Ferrah
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Sorry in advance for the long post.
Thank you all for all your wonderful suggestions. I had the day off work today so I went right out to the stable to get busy working on this problem because she is really dangerous about it sometimes.
I put Ferrah in the largest paddock we have, .75 of an acre. I was going to put her in the pasture, but there is still lots of green grass and she has foundered twice in the past.
I put one plastic bag halfway inbetween her feeder and the other end of the paddock, there was a light breeze so the plastic was flapping a little bit, but not too much. As soon as I turned Ferrah out she high tailed it top the end of her paddock and ran back and forth at the far end of the paddock looking like she was trying to jump the 5 foot fence, she got lifted on the electric wire on the top rail of the fence and then stopped looking like she wanted to jump the fence and just ran back and forth trying to find a way out. I put Ferrah's hay in her feeder and little bit of her favorite purina horse feed. She was very interested in getting fed but she would walk over to where the plastic bag was and if it rustled even very slightly she would run back to where she started. I watched her do this for about two hours, she got a total of four mouthfulls of food which she didn't chew every much. Eventually she semi calmed down in a corner of her paddock but she would still pace and get upset if the plastic rustled. Even when she did stand still her ears were going back and forth like crazy. She snorted up a storm which made all the other horses at the stable spooky too.
I called my riding instructor and she camne over and told me to take the plastic away for awhile so Ferrah could finally eat her breakfast and so she could cool down (she was pretty sweaty by this time). After Ferrah ate we put the plastic back up with the same result.
My riding instructor says we can continue this and if there is no improvement in a reasonable amount of time we will take down a bunch of the panels for spare paddocks and make a 60' round pen. I don't know how to do round penning but my instructor does. We are also going to call up the local acupuncture/message therapist if none of your other suggestions seem to work
I called up the lady I leased her from and asked her if she had any past history on the horse. Apparently Ferrah used to be one of the top hunter/jumper horses for children and was sold for $18,000 at one point, then unexplicably she ended up on a ranch where she was branded and used to pole bend and barrel race. Then she ended up at a local equestrian center boarded by a very nice but timid lady. Her owner very quickly got frightened of Ferrah and she ended up in a pasture for five years doing nothing at all, her owner boarded her there waiting for her to die
Then the lady who I leased her from got Ferrah for free and she was pretty much unrideable, she would bolt, jig and wouldn't stand for mounting. Then I took her on as a 4-H project and in two lessons with my riding instructor we solved the bolting, jigging and mounting problem. In the next month or two we discovered Ferrah had some really good training! She LOVES to jump and can switch leads like a wild thing! We don't jump much anymore because of her age though. Good old Ferrah has aged really well though, no one believes be when I say she is 22!, they all think she is 10 or 12!
Anyway that is her past history, sorry for the long post. Thank you everyone who has replied offering suggestions, but drugging her will be the last thing we try.
Thanks again!
Thank you all for all your wonderful suggestions. I had the day off work today so I went right out to the stable to get busy working on this problem because she is really dangerous about it sometimes.
I put Ferrah in the largest paddock we have, .75 of an acre. I was going to put her in the pasture, but there is still lots of green grass and she has foundered twice in the past.
I put one plastic bag halfway inbetween her feeder and the other end of the paddock, there was a light breeze so the plastic was flapping a little bit, but not too much. As soon as I turned Ferrah out she high tailed it top the end of her paddock and ran back and forth at the far end of the paddock looking like she was trying to jump the 5 foot fence, she got lifted on the electric wire on the top rail of the fence and then stopped looking like she wanted to jump the fence and just ran back and forth trying to find a way out. I put Ferrah's hay in her feeder and little bit of her favorite purina horse feed. She was very interested in getting fed but she would walk over to where the plastic bag was and if it rustled even very slightly she would run back to where she started. I watched her do this for about two hours, she got a total of four mouthfulls of food which she didn't chew every much. Eventually she semi calmed down in a corner of her paddock but she would still pace and get upset if the plastic rustled. Even when she did stand still her ears were going back and forth like crazy. She snorted up a storm which made all the other horses at the stable spooky too.
I called my riding instructor and she camne over and told me to take the plastic away for awhile so Ferrah could finally eat her breakfast and so she could cool down (she was pretty sweaty by this time). After Ferrah ate we put the plastic back up with the same result.
My riding instructor says we can continue this and if there is no improvement in a reasonable amount of time we will take down a bunch of the panels for spare paddocks and make a 60' round pen. I don't know how to do round penning but my instructor does. We are also going to call up the local acupuncture/message therapist if none of your other suggestions seem to work
I called up the lady I leased her from and asked her if she had any past history on the horse. Apparently Ferrah used to be one of the top hunter/jumper horses for children and was sold for $18,000 at one point, then unexplicably she ended up on a ranch where she was branded and used to pole bend and barrel race. Then she ended up at a local equestrian center boarded by a very nice but timid lady. Her owner very quickly got frightened of Ferrah and she ended up in a pasture for five years doing nothing at all, her owner boarded her there waiting for her to die
Anyway that is her past history, sorry for the long post. Thank you everyone who has replied offering suggestions, but drugging her will be the last thing we try.
Thanks again!