Hello to you all here!

I'm not only newcomer here, but also absolute beginner in the horse world. I never ever had dreamed to become a horse owner, but now (6 days already! ) I have 16 years young boy to keep my head spinning around.

I'm 46 years old journalist from Latvia, complete city girl who moved to country 5 years ago. I have husband peter, 3 German Shepherd dogs, one St. Bernard and 6 cats. We are living in nice old farm on some land, pastures, our own forest, two ponds and some outbildings, so here is enough space and food for all of us. Last Tuesday we suddenly, out of the blue added a horse to our pack, and I'm starting my big battle to get myself into this world.

And yes, please be patient with my English as it is not my native language.

The horse belonged to our neighbours - very nice old couple, who can not care about horse anymore and they wanted to sell him to slaughtery. Knowing how much our neighbour loves his horse, my husband, who has some horse experience from his childhood at grandparents farm, offered his help. It was husbands birthday, so happy neighbours just made a present... So now we have a horse.

Peter is happy, and I'm actually too, but I'm very very worried about the whole thing. The horse sweet, but very fat, spoiled rotten, very bored (he had not have anything to do for at least past 6 months) and he is very big. Horse is purebreed LS gelding, at least 17.2 (had not had measured him properly yet) and needs a looooooot of work to get back in shape. He is not a riding horse, just worked with cart, and husband says that he will be able to try him ride maybe in autumn (if that).  

In general, our new pet needs just nice light job to fulfill his retirement days. And a lot of work to get him back in shape. He has some bad habits, but in general he is very friendly horse who likes human contact and other farm animals as a company.

I'm here to learn just everything from the step one and I do hope that it will be possible. It is not so easy to start with hirst horse at 46, indeed. I'm so frightened of him, I hav no knowledge, experience and feeling... But I'm determint to learn.

This is our boy last summer when he was still in quite good shape  

and here he was last Tuesday on his first walk with us

Hope, you will be patient with me and my silly questions!

Welcome!  Please feel free to ask any and all questions -- we all started somewhere and there is great bank of knowledge on this board!

Your new boy is a pretty thing, I'm sure you have your hands full though.  What is the chain around his neck?  Is that to stop cribbing?

If you or hubby has any access to someone experienced in doing groundwork with a horse (trainer, friend), I would highly recommend that -- basically getting the horse to move his feet in the direction you want, when you want, while you are standing next to him.  This will help build the relationship between you and your horse and teach him that YOU are the boss!  Make him respect your space by not allowing him to crowd you when walking (I found sticking out my elbow towards his neck is great for this).  Simply putting a halter on him and asking him to back, move forward, turn his head, move his back legs when you gently press on his ribcage, move his front legs when you press on his shoulder (making sure you release pressure as soon as he responds with a weight shift or step in the right direction) -- all these things are a HUGE help in teaching a horse to pay attention and respect you. 

His previous owners had kept him on a long chain when outside, like they do also with cows here. Do not seems to be really nice, of course, but he is used to such life and he must wait a bit more until the ground will be opened so we shall be able to make him fenced area to run freely. Until then for his own safety he will continue like that on pastures.

He already has so much changes for the last week - we called in farrier to do his hoofs, he got new braidle, new halter... He has been walked on daily basic since that day.

He also need a new box, and we are thinking and planning how to make it more comfortable for him and us. His old (and current) box is very, very small, and he had spent too much time in it.

Husband is working on him now every day. He really likes him, and he wants to take step by step to get out his bad habits and get him into a nice sweet horse how he actually is. Horse is responding to husbands voice, comes, when called, but he likes to chew sleeve or lead, while you are putting bridle on or something. He had this habit for past 10 years at least, and it can not dissapear in a day. He is not a kicker, but he likes to try out boundaries a bit. when they both will be settled in with each other, things will be better, I do hope.

Horse always was getting a treat (hand feeding) for letting bridle on or going back to box, and Peter is trying to get him out of this habit first. No treats, just must to be done what must to be done, even it takes a bit longer.

I do not know anything, so I just go along with husband's ideas, and that is the reason why I'm here - to find out the right ways.

basically he is just a rescue, and we treat him like that - sweet old boy.

Hello and WELCOME!

It sounds as if you are doing all the right things for the horse, who by the way, is still a young horse by today's health standards! 

He does need to lose some weight.  I don't know what feeds you have available in your country, but a horse like this one needs his sugars, starches, and carbohydrates cut back to under 15% if possible.

Your pastures are probably very lush - yes?  I have a "portly" horse like your new fellow is.  My horse does not get grain, but does get 8 ounces 2X/day of a pelleted vitiman/mineral supplement.

 The health reason for this is that you do not want to see the horse develop Cushings disease or a metabolic disorder.  The metabolic disorders are Insulin resistance or Equine Metabolic Syndrome - they would be equated to Type II diabetes in a human.

I have given you enough in the health department to absorb and it's time for me to leave work, so I will stop.

There are some great horse owners on this board with vast and kind experience in handling horses.  They are much more eloquent in getting their points across than I am, so I will only say that your husband sounds to be going in the right direction.  No treats, kind correction when the horse needs it, etc.

Please keep asking questions!  Lots of good advice on here:)

Welcome to the board, I like your horse :) I'm off to work, but wanted to welcome you really quick ;)

Jessi

Hello and welcome to the forum and the world of horses!

Keep on working with him every day and taking those walks. Walking him and working on making sure he respects you while leading him will help you dreate dominance with him. If you can have his respect for your space, everything else will fall into place. Even spending time outside grooming him will build a good relationship because most horses enjoy being groomed. Taking him off all the treats is a good thing, too. He can still get lots of love after he is bridled. Just not with treats. 

Welcome from California!  I echo the the thoughts of the others here and would also like to add that you could get some good books on horsekeeping and training.  Trainers and teachers I like are John Lyons, Clinton Anderson, Stacy Westfall, Cherry Hill.  The first three have video series that you could watch (especially the first steps on ground work).  They all are Western type riders/trainers, but the ground work is applicable to all kinds of riding.  They also all have websites.  John Lyons has a monthly publication as well.

Best wishes and welcome!  Please feel free to ask questions often!

Hi! Today we archieved a lot. We sorted out his biting. It took us 3 days of thoughts but now it is nearly treated and he was 100% much better. He does not like to bite into the metal so we decided that a crop with metal end will be the right thing. Sadly there were no any short crop with a metal end at few shops near us so we went to the plumbing section, got a bit of pipe and made our own crop.

This is it

It works miracles. We allowed him few times bite into it, and he didn't liked it at all... Then slowly, with a very light poke when he was approaching us... It was brilliant. He was not hit by it, not at all, I would poke that way any of my dogs and they probably would even notice that, but he was responding so well to it!

So: I was able to put bridle on him by myself! With just a second attempt for the first time in my life. And later it was even better... Husband asked him (not pulled or something, but asked by voice), standing a bit on front of the horse on loose lead to trot, and he did... He was troting along with husband in exactly right pace and seemed really enjoyed it. When husband slowed down a bit, horse did the same, and went into something like half trot, nicely pointing hoofs down... It was just brilliant! I'm sooo happy about today! If his obedience training will go like that, soon he will be ready for dressage, indeed!

I walked him too, with my hand on his back, and a light pull - he instantly steps back (with light pull I mean just movement of fingers, like less than an inch) - really really light! What a relief! No niping at all today!

Yay! I'm happy your little metal crop worked! It seems like your new horse was trained before and now just needs some freshening up on his training. Congratulations!! 

Well, that is exciting progress!  Congrats, sounds like you've stumbled on a once-well-trained horse there!

Solaris:

sounds like you've stumbled on a once-well-trained horse there!

I don't think so if you mean a proper professional level training. See, he was bought from Gypsies 10 years ago, when he was 6 years old. He had no training (exept basic farm needs) since then, it is for sure.

Before... Horse was born in 1991... It was a bit hectic time here in my country, people were struggling to survive and as a result horses were suffering lack of attention as well. He MUST be a simple farm born boy, so probably he was ridden a bit, but no proper training. That was the time when really good trained sport horses were sold abroad for peanuts.  

I'm more keen to think that this horse is just very nice, wise boy, enjoying human company and trying to please. He really is a very good boy. He picks up things so easy and I really wish we should have more knowledge because he is very trainable softmouth. Maybe we shall end up with dressage training? :D

Welcome!  And good luck with your boy.  He is very handsome.  Horses love being groomed and it creates a nice bond.  Just be sure to reinforce your boundaries with him.  Consistancy is a huge factor.  And Read, Read, Read!  You can learn most anything from reading.

Welcome and congrats. 

I would recommend to you to get a book called "Horses for Dummies".  It's a very well written book in very basic terms and includes a wealth of information for people just getting into horses.  Then from there books from Clinton Anderson on training are also very well written.  I don't follow any one trainers "methods" 100% but personally I do like the way Clintons books are written.  Very detailed.   You can go to www.amazon.com to order almost any book.  I don't know if you could find them in your native language but your english is very good so you shouldn't have a problem understanding the books.  And if you have a question on something, that's what we are here for.

Good Luck

Thank you, will try to get a book. Yes, I can read English :) Proper horse books are only available here in English or in Russian, Latvian horse market is still too small for advanced books to be translated and printed.

I have another dummies question now - how to take proper care of the horse tail? Our current problem is that boy likes to sleep on floor at night and he precisely puts his tail into manure water trench. He does it each night so at morning tail is wet and dirty.  

I'm excessively brushing his tail since Friday, but the  stale makes bristle very dry, and it is getting tangled so easy. Maybe I can brush some baby oil in it or something to protect a bit from stale?

He will need to stay in current box at least for 2 months from now, so his tail will be soaked into stale every night... Is there a temporary solution?