This message is from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Hello Patti Jo,
Without seeing this boy, but going from your description, I would say to not give up on him. Most "problems" we see in horses are either related to injury/illness or are man-made, inadvertently or not. Has he been thoroughly checked over by a qualified vet? Teeth, ears, legs, joints, and spine? His flight mechanism could be on "high" due to pain. However, it personally sounds like he recently had a very traumatic experience due to something with noise and the color white which has affected him so badly, his flight response turns on immediately at any reminder. Another hint of this being a strong possibility is the fact of him bolting when you lifted your hand to scratch your head. I would say he was reacting not only to the noise, but the fact of the noise and your raised hand combined. He is trying to get away from a repeat of whatever this bad experience entailed. While I realize the owner is adamant such a thing has not happened, unless the owner has been with him 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, it is possible she did not observe the event. Anyone else ever on that farm? Kids playing pranks? An unknown visitor? There are countless ways for such a thing to happen, unfortunately. My suggestion would be to no longer ride or drive him, but to go back to the very basics. Regain his trust, then work with objects that are known to be frightening to him. This WILL be a long and drawn out process, but the result will be well worth it. We have worked with a few horses that had similar awful experiences at the hands of their previous owners and all have successful, happy, and productive lives now. Good luck and keep all of us posted! Lynda Lynda and Daniel Bailey's Norwegian Fjords & Shetlands White Cloud, MI 231-689-9902 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://hometown.aol.com/baileysfjords/
