Hope this works....anyways, these front legs belong to a 3 year old (will be 4 in August), unbroken gelding. He's 16'3hh and weighs in at 488Kg's. he's an orphan, and arrived in the yard about 2 months ago. When he arrived he was not even bridled. never had a bit in his mouth and the only amount of handling he had recieved was being led to and from the paddock and a bit of a brush.
So I started breaking him in, and within 2 weeks his suspensory ligament had begun to swell. so we backed off him, and now ive just started lunging him again and he's IMPOSSIBLE!!! He's had the saddle on, and is sort of okay with it, he'll be led around with the saddle no problem, but as soon as i ask him to tro he goes mad, the girth isn't too tight, and hes been checked by the physio, the chiro, and the vet and none of them can find anything wrong with him. I think he needs a psychologist. Anyways, after about 5 mins of cavorting around he settles down and lunges beautifully.
The big problem comes in where he simply refuses to have a rider on his back...so I thought, okay, no problem, and I used my "fake rider" it's just a pair of feed sacks tied together, with soft weights on each end - all in all it weighs about 35 kgs - i stood with him about 30mins, showing him the sack, and rubbing it all over his body and to begni with he was VERY nervous, jumping everytime it touched him, but eventually he seemed to settle down, s i got one of my grooms (who's taller than m) to slip the "rider" over his back...WELL...i have never in my life seen a horse lose the plot like this one did!!!! he went beserk, and was galloping and bucking and because of the weights the "rider" wasn't easy to get off...he finally stopped when he got his leg stuck between the railings of the round pen, and the "rider" slipped off"...the horse was heaving and panting, and he was so scared he was shaking...needless to say i felt AWFUL and just wanted to cry. I've tried everyhing with this horse....join up, sedation, tying down...and nothing works, and It's really upsetting because I've started hundreds of horses and yeah, some have taken longer than others, some have been more difficult and some have taken to the whole riding thing like fish o water...and I really dont know what else to do.
Aside from all that, with legs like those, is he eve going to hold up in training let alone get onto a racecourse?
i mean, maybe I've rushed him too quickly? but the fact is he's already been given so much time. His ground work is superb, he leads well, doesn't bite or kick or rear when being led, he easy to groom and handle and treat, and he's such a honeypie in the stable, but as soon as you try to get on his back he really does go mad.
ANY suggestions or advice would be most appreciated!!!
