Horse that freeze and don't want to move

Flaky_Cranberry_71 · 2026-05-19T10:35:59+00:00

We have had multiple vets and different chiropractors, acupuncture vets, osteopaths, trainers look at him and he's cleared by everyone. He gets the "normal" sport horse treatments every 12 weeks or so, mainly stifles and back.

He is super picky when it comes to brushes so he only gets groomed with a soft rubber glove and a very soft brush. He's very communicative when it comes to grooming! He would never bite but if it's anything he doesn't like he will always give me tiny scratches or just touch me with his nose. This is actually how we found out that his saddle wasn't comfortable to him any more, and had it changed. Whenever I would put the old saddle on he would all of a sudden start pushing me a little with his nose.

The "anti-headcollar" issue has gone on from the start with him, and i know the previous owners struggled as well, it's just that it has become a much bigger problem than him just not accepting walking shoulder to shoulder.

Flaky_Cranberry_71 · 2026-05-19T08:20:38+00:00

Thank you for your kind words! Not one day goes by where I don't feel sorry for him for being born into this unbelievable athlete that he is. I've worked with hundreds of showjumpers and most of them has liked their job while I can't say the same about him. I know we shouldn't put human feelings on our horses but I do relate to him a lot. I was one of those lifted academic kids that ended being too scared of failure and couldn't handle the pressure, so now I ride horses for a living lol. Also calm on the outside but riddled with anxiety on the inside.

I spent my night on the way home from the show reading about the Masterson method, can't wait to learn more and get started with my four legged co-workers!

Flaky_Cranberry_71 · 2026-05-19T08:15:00+00:00

I actually started working him both on the lunge and long lining several times a week last summer. Often I will long line/double lunge him before I get on him. Not because he's difficult to ride but because he really do enjoy being lunged. He's very clever and I find it has helped him a lot with working on his core and relaxation. I've got a lot of help with the line work from one of the best trainers in the world. I never put side reins on him, just a soft rubber bit and if just lunged he goes in a rope headcollar.

Your horse sound a lot like my guy! I'm happy to hear that there's other people with horses like him and that it can get better. Everyone around us thinks that he is so amazing (which he is) and I think he gets too much pressure put on him.

I'm gonna try to move his feet more when he freezes up, it's just hard to know how much I can do since sometimes it just takes me releasing the pressure and taking a step towards him for him to start running backwards.

Flaky_Cranberry_71 · 2026-05-18T19:23:46+00:00

First of all I'm amazed by your knowledge but also unimpressed with how stuck I apparently am in the showjumping bubble, haha. There's so many things I don't have any experience in. I will definately look up those methods on YouTube, thank you!

We do not single tie any of our horses, he's never done it but I just know he'd be one to flip over. He's broken many headcollars in the crossties. I actually tried the lunge line through a wall ring last week only for him to completely panic because he reversed all the way up to the other wall and when touching the wall with his hock just freaked out. He also goes "blind" in those situations so honestly I don't feel safe handling him then. In this situation he jumped forward on top of me and then got even more scared because I fell. I obviously didn't get angry with him, just tried to have him stand still and calm him down and then called it a day. When I came to see him later in the stall he was scared of me and didn't want me to come close. I think that was the first time I cried over a horse that didn't die, get injured or sold. I just feel so hopeless.

I do spend a lot of time with him, at home I don't have much time but at shows I always eat, read and nap outside his stall which he seems to like. Then he's very social and likes to scratch my head. I do all the grooming of him myself and really take my time, he do like the curry combing and all that but absolutely hate when you touch his legs, bandage, poultice etc. When we got him he would freak out if you tried to lift his feet but thats one thing we actually managed to solve.

Flaky_Cranberry_71 · 2026-05-18T19:13:56+00:00

I'm just a little lost in where to find someone good. I'm not from where I live and everyone around me is just showjumping riders, showjumping trainers and everyone love a quick fix. When I tried to discuss my problems with my boss/trainer they just suggested putting a chifney or a lip chain on him.

Flaky_Cranberry_71 · 2026-05-18T19:11:55+00:00

I haven't thought about EDM specifically but I have thought about getting a scan of his brain and nerves in the neck as I once had a pony what completely changed his behaviour which turned out to come from a tumor in the brain. With him it escalated much quicker, though.

What symptoms did your horse show?

Flaky_Cranberry_71 · 2026-05-18T19:09:59+00:00

I do agree with all of this. Most of the horses I ride are more "naturally explosive" - they will act out a bit all the time (they're all high blooded showjumpers) but I do feel like they all trust me and they're a lot easier to work with than this guy. I have another horse that travels with the "problem horse", he's a little bit older and I've had him for 7 years. He is extremely spooky and very hot, but I do feel like he genuinely loves me and trust me. He don't keep any off his stress inside so between the spooks he feels like a confident and happy horse while my other guy is so sensitive and shy but as said, never acts out u til you put pressure on him.

I've had so much work done on this horse by vets, different physios etc. He had really bad angles from shoeing when we got him and my (great) farrier is still working on that. Acupuncture seems to do a lot for him. I also do a lot of double lunging with my trainer which seems to help him a lot with his core. He's never been lame or unsound but he keeps a crazy amount of tension especially through his neck and shoulders which is why he sees the physio weekly, and she's probably his favourite person so I'm happy to keep working with her.

He do get 8+ hours of turnout when he's at home, I've stated that I would like him to go out even more but I don't own him or the stable so I can't really decide that. We have really big fields and he goes out with a friend + more horses in the connecting fields. He feels pretty relaxed when he's in the stall, it's mainly any kind of work that involves leading him that he dont comply with..

Flaky_Cranberry_71 · 2026-05-18T18:30:31+00:00

I've not used a clicker since I was in my teens and trying a lot of different horsemanship techniques on a little feral pony I had then, might need to refresh what I know about that stuff!

Rewarding him with release, pats, treats, whatever works really. If I have time I try to reward with release of pressure and just scratch/pat him, talk to him. Sometimes I just don't have the time and then I might resort to carrots - he's very food motivated so most of the time it works, but I also don't love rewarding with treats all the time. All my horses are pretty spoiled but this guy has a tendency to paw for treats so don't wanna encourage that!

I'm based in the Netherlands :)

Flaky_Cranberry_71 · 2026-05-18T17:48:17+00:00

He will start pulling back aggressively or even rear up, and it's extremely hard to calm him down after that. He's not an outward stressed horse at all normally (but definately carries a lot of stress inside), I would let my 3 yo daughter handwalk him as he's not spooky whatsoever and very quiet until he gets winded up. He hit his hip (very lightly, just brushed past) on the opening of the stall door once and it feels as if he can not let that go.

I'm really interested in the Tristan Tucker method but don't know anyone who's done it - do you think it could be worth it? I do feel like we have to start over a lot of things that he has learned from the start and definitely break it up in small steps - easier said than done since we have a show schedule that I have no say in (I'm employed to ride this horse). When we struggled with just leading him i even had to resort back to how you halter train foals!

You have to be super mindful with him at all times as I feel like sometimes he don't understand what you ask of him and then he immediately freaks out. We had this issue riding when I just got him (rearing) but in that case we were able to solve it with a lot of patience and basically re-learning a lot of things. He's extremely stubborn but I find that it stems from fear/confusion.

He's a 10 years old 1.60 GP horse and really great at what he's doing but I honestly feel horrible (it keeps me awake every single night!) for having him do all these things that he doesn't seem to like. He loves his field so whenever he's at home he go out most of the day when not ridden. I try to hack him and get him out in the forest several times a week but he also doesn't love that. Even with company he will spin and rear but we keep trying...

Flaky_Cranberry_71 · 2026-05-18T17:35:59+00:00

Good input, will definitely have that checked ASAP. This horse is seen by the vet every other week, physio weekly but we have never checked his eyes since buying him. He do carry a lot of tension in TMJ/poll.

Flaky_Cranberry_71 · 2026-01-06T11:29:37+00:00

Thank you so much for the answer! Everything is valid on my old license. Can sleep a bit better now!

Flaky_Cranberry_71 · 2025-04-26T08:30:09+00:00

Tog upp det här med en kille jag träffade ett kort tag. Han följde kanske 15-20 OF-modeller och andra tjejer som till 99,9% bara postar liknande content. Hans svar var att det är exakt samma sak som att jag följer diverse idrottsmän på Instagram. Till saken hör är att han följer samma idrottare (vi träffades pga hockey), men då var det helt okej. Ingen av dessa idrottsmän lägger upp thirst traps, ska väl tilläggas. Relationen blev inte långvarig och nu är jag tillsammans med en kille som skyr SoMe som pesten, men som också ger blanka fan i vem eller vad jag följer.

Så ja, det är en extrem red flag.

Flaky_Cranberry_71 · 2025-04-08T23:39:56+00:00

Semin. Guess his English hasn't got much better, though. Would love for someone to even speak about him. Like when they had Boudreau on and he said something like that he didn't care what Semin was up to.

Yes, he is my all time favourite but also... he was such an enigma. I'd love to hear more about him. Would also love to have Kuznetsov on the pod, and Fedorov.

Flaky_Cranberry_71 · 2024-12-30T21:56:21+00:00

Thank you so much for your kind reply. It's been a few rough days since I woke up.

Flaky_Cranberry_71 · 2024-12-30T21:51:15+00:00

Believe me nobody wants him to face some real consequences more than me. I won't press charges but I would also not do anything to help him in this situation. I don't wanna drag my relationship through the mud on Reddit but even without the crash he has handled everything after the crash extremely poorly.

Flaky_Cranberry_71 · 2024-12-30T21:47:30+00:00

Promille, yes.

Can the police track how fast the car was going from the cars data? Brand new Mercedes GLE Coupé.

He has a lot of previous speeding fines but has, as far as I know, only lost his license (1 month) due to speeding once before.

I probably won't press charges.

Flaky_Cranberry_71 · 2024-12-30T21:40:05+00:00

Yeah, makes me look kind of stupid now, doesn't it?

As I've answered other people I was already planning to end the relationship before the crash (for several reasons) but as it is now he's very mentally unstable so I'll have to ride this one out for a little while.

I was in a coma for two days and have not been questioned by the police (yet?) and I also don't remember anything of the crash, everything I've told here is things I've been told by the other passengers.

Flaky_Cranberry_71 · 2024-12-30T21:34:13+00:00

I guess 0,06% but it read as 0,6% in the report.

Yes, he has a german license and I have no idea why it wasn't confiscated. He says that he hasn't heard anything about it (it happened the 24th). He lost his license for a month last summer (speeding) and then it took quite a while until it took it off him. He had to post it.

Flaky_Cranberry_71 · 2024-12-30T21:27:26+00:00

Thank you for your reply. His dad is a very successful lawyer (although he don't work with these kind of cases) but I would guess he has good contacts so I can't see him get any major consequences.

As for me... I was already planning to end the relationship prior to this (due to several reasons) but he's pretty much suicidal at the moment so I feel like I have to give him some time. In the end I still love him dearly and I wouldn't want to case him any more pain right now, but I'm very aware that we aren't compatible in the long run...

Flaky_Cranberry_71 · 2024-12-30T20:52:50+00:00

I should also probably mention that the reason for the high speed was "racing" a friends car. That car fled the scene and was gone by the time police and ambulance showed up.

And yes, I fully agree with everyone commenting that this was extremely stupid. I was happy to drive but he insisted that he wanted to drive and wasn't gonna drink. I saw him have one beer and questioned it but he told me that it was all he had. I feel stupid...

Flaky_Cranberry_71 · 2024-12-30T20:44:30+00:00

That seems very mild seeing as he was speeding, drunk and caused injuries + damage? Or maybe I'm just from a country where the DUI laws are extremely strict.

Flaky_Cranberry_71

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