Don’t know whether it’s just the time of year...

Star the Fell

Star the Fell

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Jun 14, 2015
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... but I’m really not enjoying Mylo.
I think the problem is that he’s not Star. I thought I wanted to ride, but now I think that I want to ride Star, not another horse.
I’m finding him hard work, he is only young and really needs someone who can commit more time to him. He doesn’t seem happy here, he needs to be out with a field mate on plenty of grass, and that’s not possible here, so he is getting a bit grumpy.
He is a great little pony with a great character and maybe if it wasn’t Winter and I had more time in the evenings, I would want to do more, but at the moment I just don’t.
So, I am going to advertise him for sale I think, just to see if there is any interest. Where would you recommend? I am not bothered about getting money for him, but want him to go to the right home, which means to someone who is used to bringing on youngsters and can give him the time he needs.
I need him gone quickly though once I advertise him as the longer I keep him the harder it will be to part with him.
 
I can understand feeling like that, when Jess was lame I rode others but never really enjoyed it, although I wanted to ride I really only wanted to ride her.

How is star doing now? I know you felt it best to retire her because of the diagnosis but perhaps you could reconsider that now she's had some rehab time?

Everything around here seems to sell on facebook or by word of mouth.
 
Star is doing well. She seems happy in her little paddock.i turn her out in the ménage at weekends so she can stretch her legs and she quite often had a buck, roll and a canter round. When I see her like that she looks rideable, but her feet are obviously a bit sore still. I put her scoot boots on when I know the ground is going to be frozen so she is a little more comfortable. I am considering giving her the Winter off and starting in hand work in the ménage in Spring to see how she does, but in order to have time to do that she would need to be my only pony.
 
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Star the Fell said:
Star is doing well. She seems happy in her little paddock.i turn her out in the ménage at weekends so she can stretch her legs and she quite often had a buck, roll and a canter round. When I see her like that she looks rideable, but her feet are obviously a bit sore still. I put her scoot boots on when I know the ground is going to be frozen so she is a little more comfortable. I am considering giving her the Winter off and starting in hand work in the ménage in Spring to see how she does, but in order to have time to do that she would need to be my only pony.
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Lami can take a long time to get past, at the end of the day hoofs don't 'heal', they just stop getting worse then you have to wait for a new foot to grow in. So if she's going in the right direction I don't think it would be unreasonable to think she will be able to get back to work at some point :)
 
Do you have your mind set on selling Mylo? I understand if you do - but if not, could you maybe turn him away at grass for the winter and then reassess how you feel about him in a few months? I don't think a couple of months doing nothing other than "being a horse" is a bad thing for a youngster, and you might feel more motivated to crack on with him in the spring. From personal experience I know that it can take a while to bond with a new horse and feel enthusiastic about your future together. I think I'd had Annie for a good 2 months or so before I started to feel any amount of affection for her, she isn't really a "people horse" and can be quite aloof plus she was stressed and had bad separation anxiety so she needed time to settle before she started to "let me in". It was hard to be enthusiastic about our future together during that time, it got much better when we had our first show in the planning as it gave me a particular goal to work towards.
 
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I felt a little bit like that with my last horse, maybe because he was bought with the intent of selling him on so I always had that in the back of mind, I was producing him rather than enjoying him for him. He was advertised on horsequest and sold within 48 hours, he was a truly lovely though and the sort that everyone wants. (He wasn't mainly sold because I didn't have a bond with him there were bigger reasons but it was definitely part of the decision making) I had a break then bought another who I totally adore and even though it's winter I'm hacking out at 6.30am every morning in the week which means a 5.30 get up people ask how I do it but I don't find it hard at all as I enjoy it so much, so if I were you I'd sell, life is too short and horses too expensive. I recommend preloved and horse quest to advertise.
 
I’ve not made my mind up one way or the other. Unfortunately I’ve not a lot of grass, so he’s really in a bare paddock with haylage, which he doesn’t really like, he much prefers grass!
In Winter, if the weather was too bad to ride Star, I was disappointed, now I’m not bothered if I can’t ride Mylo. I just feel that he’d be better off with someone else.
My friend says I should give him at least six months. She feels that I’m reacting to the stress of Star being ‘ill’ and that I am trying to replace her, rather than accepting that Mylo is a completely different character.i kind of understand that, but don’t really know how to get over it.
Think I will stick an advert on Preloved and see what happens. I’ll keep Mylo ticking over, over Winter with help from my RI and see how I feel once the clocks go forward if he hasn’t sold.
If I do get someone wanting to buy him before then I suppose I’ll find out if I really want to sell him or not by my feelings at the time....relief or dread at the thought of him going.
 
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I can completely understand why you feel like this, and it's even more understandable if there's a chance of Star being ridden again. Out of interest (I'm too lazy to trawl back through old posts) why did you think Star wouldn't be able to come back into work? I know there's laminitis but that alone shouldn't stop her being ridden.

I would say that you do what feels right for you. Sometimes we feel so strongly about one that there just isn't room for another.
 
I actually felt like this when I took mine on to stay with. I didn't want to ride which was fine because she wasn't even backed.
You could give yourself some time to bond, forget the riding for now.
In what way he is hard work? He only needs to know what you do if that follows.
 
Star has bi lateral rotation in both front feet and the pedal bone has dropped. Her soles measure as 2mm thick. I can’t remember the degree of rotation, but my Farrier’s response when he saw the X-rays wasn’t great! She has been barefoot all her life, never ever shod. The vet and farrier are happy for her to remain barefoot if she isn’t being ridden, but because of the degree of rotation and the thin soles, wouldn’t be happy with her ridden. My plan would be to ride her maybe once or twice a week in the sand school wearing her scoot boots, if possible.

She was extremely lame after her last trim, for two days. Same farrier she has had for ten years, never had a problem before, just because her feet are currently so unstable, she couldn’t cope with the slight change.
(Not sure what, if anything, is happening in back feet as they weren’t x rayed)

Mylo is hard work simply because of his age! He is unbalanced in the school, but to give him his due, he is clever and tries hard. He is great at turn on the fore hand, beginning to grasp leg yield and attempts shoulder in, non of which he’d done before I got him.
My hacking partner rides an idiot of a Welsh pony. The horse is 20 , but her rider is nervous of her and relies on me to get her past cows, scary objects etc. It’s not fair on a 6 year old pony to take the lead in scarey situations, and I’m worried that he is actually becoming nervous himself because of this other horse. Unfortunately he prefers hacking in company at the moment, if I take him out alone, he will go, but calls all the way round, starts off very slow, then giddy when we are heading home, he’s also A LOT more nervous of everything on the road when alone.
 
Star the Fell said:
My hacking partner rides an idiot of a Welsh pony. The horse is 20 , but her rider is nervous of her and relies on me to get her past cows, scary objects etc. It’s not fair on a 6 year old pony to take the lead in scarey situations, and I’m worried that he is actually becoming nervous himself because of this other horse. Unfortunately he prefers hacking in company at the moment, if I take him out alone, he will go, but calls all the way round, starts off very slow, then giddy when we are heading home, he’s also A LOT more nervous of everything on the road when alone.
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Interesting view. I don't think of 6 as being that young (though I acknowledge that some 6-year-olds have had much more of an education than others!) - and certainly not too young to take the lead. To be honest I expect even a 4-year-old to take the lead in a "scary situation" if I ask them to. Being nervous is fine but they still have to learn to go forwards when asked... dealing with animals and objects out hacking is an important part of their education, it's no use having a horse (of any age) who ignores the rider as soon as something else has got its attention! (Otherwise you end up with a 20 year old like the one you are describing...!)
What you describe sounds pretty normal behaviour / lack of confidence for a green horse, and nothing that won't improve with more work and exposure - and yes, bringing on green horses is hard work - but I'm sure you knew that it would be before you decided to buy him? Do you think maybe you are coming up with "excuses" (for want of a better word, I don't mean it to sound critical) to make yourself feel better because you have convinced yourself he's not right for you and/or you're not "good enough" or "right" for him... is the real issue the fact that he requires work or that you lack the motivation (and confidence?) to do it?
 
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Star the Fell said:
Star has bi lateral rotation in both front feet and the pedal bone has dropped. Her soles measure as 2mm thick. I can’t remember the degree of rotation, but my Farrier’s response when he saw the X-rays wasn’t great! She has been barefoot all her life, never ever shod. The vet and farrier are happy for her to remain barefoot if she isn’t being ridden, but because of the degree of rotation and the thin soles, wouldn’t be happy with her ridden. My plan would be to ride her maybe once or twice a week in the sand school wearing her scoot boots, if possible.

She was extremely lame after her last trim, for two days. Same farrier she has had for ten years, never had a problem before, just because her feet are currently so unstable, she couldn’t cope with the slight change.
(Not sure what, if anything, is happening in back feet as they weren’t x rayed)

Mylo is hard work simply because of his age! He is unbalanced in the school, but to give him his due, he is clever and tries hard. He is great at turn on the fore hand, beginning to grasp leg yield and attempts shoulder in, non of which he’d done before I got him.
My hacking partner rides an idiot of a Welsh pony. The horse is 20 , but her rider is nervous of her and relies on me to get her past cows, scary objects etc. It’s not fair on a 6 year old pony to take the lead in scarey situations, and I’m worried that he is actually becoming nervous himself because of this other horse. Unfortunately he prefers hacking in company at the moment, if I take him out alone, he will go, but calls all the way round, starts off very slow, then giddy when we are heading home, he’s also A LOT more nervous of everything on the road when alone.
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Rotation & dropping don't mean no more work, and sole depth will grow back. Been there, done that, still doing it. I do agree with your farrier about shoes being needed, and you'll need visits regularly enough to keep the foot balance correct. Little Un is ridden at least 4 times a week, often more, in the school and hacking. I won't trot miles on the roads, or trot or canter on bad ground, and we don't jump, but he's sound, forward & free moving - probably very like your friend's idiot welsh cob except he knows he has to go past pony eating monsters lol.

Like @joosie I really don't see a 6yo as a youngster & I would expect him to be getting on with things & taking his example from you not the other horse. Truth told I'd expect better from a 4yo, at 6 I'd say you'd either got a horse that was never going to be happy hacking (they do exist) or a rider problem.
 
@joosie got to say it's so good to hear someone who recognises horses should learn to go alone and lead. When I was looking for another it was so hard to find a horse that would confidently would hack alone. It is missing in a lot of horses educations.
 
Firstly, Star has been ridden all her life without shoes. If I now need to shoe her in order to ride her, then I don’t see her as being fit enough to ride. She is leading a very happy life and doesn’t seem to be missing the work, it would be different if she was depressed and needing to work but she is happy being a horse. Riding her again would be for my benefit, so I won’t treat her any differently than I have in the past just to keep me happy.

Secondly, there is no ‘problem’ with Mylo. He is young , has done very little and just needs more education. I got Star at 4, so have been through this before. The problem I have is whether I want to put all the effort into Mylo with the risk that at the end, I still won’t enjoy him because he’s not Star.

A few of you understand where I’m coming from, a couple of you obviously don’t. Which is fine and I do need to hear everyone’s point of view.

Maybe I am just a bit fed up with it being Winter, I don’t know. I will plod on with M, because he will obviously be easier to sell the more he does, and maybe I will get more used to him and stop comparing him to Star. (Who isn’t perfect by the way!)
 
I can't remember, but does Star have EMS or IR? If she does work will make the conditions much easier to control. Even if it's PPID then work will help delay the muscle wastage that's a problem for many horses. Sometimes principles have to be compromised for the greater good - I'd always said I'd never put a horse through colic surgery but faced with a horse that hadn't given up but had no chance without it I did & we had another 7 years as a result.
 
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This is not about the horse health problems which by the way Maisie had even when she arrived at the yard. Needing special shoes etc.

But it is about winter and not riding.

Last summer the RS didnt have time for me to ride and Grace was off work and I sort of stopped riding and thought of giving up. It was only by chance meeting the YO that I resumed hacking Grace. I am back riding Grace and riding twice a week like the old days and it has given me cause for thought.
First - time- Grace is now giving me the sort of blissful rides I once had on Maisie and I guess it is the time I have now put in with her. Familiarity between us and shared experience takes time to build up. Never guessed I would find it with another horse. But I have. After two years hacking her.
Secondly - by not riding for a few weeks - I discovered that one is more likely to ride all year and in all weathers if one rides regularly - Otherwise one may pick and choose when to turn out depending on one's mood or the weather
Thirdly, once back hacking, and it was a lovely day yesterday- frosty and bright - reminded me that the reason I learned to ride in the first place was that I needed something I loved to see me through winter depression. Riding was designed to be my winter activity. There was a bitter wind yesterday but I have the kit for it. After my first ever hack (snow on the ground), a saddler kitted me out with high quality winter riding wear (see the other thread). I still wear all the clothes I bought fifteen years ago and keep warm riding.
So you get a vicious circle - you get low in winter and feel too old to ride and then dont benefit from the luxury that cheers you up.
 
He can't be that unbalanced if you are introducing lateral.
I think it depends on what you want from a horse. I wanted one that hacked alone and in company, could be ridden in the fields alone and in company, could be ridden in the school alone and in company and pops a pole or two.
She was doing that at 5/6 so was pretty much the finished article so to speak. I had to wait for her to get to grips with canter and to set foot off the yard on her own.

How often are you riding with this company? I rarely ride with a particular nervous rider because I have to have confidence for me, mine and them. Mine is then worried the next ride or two on her own again, she can be a worrier. Plus I find them exhausting!

The more you do with him the easier he will be for you, not just to sell. Maybe write down what you want from a horse and look at what he has done.

I compared my lass to what I had lost and its bloody hard to see a new character. But I am enjoying new stuff my other lad hated so you can move forwards.
 
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I agree it's what you want from a horse I love riding because Lottie is exactly everything I like in a horse. Every day I don't ride I miss it, I can't go 2 days without riding unless I have to. If I didn't enjoy the horse as much though I don't think I would be as motivated. What about setting a goal to work towards to keep you, motivated? I hunt every weekend occasionally twice a week so have to keep her really fit, I like how fit and well she looks, it's easy when they are your pride and joy.

Skib is right once you get out of the swing of it it's very hard to get back into it as you get into the mindset of oh what's another day, I'll ride tomorrow. 2 years is a long time to bond with a horse but I imagine riding twice a week is different than the day in day out of owning. If it took 2 years to get a good bond with a horse you owned maybe they aren't "the one" everyone is different though.
 
Some time ago but I need to set the record straight on this time scale for bonding. I bonded with Grace on first meeting her in the school. But we need to be more specific. To bond with a horse on the ground or in the school may be wholly different from the same horse hacking out. And that would apply to owners too.
An ex-eventer isnt the obvious choice for a woman in her seventies. A rider needs the competence and the confidence to handle any individual horse out in the open. Lucky for me, I was taught to hack her. With all my wits about me let me say. And it is only now two years later that I feel as relaxed on her as I did hacking Maisie and she carries me with the same easy and carefree canter.
The rider learns the skills, you build up the shared experiences and then you are wedded. It isnt instant. It is a learning curve for both of you. And indeed it might take longer for an owner on her own.
 
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