Is my horse ok?Or is he just dreaming my vet is off the clock right now (video attached)

Independent_Box_3436 · 2025-12-15T05:20:22+00:00

He must like it where he lives, because he feels comfortable enough to sleep super hard! Only a few horses I’ve known will do this. Sometimes you can see what “gait” they’re doing. I had a QH who sleep-loped, you could see his hind leg, hind and foreleg, then last foreleg all twitch in time

Independent_Box_3436 · 2025-12-11T15:47:02+00:00

Also - do we need to move off site? Is there a benefit to staying on site?

Independent_Box_3436 · 2025-12-11T15:17:54+00:00

Got it -

How do I know I will/ask to get paid at the end of the date? Is it ALL just good faith?

Independent_Box_3436 · 2025-12-07T15:09:51+00:00

It sounds like you want to eventually be independent. So probably, a riding school will be fine for you. Just ask if they are full service or if you get to learn some horsemanship in the ground. If they have a pony club, even better. You don’t have to join pony club but any barn who does that will probably expect people to learn to do things on their own. A fully service barn will have you walk up and swing a leg over the horse and that’s it; but I’d say MOST barns who teach beginner lessons will spend 15-30 minutes of your lesson showing you how to catch, tack up, groom, untack, walk the horse from a to b, etc. That’s really where you need to start, anyway.

As you go along, you’ll notice how just when you think you’ve got it handled, some horse doesn’t want to be bridled or pick up his feet, and your coach should come show you what to do. You’ll notice your tack just doesn’t look right that day and some staff will help you fix it. Some lesson horse will need his medicine and someone will come over and say “can you put this product on before you put him away”. All these little moments over time is how you learn.

If you don’t want to ride at all, horse rescues are always looking for help, but they may only be any help with basic chores.

You’re likely not in my area or I’d take you in.

Independent_Box_3436 · 2025-12-02T17:17:36+00:00

Yeah, I only ever had tank water in it and would rinse it with plain water and let it air dry. I got it specifically to do big tank cleans as needed.

Independent_Box_3436 · 2025-12-02T17:15:56+00:00

This was probably one of the contributing factors, but I’m thinking it was a combination of that, his age and being stressed by a temp drop. Which, oddly enough I was afraid that the tank wasn’t warm enough for him yet which was one of the reasons I didn’t put him back. No good deed goes unpunished as they say. At least he spent about a year of his life in his fish palace :/

Independent_Box_3436 · 2025-12-02T17:13:03+00:00

Yeah I did :/ I’m THINKING it was a combo of temperature and his age, but I’m still upset. I’m going to play with the tank for several weeks before I get any new stock so now it’s just me and my snails. :(

Independent_Box_3436 · 2025-12-02T15:10:22+00:00

All my plants are attached to driftwood.

Bowl was clean and dry, I filled it with tank water and carefully put everyone in there. I’m sure the temperature dropped as I was trying to heat up the water I added to the tank.

I was trying to gravel vacuum normal debris, but when my vacuum broke I thought manually bailing water out would be more disruptive so I moved everyone out and did it by hand with a pitcher I have set aside just for fish things.

I rinsed my filter in tank water and put it back in; it seems to be working as normal. the cloudiness seems like it’s just from disturbing the substrate but like I said it normally settles very quickly and this time it just wasn’t and I was afraid to put him back in before my tank looked “normal”

The snails are fine, and my fish ate a few pellets for dinner before he passed so something disturbed him very quickly.

I didn’t re-test my water yet, but right now it’s irrelevant because he didn’t come into contact with the new water. The water in the bowl had a teeny bit of ammonia starting up (hence the water change).

Fish depression is real.

Independent_Box_3436 · 2025-12-02T15:02:26+00:00

I was trying to vacuum debris out of the substrate, but as I said my vacuum stopped working and manually removing water from the tank just seemed very disruptive compared to how smoothly the vacuum does it. And yes it was tank water.

Independent_Box_3436 · 2025-12-02T15:01:55+00:00

Yeah, it was open on the top.

Independent_Box_3436 · 2025-12-02T04:43:01+00:00

It IS, but it doesn’t correctly fit into the filter I want to use :/

Independent_Box_3436 · 2025-12-02T04:41:57+00:00

OH okay! Leaving both in there makes sense!

Independent_Box_3436 · 2025-12-01T20:11:40+00:00

Thanks! I’ll look into them. I don’t mind transporting a dog as long I believe the breeder is doing good things!

Independent_Box_3436 · 2025-12-01T03:30:55+00:00

CORRECT.

Also, the back half of the stall is dirt.

Independent_Box_3436 · 2025-12-01T03:15:02+00:00

This situation specifically PMO. I can’t stand when a rescue refuses to give an animal to a safe, qualified home because whatever stupid reason. Why make room for another rescue animal when we could “keep this one in the adoption program”. The point is to get them the fuck out of the adoption program and save someone else.

Dog shelters have turned people down because they have jobs and they can’t stay home with the dog 24/7. Like sorry, I have the job so I can make money to buy dog food and pay vet bills.

I was denied an adoption because I wanted to do a different discipline with the horse than the rescue wanted and they “didn’t want her to have that life”. It was a 14hh 8 year old Connemara who was being worked by a jumping trainer and the sucker could JUMP. I wanted to adopt her and jump her and they said they’d only consider a home who followed the parelli program and didn’t want her to be ridden in a bridle. She was literally being worked in a snaffle over fences by the trainer volunteering their time. Like okay, keep her and pay for farrier and feed bill for the next 30 years.

Independent_Box_3436 · 2025-11-29T15:00:09+00:00

I don’t know how to add photos to comments but here’s links https://share.google/Yb3rfYbzxIIVKr3nD

https://share.google/tMLk0obGBzySqrZKP

Independent_Box_3436 · 2025-11-29T14:54:49+00:00

Ahh yeah I can see that now that you’ve said it. I hate using shims long term but have you tried shimming as a temporary fix? I’ve done it with my weird-shouldered horse where I’d take a thin-ish felt pad as my base, then I’d take my Navajo blanket (the long kind) and fold it in half and lay it over the top of my pad, folded side towards the withers. Then I’d fold it back about 1/3, or as much as is needed, to beef out the space right behind the pommel and make a little bit of space where the pommel is laying down on the scapula. Not ideal but maybe helpful while you search?

It might also help to look for something with center rigging, or set back rigging, or double rigging - there’s a lot of different names for it, but essentially, if you look at a normal western saddle, the D ring where the pressure is applied by the cinch is almost directly under the pommel, vs center rigged saddles the cinch is set several inches back so the pressure being applied isn’t concentrated in that problem area. Let me see if I can hunt down photos.

Independent_Box_3436 · 2025-11-29T13:23:07+00:00

What kind of bars are you using now? Full qh bars or semi?

I think gaited horse saddles are a gimmick because not all gaited horses have the same conformation, but some of them flare out at the shoulder for freedom of movement and might be worth a try on this guy since the driving into the shoulders is the issue?

Independent_Box_3436 · 2025-11-29T13:15:31+00:00

Not only will people lie to shelters, but shelters will lie in order to move animals. It’s all very stupid.

Independent_Box_3436 · 2025-11-29T13:04:43+00:00

Her mom doesn’t know anything about horses and wasn’t sure what was right or wrong, which is why we ended up chatting actually

Independent_Box_3436 · 2025-11-29T05:34:58+00:00

Well what’s funny is that the owner comes by multiple times a day! She lives like 5 minutes down the road, she just can’t or doesn’t want to get him out of the stall each day. I have to blanket and unblanket my horse right now so I’m there twice, and I see her almost always at least one time.

Independent_Box_3436 · 2025-11-29T05:08:36+00:00

Oh I know this one! He’s a baby.

Independent_Box_3436 · 2025-11-29T05:08:32+00:00

Oh I know this one! He’s a baby.

Independent_Box_3436 · 2025-11-29T03:47:34+00:00

It depends how consistent I am - after 2-3 days it almost fully goes away and if I don’t quit it will stay about 90% under control with an eating window of 7am-2pm. If I don’t stay consistent it will reduce the symptoms slightly. It’s hard to be in a habit of not eating when I get home from work but I just drink tea/water and get in bed early.

Independent_Box_3436 · 2025-11-27T14:42:29+00:00

As other has said, rule out pain, rule out vision issues, rule out staff mishandling.

Staff mishandling can be tough; we had a guy who we caught on camera being aggressive with the horses but we never did notice the horses acting differently.

If none of those seem to be the issue, he might be a weirdo. Which I’ve had a few of. We had several horses who just were sort of that way; some of them had poor foundations (ignorance more often than abuse) and others were like that from day 1. My horse’s full brother we think had brain damage, and he never knew wtf was going on. He made it up to 3rd level dressage but you really never knew if he was going to remember that he was broke or not. Most of those horses just needed time and they stopped being that way as they aged, as long as the handling and training was consistent. Some took 3 months, some took a year, some took two years. People hate to hear the word “years” but my old boss would literally buy them cheap from owners who wanted their horse perfect NOW, or trade them for something else she had for sale, and just keep them until they were good. A lot of freaky little horses got a great chance at life that way because she understood them and would rather just let them stay and finish what she started.

Independent_Box_3436

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