Some Special Stories

Harry's Story: Harry came to us to see if Fred could stop his bucking. He had been to another trainer who couldn't stop his bucking or ride him through the bucking. That particular trainers solution had been to put him in a horse walker for 45mins at a fast speed before trying to ride him. Harry would still buck, despite being totally exhausted. Harry had never been properly started due to the bucking habit he had developed and it was reccomended to his owner to put him down as he would never be rideable.

Once Fred started working with Harry he realised that he was a very girthy horse. Harry would feel the pressure of the girth and buck, and would then give himself such a fright that he would continue to buck. Fred leg restraint trained Harry to reduce his 'flight from fear' response. He also hopped on Harry while using leg restraints and touched him absolutely everywhere to help desensitise him to people being on top of him.

Fred desensitised Harry to the pressure of the girth whilst re-mouthing him, by doing up the girth very slowly in stages, preventing Harry from bucking on the ground while he accepted the pressure from the girth. This was a gradual process but it allowed Harry to get used to the girth pressure in stages.

Fred fully re-mouthed Harry and was then able to ride him forward with no bucking at all and gain his confidence with being ridden, something he didn't have as he had always been allowed to buck.

Harry stayed with us for 3 weeks to be fully re-started. He went home a bright, confident horse and his owner has had no further issues with him.

John's Story: John came to us with a serious floating problem. He had hit his head on the roof of the float while being unloaded and had formed a habit of rushing off backwards, sometimes so fast that he had actually flipped over backwards a few times. He had also stopped loading at all as he was now so wary of the float.

Once John arrived and Fred was able to assess him, Fred saw that the horse was anticipating hitting his head again everytime he went near the float. After some training, Fred was able to get John to load onto the float again, but his ' flight from fear' response was so strong that he would stand for a second, then immediately race out backwards again in a blind panic. Fred needed to curb John's 'flight from fear' response to be able to get him thinking again and to get his confidence back with backing off the float.

Fred used back hobbles over float boots on John's hind legs and initially got him used to them in the roundyard. Once John was aware that he had to slow down and also had to think about where he was placing his feet, Fred was able to load him into the float and have him stand there. Upon backing off, John physically couldn't race backwards anymore but had to stop and think about where to place his feet. With Fred there for heaps of reasurrance, John was asked to slowly back off the float with lots of stopping for reward and relief. The back hobbles prevented him from panicking and rushing and allowed him to think about what he was doing and realise that it wasn't going to hurt. After being loaded and backed off a few times slowly and calmly with lots of reward and pats, Fred was able to remove the back hobbles from John. He was then able to load and unload John calmly without them.

Over the next few days, Fred would just put the float boots on John and that was enough to remind him not to panic and to slow down and think about what he was doing. Fred then taught him to self load with confidence.

John went home self loading onto the float, both for Fred and his owner after 3 days training. His owner has had no issues with him since and the good thing is, if John ever gets a fright or starts to rush at all again, his owner will be able to use the back float boots on him as a trigger to remind him that he doesn't need to rush. A great tool to take home!



Patricks Story: Patrick came to us as a two year old to be started under saddle. He was fully leg restraint trained as part of his initial training and went on to break in beautifully.

About a month after he had gone home, his owner rang to tell us a story. She had had Patrick tied up to a fence whilst saddling him up to go for a ride. Patrick was being a bit impatient and had lifted his leg up to paw. One of the wire strands in the fence slipped between his shoe and hoof and immobilised his leg up in the air. He didn't panic at all but just stood there calmly, looking at her with his leg in the air. Because Patrick had been fully leg restraint trained, he knew to never fight against pressure, but to immediately give to the pressure and wait. His owner was able to run to the shed for wire cutters and get under him to cut the wire away, with Patrick waiting patiently the whole time. If he had pannicked, who knows what could have happened but a serious injury would have possibly been the best case scenario.

Megs Story: Meg came to us to be started under saddle. Her owner was having a few issues with her on the ground and had knowledge that she had come from a fairly traumatic background. One of the issues Meg had was that she couldn't be hosed and was terrified of water and hoses. She thought that Meg may have been beaten with a hose at some stage and now had a strong fear of hoses and water.

The first thing Fred did was leg restraint train Meg. Once she was used to this and had learnt to think about what she was doing and where she was placing her feet, Fred reintroduced the hose. With Meg safely restrained, she was unable to panic and race away from the hose like she always had, sometimes causing injury to herself and on one occasion, her owner. The leg restraints also prevented her from striking out, which she had been doing at home. Once Meg felt the hose on her, instead of being able to immediately evade and get away, she was made to stop and think. With lots of praise and reassurance from Fred, within about one minute she had visibly relaxed and was accepting the water all over her body and legs. After carrying this fear for years, it was all over in less that one minute.

Over the next few days, Fred taught Meg to tie up solid and was able to hose her everyday after her work with no problems at all. She went on to break in easily and turned out to be horse that loves the beach and swimming, which may have been a problem, had Fred not been able to get over her fear of water.
Her owner mentioned to us one day that she had had another trainer attempt to work with getting Meg over her fear of water. His method had been to slowly and gently bring the hose near Meg each day and try to put the water on her legs. Meg had gotten progressively worse over the week and had upped the scale to striking out at the hose and trainer. She had been given the opportunity to evade even more and her fear had grown in her mind. Megs owner was amazed at how quickly and safely the leg restraint training had taken away Megs fear of water. And for good.

Charlies Story: Charlie came to us to be retrained with putting a bridle on and off. When his owner tried to bridle him, Charlie would throw his head up, rear, thrash around and even throw himself on the ground. A highly dangerous situation as Charlie would hit his owner and himself whilst panicking.
Fred found that Charlie was very head shy due to having being ear twitched at some stage in his life.

Fred immediately taught Charlie to tie up solid, to take away his evasion. Fred then spent lots of time patting and brushing Charlie and handling him around his head and ears. After initially trying to fight, because Charlie was safely restrained, Fred was able to quickly get his confidence back with having his ears and head touched. Once Charlie was happily accepting being touched again, Fred was able to reintroduce the bridle. Fred then spent lots of time bridling Charlie and getting him used to the headpiece passing back and forth over his ears. Once Charlie was confident with this, Fred was able to untie him and bridle him normally.

Charlie was with us for 4 days. He now has his confidence back and his owner hasn't had a problem bridling him again.

'Lucys' Story': Lucy came to us this year to see whether Fred could stop her serious bucking habit. Although only 2 and a half, she had already been to two other trainers and had bucked 7 people off in the last few months. She had been labelled highly dangerous and was on her last chance before being sent to the knackers.

Fred realised the problem was that Lucy had never been properly desensitised and couldn't cope with people being on top of her or trying to mount her. The last trainers solution had been to put blinkers or a blindfold on, get on her and then remove the blindfold. Lucy would then buck and buck, usually ending in getting her rider off. Her 'flight from fear' response was very strong due to not being properly desensitised to touch and weight shifting on her. She had formed a dangerous habit of firstly shifting and rearing whilst being mounted, and then bucking once she felt weight and could see someone above her in the saddle.

Initially Fred leg restraint trained her. Once Lucy was safely restrained, Fred was able to desensitize her absolutely everywhere and hop on and off her to get her over her fear of people being on her back. Then, after re-mouthing her, Fred was able to teach her to stand still while being mounted and to never, ever buck under saddle. He was then able to get her confident about moving forward under saddle. After two weeks, Lucy went home a happy, forward and confident horse and the owner hasn't had a problem with her since, including when she came back in from a recent spell.