pretty soon it was just another thing for her.....

Eventually she got over it. Now I have been going out on the porch (which is high enough that she can reach her head up as high as possible and I can lean over the railing low as possible and hand feed carrots) and she is A-OK.

Good luck with Nervous Nelly! That horse might be a Ms Foxy in the making! (hopefully minus the craziness!)

paintarab said...

I have a horse who is also terrified of mounting blocks. In fact, she is terrified of someone standing higher than she is. Don't know what happened to her, but her previous owner said that when she (the horse) once saw mustangs being worked (health assessments) in corrals and she flipped out (was throwing herself against the back of her pen to get away). We wonder if someone worked her like mustangs when she was young. My other guess is maybe someone tried playing rodeo on her when she was younger and her extremely strong will lead to disastrous results. The first two times I tried mounting her from a block she stood still. Little did I know that she was actually scared stiff (I should have guessed since she was trembling the first time). On the third time she realized I wasn’t going to hurt her and moved as soon as I had my weight in the stirrup...I landed on her butt behind the saddle and she proceeded to buck me off (and looked VERY guilty afterwards). I haven’t tried the full size mounting block since. I have however been able to get a few things to work. A) I can stand next to her on a mounting block if she isn't tacked up (it’s a start, need to follow up on it) B) I can mount from a very small bucket C) I can mount from a mound of dirt. For some reason me standing on a mound of dirt isn't scary at all. Thankfully she is a very small horse (14 something hands) and I am rather tall. Getting her completely over the mounting issue is definitely on my list of things to do...but for now using the mound of dirt is sufficient.

Jess said...

"We have been doing the whole treats at the mounting block thing. I'm going to incorporate in the "go do something else for 5 minutes" thing, too. I'll let you guys know how it goes."

This is what I started doing with Jack after I noticed that the cookies were just being "squirreled away" in his cheeks and he wasn't actually eating them because he was too nervous.

It seems to help him a lot.

Plus, I figure that the more "move away from the mouting block calmly" stuff we can do, the better. ;-)

SOSHorses said...

Fugs - You've got Mail!

Akasha said...

I have a new QH mare with the same mounting anxiety.. going through the same exercise as you are. Previous owner (trains sells for a living) said the gal that had her before her would mount from the ground, pulling severly on her back then to top it off, kick her with her foot as it went over. I've been giving treats if she stands, treats if I get on.. have yet to do a really good stand completely still while mounted. Work in progress..

TheHorseGirl said...

TWENTIETH COMMENT!

wow, i wonder what has happened to that poor horse...

www.trialsofahorsegirl.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

My pony was like that. It was bad enough that most people were taller than him but adding a mounting block was horrifying.
I used treats to positively reinforce the mounting block was a pleasant place. I would do about 10 minutes each day first without him tacked up I would just take him out of the stall and go to the mounting block like I was going to mount but I fed him carrot slices.
Anyway flash forward he really liked the mounting block and when turned out in the arena he lines up next to it waiting for his cookies XD

robyn said...

If only they could talk, right? Well, I've got all the time in the world...we'll figure this out!
~~~~~~~~

Okay, flame, laugh, whatever...but I had an animal communicator talk w/ my horses. I told her: their names, ages, genders, and breeds. That was it. She knew nothing whatsoever about the type of riding I do, what tack I use, how I keep my horses, etc, yet she told me things about my riding and my horses that she couldn't possibly have known.
And, several years ago, I'd had a different AC talk w/ my black TWH, altho that one only told me generalities mostly. (So I was a bit dubious about this one). However, she did tell me that my TWH is very vain, thinks he is very beautiful, and thinks everyone else should notice him. This AC told me the exact same thing about this horse, among other things.

Goofy, I know, but the trainer I use (a very sensible person not normally given to such oddities) told me about this person when I was having problems w/ the TWH not getting along w/ the rescue I had, and another horse that I boarded briefly. She also had this AC tell her things about her horses that the AC couldn't have known (like, one of the trainer's boarded horses "didn't like the horse in the blue fly mask" and sure enough, that horse didn't get along w/ another horse that wore a blue fly mask this summer).

naggingdilemma said...

I don't condone abuse, and I understand that abuse might be what made Lucy act the way she does, but I also have to step in and point out that just because a horse acts shy/nervous/strange doesn't always mean it's been abused.

I'm currently working with a three year old that acted like she'd been beat within an inch of her life. She'd spin in circles if you went in a stall with her, she would hang back in the field when the other horses came running up to you, it took hours to put a halter on her, she went berserk at the sound of a chain sliding through her halter ring. If this had been a different horse I would have been the first to yell abuse.

But this wasn't a different horse. I'd been there when she was born, she grew up on the farm, I have a loving relationship with both her parents and grandparents. I've trained several of her full siblings. She'd never even been yelled at, much less beat. This horse wasn't a victim of abuse, she just had trust issues.

The way we corrected the problem was with a lot of love, patience, time, and creative thinking. We brought her inside, forcing her to interact with humans on a daily basis, we made sure that when we went into the stall it was her idea to approach us. If I needed to put a halter on her, I brought a second horse (a big seventeen hand warmblood who's job is babysitting the youngsters) and let him take up half the stall, his presence helped calm the mare, while limiting the amount of space she had to run in circles. The added bonus of my babysitter is that he's extremely protective of me, and would make sure that I was out of the way when ever the mare was about to explode.

If the mare wanted to play in the arena, she had to allow us to catch her and lead her down the hallway.

I also spent hours in the stall reading to her.

I'm pleased to announce that the mare has turned around. She's gone from a mare that was afraid of humans to one that begs for their attention. We still have to approach some situations with imagination, she developed a painful abscess that cleared up months ago, but she still remembers and blames the farrier. But she is going to make a very nice, and very loyal horse, with gobs of personality.

Once again, all of her quirks were a direct result of nature, and had nothing to do with abuse or neglect.

Char said...

"...does making him learn to deal with wearing a tail bag count? :-)..."

Of course it does! I just can't ever leave them alone, so I always tend to work with them on stupid little things that I normally don't take the time to do.

They also tend to get VERY pretty while they're laid up. Grooming/Riding time turns into just Grooming time. :)

amarygma said...

My guy did that too. What i did was (yes using a training stick) stand on the block and tap tap tap that other hindquarter until he moved away from it and toward me. Lather, rinse, repeat. He still swings away pretty often (and I don't blame him given his past), but I can get him to move it back so I can mount at least.

fuglyhorseoftheday said...

So tonight I put her next to the arena wall with the block to the inside, and it seemed to totally cure the problem. I thought that would make her nervous but instead she was 500% calmer. Still a little fidgety but nothing like she has been. Of course, all I do is feed cookies at the block so she's no longer afraid - she's just busy craning her neck around and nosing me all over for cookies. I was watching her very closely and she had no signs of fear tonight. It was 100% cookies on the brain!

We did, however, have major drama over flipping the reins over her head. Clearly that's our next thing to work on...because...OMG...they might touch her EAR!

(Never mind that while I was on the block and feeding cookies, I could rub all over her ears with my hands...hmmm...are we being selectively skeered? LOL!)

She is a hoot. I love Thoroughbreds.

mugwump said...

OR...You could just be business like, kind and calm. Get on every day (whatever it takes) work her, and then be done. Once she learns that every day you will get on, it hasn't killed her yet and it's actually kind of interesting she will get over her nervousness. (sounds to me like that's what your doing)
FYI fyyahchild- Ropers rope the saddle horn and their horses legs to teach them to not be afraid of the pull and tug of a rope. Because if they DO get tangled or caught they won't get a friendly release for taking a carrot. They will get yanked, drug and possibly hurt. They have to learn to relax when they feel pressure from the rope, even coming suddenly from odd places, it's how they live through wrecks.It's possible those scars came from a roping accident and they were reschooling. Doesn't mean your horse wasn't mishandled by somebody in a hat, but not by rope work in a round pen. That's pretty standard.

Fyyahchild said...

Makes sense to condition roping horses about what to do when the
rope hits them. Good to know. Does that normally leave rope burns on their legs? I wasn't trying to pick on ropers in general and I do profess my ignorance of all things cowy.

As I mentioned there were a lot of red flags at this place though that they were really just not kind, caring owners. It was filthy, they didn't care about what kind of home our horse was going to. They didn't even know his name. I'm not certain if he was abused. It could just be a personality thing. I can say for certain that he does not like men in hats for whatever reason. He won't let the farrier trim him unless he takes his off. If this is just his personality I think maybe he just wasn't going to be a good roper and those guys just scared him because the work was a bad combo with his personality. I could be wrong. Maybe he just thinks hats look like a horse eating monster. :)

fuglyhorseoftheday said...

Maybe I do just need to get on and ride. Years ago, that's exactly what I would have done - ride the horse, fix the mounting later. Now I want to fix the mounting first. Maybe I was doing better when I didn't think so much!

Deer Run Stables said...

Gonna have to respectfully disagree.

If she were just going to be your horse, and you didn't care if she walked off or not, then fine.

But you said yourself that Joe or Susie Normal doesn't particularly want to buy a horse who feels like a lit firecracker while they're getting on.

Therefore, the problem needs to be fixed, so that Joe and Susie Normal will buy the horse.

How long will it take to fix the problem by just getting on anyway and riding? Doesn't seem to have done the trick so far, does it? You can fix the problem forever by focusing on it for... what, maybe a couple of weeks? If that?

It doesn't sound like you're losing valuable training time by doing so, since she already rides fine, once you're up. It isn't as if that's just going to disappear while you fix the mounting thing.

Personally, I find it important that my horses aren't scared by things that happen to them on a regular basis-- that seems like it would be a miserable way to have to live.

Michelle said...

I'll be interested to read how you fix this. I've got a rescued mare that is similar. She was quite shut down when I got her, didn't really interact much at all, with humasn or other horses. Then she started coming out of her shell, and being scared of everything. Now she is settling down, except when something stupid happens, like last night when Ibent down to pick up the halter, she apparently decided to put her head down too and see what I was looking at. I stood up and locked her jaw on the top of my head. She freaked out and ran off, then was scared of me for a few minutes until I talked her down. Poor girl.

She will not open her mouth for a bit, period. Even treats in my hand, nothing. She clamps that jaw shut and throws her head up in the air. So I put on a Bitless Bridle, and she is fine with that. She is OK in the roundpen, a little bit tense, and a bit of an overacheiver. But when you get on her, she is a bundle of nerves. She is locked up tight, waiting for hte ball to drop. When you ask for forward with a gentle squeeze, she just stands there, waiting. If you ask just a little more, se squirts forward as if you had electric spurs or something.

So this is going to take a lot of time, and a lot of treats. I've only been on her twice, for about 10 minutes each. She is still rebuilding muscle from her starvation, and she has a lot to think about. So little by little, she'll come along. But if there are any tricks, I'm all ears!

fuglyhorseoftheday said...

Michelle - on the hard to bridle, I've had good results with the old remedy of putting molasses on the bit. Any history on yours or is she a typical rescue mystery?

Michelle said...

I had treats in my hand, along with the bit, and she still wouldn't open her mouth for it. She is extremely food motivated, too. She was just scared shitless.

I do have a history on her. She was starved as a foal, her sire/dam/siblings and pasturemates were abused. She was sold at about long yearling/2ish to someone that rescued her, fed her up. Then she went to another person for a year who put 30 days on her before she was sold the person I bought her from.

That person bred her repeatedly, starved her, and rode the shit out of her. I saw photos of her tied to the top rail by her reins with a Tom Thumb bit. The poor thing at 14.1 trying to hold her head up high enough so she didn't nutcracker her jaw. Photos of her being ridden double. Stories of her being ridden by drunk cowboy marine cop and his buddies. Being ridden across the state for 18 hours, skinny, pregnant and with foal at side. Stories about the saddle rubbing her back and withers raw because "she has sensitive skin". She also has a lot of scar tissue in her mouth, according to the dentist. Won't accept the dewormer tube, either.

So she has every right to be scared to death. She still gets little flashbacks, but they are becoming less and less. Her other issue is taking the saddle off. She's fine putting it on (actually all I've used so far is a bareback pad, her back isn't in any condition for a saddle yet, still has topline to build up). She is fine putting it one. But when I take it off, she spooks and throws herself in to the corner, every single time.

She was supposed to be for my daughter -- I didn't expect the issues aside from the weight gain (200 pounds now and still gaining). She possibly may end up just an ornament, if that is all she can handle. I'm OK with that.

Her photos, story is at www.savingmissjen.blogspot.com

She's a really sweet mare. Came and stood over me while I caught my breath when her filly kicked me in the knee and knocked me on my ass. She just has those flashbacks.

Specializing in said...

fyyahchild it sounds like he was used for horse tripping - Mexican rodeos, backyard rodeos and such do that to horses.