Hi friends! So I started leasing an 8 year old OTTB this month and he is as sweet as could be. His owner travels a lot so she wanted someone that could ride him consistently. She let me know he was mistreated in the past which leads him to be pretty jumpy but I didn't realize the severity of it until after a few weeks with him.
He's still training on a few things but I wouldn't consider him green anymore. He understands what's going on while I'm riding him and seems to be pretty trusting of me while I'm in the saddle. The problem is when I'm not on him, he is terrified of everything - movements and noises (especially anything close to his head). I've been starting all my rides with lunging to kind of "check in" with him to see how jumpy he is that day. I also try desensitizing him to movements around his face and body which sometimes goes well and sometimes it doesn't. I can tell he's really trying his best to do what I ask of him and know it has nothing to do with him being "bad". I'm reaching out to see if any of y'all have advice/suggestions on how to help calm him down or get used to being around humans.
Hope this makes sense, thank you in advance!!!
We have an older draft horse with his eye swollen shut, a vet is not available for several days. There are you tube videos showing how this is done. Do any of you have recommendations for treating this?
