So disheartened with youngster and progress. Really don't know what to do.

[peskyfeelings]

Hello everybody,

I could really use some points of view regarding my 6 year old (just gone 6) New Forest gelding. I am feeling so upset and worried right now, and don't really know where to turn...

Background: I bought him from a friend as a (nearly) 3 year old. She had him from 6 months, but sold him as she said he was going to be too much of a handful for her. Up until May last year she was caring for him at the other end of the country. Then I was able to move him closer to me and start doing a lot more with him. He was actually backed at 3, but his progress was very limited.

I've been working really hard with him for the past year. I wouldn't like to guess how much I've spent on lessons/having him lunged on the days I can't get to yard and so on. He was ridden at least 4 times a week over the winter, so has come into summer feeling pretty fit.

Progress has been sketchy to say the least. He can work well on a good day, but on a bad day he is an utter nightmare. He spooks, bucks, tanks off, you name it and he does it. In the last 2 months I have torn a leg muscle (still healing) after coming off in school, and 3 weeks ago I severely bruised my tail bone after he reared whilst trotting up the centre line.

Now he's had 3 weeks off as I was too crippled to ride, and he's come back to work even wilder than he was before. Last night he tanked off the entire length of a field with me, head down between his legs and bucking to the skies.

I really don't know what to do with him. :( I'm getting to the point where I'm scared to ride him as I feel it's a case of when, not if, he really hurts me. I am utterly miserable with the situation and honestly feel quite despairing. It takes me a three hour round trip (I'm in London, he's in Kent) to even get to see him. That makes it even more disheartening!

Everyone is telling me to persevere, but it's not their necks on the line! I'm on a micro budget too, so can't afford to send him away to re-break. As I mentioned; I've already spent a small inheritance on lessons and I still can't ride him safely half the time.

I love him desperately though, and I've always kept my horses all their lives. I feel like SUCH a failure for not being able to do anything with him. I'm nearly in tears typing this.

WWYD is you were me?

Fellabelas? I bet it's fallabelas. You won the UK Fallabela dressage championship by doing a GP with reins through the noseband.

Good shout booboost I reckon it is falabellas

As I have said already I am not going to tell you which breed I work with. You guessing and taking the mic is pathetic and childish!

Well this is helping the poor op isn't it?

So, anyway. Good luck with him OP. He does look like a cheekie rogue, and very muscled! It's so difficult when it's unclear if they're in pain or not.

This thread has thoroughly entertained me whilst trying to convince my 7 month old to sleep!

Any update op?

This is quite an old thread, but having got to the end of it I would love to know how the OP is getting on.

For what it's worth, I think finding a well respected professional to re-back or re-school is an investment that will repay itself many times over. I understand the OP is on a budget but if her family are willing to help out I would seriously ask for financial help to pursue this option. I say this as someone who has sent her 4 year old (native) away for a few weeks, but to someone I trusted implicitly. The difference is truly astonishing. From not being able to canter, not working to a contact, not wanting to go off my leg, bumbling over a cross-pole - he has now won a dressage comp, been xc schooling and is entered into some combined training!

Not that he wasn't a lovely willing pony to start with, and the OP's pony does sound a little......wilful! BUT - professionals with their own yards and the time and the facilities can, if not turn even the most difficult pony round, at least get to the bottom of the problem in many cases.

Are you sure he is properly gelded? On a riding holiday a couple of years back they had a very placid Arab cross who was everyone's favourite. The back story was that he had previously developed every vice in the book and was going to be put down, but at the last minute they discovered he had a retained testicle which had become infected and was driving him mad.