a.) has already put people in the hospital b.) is going to get bigger c.) needs significant medical diagnostics and professional training d.) will not be rideable for a minimum of two more years.
In short, it is taking up space in your rescue from five other horses that could be rescued and placed in a home for the same investment of time and expense.
My call would be to put it down. Imo the second a particular rescue individual starts to cost five times as much as all the other rescues it is taking away resources from other horses that would be much easier to place and deserve homes just as much. You can't save 'em all, not even close, so you may as well use your resources most effectively.
To be honest, I agree with you. I don't want to, because of the whole "respecting life" thing, but your reasons are the same as mine. We can spend years with this attack pony taking up room and possibly chomping off the community kids' fingers when she gets a wild ass hair, or we can respectfully put her to sleep, and use our time and resources on other horses who have a better chance of being rehabilitated. That being said, we've only had one other horse who couldn't be rehabilitated, and that was because she was starved and possibly had EPM (she couldn't stand without a sling). We put her down, of course, though it broke our hearts. Basically, I wanted to post here to see if there was any chance whatsoever that we could bring this horse back from whatever edge she's gone to.
Honestly, with what we're doing right now, she would probably be set out in the field with whichever horse she won't bully around, and largely ignored. I know for some horses, that has worked to get them to stop tooling around, but that's usually when they have trust issues causing the behavioral issues, not when they're just flat out ruckuses.
If we kept her, I wonder how long we would wait to see if she "mellows" and gains trust. I don't think there's a magic number... .
I agree with the whole putting her down thing. It's not worth it-not worth another horse being injured, the cost of fixing fences, a person getting injured, etc. She's a liability
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The adoption part is the part that really scares me, especially since she's come back twice.
Basically, with us, if a horse can be rehabbed to participate in our education program, it stays with us. About half the barn is rescues that will stay with us forever. If they just aren't a good fit for our education program (youngsters and horses who just need a full-time job mostly- they aren't bad horses, but they don't have the temperment or are too young to interact with kids well), then we adopt them out with check ups.
So in this horse's case, we're seeing no change in behaviour. We're VERY honest with describing a horse's particular needs, and we do take them back if it doesn't work out. I'm scared to keep sending her out like this, if she's going to keep tromping on people. I'm a staunch believer that horses do not act like this without a reason, but I'm also worried about how many people are going to get hurt before her behavior is "fixed." Does that make sense?
I can't speak to horses, but I'm familiar with this from dealing with rehabbed dogs. Even if the new owner knows about the issues, they may fail to adequately alert everyone who comes into contact with the horse in the future (like vistors, grandkids, etc) and tragedy can result.
Frankly, if an animal can't socialize happily with either humans OR members of its own kind, I find that it often ends up revealing deep seated problems (tumors, weird neuro, whatever) that can't be solved without boucup bucks. And I think in these cases, it's kinder to send the animal to a peaceful death than for it to be so freaked out that it climbs the walls trying to attack others. I just don't think that's a happy state to be in.
Agreed. This is a "cut your losses now" situation. Your life + BO's life + the life of everyone who gets near her > her life. If she is mentally ill she will never be happy and content.
It is my firm belief that 9 out of 10 of problem horses can be rehabbed, and it's rare to ever see a horse that is well and truly loco, and is beyond fixing. IMO, this horse sounds like one of those just plain unlucky fillies that was born well and truly crazy and nothing can be done for her.
So, the most humane thing would be to put her down, for her sake and the safety of the people and horses around her.
Sounds to me like - as has been conjectured previously - either there is something neurologically wrong or the horse has been very badly socialised. In the latter case I would think that maybe putting her out with a herd who will tolerate no nonsense for a couple of years and doing almost nothing with her might make a big difference. She is very young and at that age naturally they tend to be experimenting with pushing boundaries and at the same time reaching the point where they are no longer tolerated as a baby and the other horses will kick their ass around the field if they push on them.
However if it was a socialisation problem I would only expect to see it in a situation where the horse had been hand reared or massively over humanised as a foal. The pattern you describe indicates a horse that will probably always need very competent handling.
I've actually received an update from the vet. Vet found nothing wrong with her neurologically, but feels that she was probably a bottle baby and very poorly socialised.
The only thing I can add here is that Ozzy was like that as a yearling and he's a kid-safe puppy dog now. Poor socialization is scary and best left to professionals, but I don't think you're dealing with something that can't be fixed.
He was at the track so he was stalled for most of the day, with a solid door he COULDN'T tear down. Fed every morning with a bucket in one hand and a whip in the other. Use as necessary. Put him out alone at first, then added an alpha mare that wouldn't take his shit. She kicked the hell out of him and he never attacked another horse again. As for the people thing, it was just a matter of making him regret his actions every time he acted aggressively.
The only down side is that it's extremely time consuming and you can't risk the horse going to someone who won't crack down on the behavior. Because this is a rescue, not a pet, I do think you might be better off putting her down and helping other horses with the resources. I'm strongly against euthanizing for behavioral reasons, but I also think that death is not the worst thing that can happen to an animal, especially a dangerous or unpredictable one.
Since she's not going to be a permanent fixture, that's really the only reason I'm thinking euth, because a medical death would not be the worst thing that could possibly happen to her down the road. She could end up at auction, or beaten by some head-in-the-ass "trainer" or god forbid, turned into a broodmare (we've already had someone ask if they can make her a broodmare). I'm specifically thinking future-thinking. I'm thankful that the people who have taken her so far were willing to honor their adoption contract and return her to us, but she's just the sort of horse that the backwards yokels around here could serious fuck up.
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a.) has already put people in the hospital
b.) is going to get bigger
c.) needs significant medical diagnostics and professional training
d.) will not be rideable for a minimum of two more years.
In short, it is taking up space in your rescue from five other horses that could be rescued and placed in a home for the same investment of time and expense.
My call would be to put it down.
Imo the second a particular rescue individual starts to cost five times as much as all the other rescues it is taking away resources from other horses that would be much easier to place and deserve homes just as much. You can't save 'em all, not even close, so you may as well use your resources most effectively.
Sorry if that sounds callous.
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That being said, we've only had one other horse who couldn't be rehabilitated, and that was because she was starved and possibly had EPM (she couldn't stand without a sling). We put her down, of course, though it broke our hearts. Basically, I wanted to post here to see if there was any chance whatsoever that we could bring this horse back from whatever edge she's gone to.
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It is not the end of the world to put down a dangerous horse.
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If we kept her, I wonder how long we would wait to see if she "mellows" and gains trust. I don't think there's a magic number... .
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Basically, with us, if a horse can be rehabbed to participate in our education program, it stays with us. About half the barn is rescues that will stay with us forever. If they just aren't a good fit for our education program (youngsters and horses who just need a full-time job mostly- they aren't bad horses, but they don't have the temperment or are too young to interact with kids well), then we adopt them out with check ups.
So in this horse's case, we're seeing no change in behaviour. We're VERY honest with describing a horse's particular needs, and we do take them back if it doesn't work out. I'm scared to keep sending her out like this, if she's going to keep tromping on people. I'm a staunch believer that horses do not act like this without a reason, but I'm also worried about how many people are going to get hurt before her behavior is "fixed." Does that make sense?
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Frankly, if an animal can't socialize happily with either humans OR members of its own kind, I find that it often ends up revealing deep seated problems (tumors, weird neuro, whatever) that can't be solved without boucup bucks. And I think in these cases, it's kinder to send the animal to a peaceful death than for it to be so freaked out that it climbs the walls trying to attack others. I just don't think that's a happy state to be in.
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It is my firm belief that 9 out of 10 of problem horses can be rehabbed, and it's rare to ever see a horse that is well and truly loco, and is beyond fixing. IMO, this horse sounds like one of those just plain unlucky fillies that was born well and truly crazy and nothing can be done for her.
So, the most humane thing would be to put her down, for her sake and the safety of the people and horses around her.
I'm truly sorry. ):
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However if it was a socialisation problem I would only expect to see it in a situation where the horse had been hand reared or massively over humanised as a foal. The pattern you describe indicates a horse that will probably always need very competent handling.
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So it appears now I need a new set of ideas!
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The only down side is that it's extremely time consuming and you can't risk the horse going to someone who won't crack down on the behavior. Because this is a rescue, not a pet, I do think you might be better off putting her down and helping other horses with the resources. I'm strongly against euthanizing for behavioral reasons, but I also think that death is not the worst thing that can happen to an animal, especially a dangerous or unpredictable one.
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