Rehabilitating abused draft ponies

A little about me…I live in upstate NY and I have been working with horses for almost 30 years. I have mostly worked with riding horses and even though I have owned a draft horse for the last 13 years I only recently started working her in harness. I just found this website and I am impressed by the amount of information and dedication on display here.

In Dec. in a moment of insanity, I bought a pair of 9 &10 year old spotted draft cross ponies. I had not been in the market for any new horses and especially hadn’t planned on buying a team. However, I saw this pair listed and I could not get them out of my mind. I have a friend who is looking for a team so I thought that they were worth checking out and so off we went to see them. We knew right away that they were not the right horses for my friend (he is looking for a quiet, well broke team suitable for a beginner) as it was clear that these ponies have been very mistreated and as a result they are not easy to work with.

They were very shy of being touched, very head-shy, and I couldn’t get anywhere near their feet. The owners had bought this team at an auction in Ohio and had only had them for a few months which I think is fortunate since they wanted these two to be pulling ponies. While I have known some nice, well trained pulling horses I see a lot more that have been ruined buy some of the so-called training methods. One of the favored “training” techniques of the people who owned these ponies involves hitting the horse with a lit torch on the legs and bellies to make them lunge into the collar. These ponies have already been so mistreated that I hate to imagine what this would have done to them.

The owners did manage to get them both harnessed and hitched up and they did drive well. I saw a lot of potential if I could bring them around. Since I just couldn’t stop thinking about them I bought them.

I decided to completely go back to basics with these two, focusing on gaining a little trust. After 10 weeks of working with them they stand quietly for grooming and I can easily pick up their feet. One of the mares came around very quickly but the other was much more traumatized. I felt that we hit a huge milestone yesterday when she not only accepted grooming but she truly enjoyed it. She was leaning into the curry comb with her lips twitching in pleasure. She is still very head-shy and is extremely frightened of any kind of brush or tool near her head but there is at least a small crack in her shell.

I plan to start working with them in harness this week. I am going to stick with ground driving until we all feel comfortable and relaxed. It is going to take a lot of time, patience and hard work but I do think these ponies can be rehabilitated. I thought that it might be helpful to try and chronicle their progress so that when I get discouraged I can look back and see our progress and perhaps provide some encouragement to anybody else crazy enough o get themselves in the same predicament.