An older Foal?

[Ladyann]

Hi, I am new here so forgive me if I am in the wrong area. My husband and I are avid horse lovers and own 6 now. Our last is a pretty little paint filly we took because no one wanted her due to her deformed right leg...she has an extremely bad knock knee and since we don't know her exact age we are not sure if she can be helped or not. Right now she will not let us close...she has had nothing done with her since birth and I think her transportation here was a little traumatic. I go out to her several times a day and talk to her and offer feed, I can get about a foot from her before she moves off, I do not chase her, I put the dish down so she can eat if she wishes. She is alone in the pasture but can see our other horses and donkeys and at night we put our big sweet Belgian draft horse in with her for company. We take him out in the morning as we really want her to come to us for company right now.
I have spoken to our vet and he says surgery might help her, however, the problem is finances right now. He asked if she limped etc and she does not and can move quite well especially if she is afraid, so he says as long as she seems OK we do not need to do surgery, since it is not definite it will help, we will wait and see.

We are waiting for someone to get back to us on her age, we have named her "Sunshine" and we love her already. My heart goes out to her because she has been so neglected. She needs grooming very badly and we need to get fly spray onto her as she has many on her back and legs...I know only time and patience will get her to trust us, in the mean time I am content to know she is where she is loved and cared for.:)

[WashingtonBay]

Hello and welcome! :) You're in exactly the right area!

There are several members here who have gentled BLM Mustangs and/or PMU babies who were relatively unhandled as well, I hope they'll be along soon with some tips on that part so you can make some progress on her handling. I'm sure that will have a big impact on how well you can treat the knee, if needed.

Do you have photos of her that show her knee? I'd be curious to see!

Welcome again.... how did you find us, were you at horse.com?

[Mercury]

Sometimes they will grow out of it, but sometimes it requires surgery to correct. Pictures would definately help.

[SedonaThunder]

WELCOME!!! And bless you for taking Sunshine in and being willing to give her the time and patience she'll need to trust again. I hope to see many photos of your progress!

[Ladyann]

Thank you, how do I post pictures? I have a few...it is difficult to get a good head on picture of the knee as she is always grazing. The right knee is so bad it touches the left knee, she swings the left knee out to avoid hitting it, but believe me she can run when she wants to...she is a quarter horse and is about 7-8 months old I have learned. I am sure she will do well and if we can find some where or some one who would be willing to do the surgery for a reduced rate we might try that once we have her tamed. Sunshine is our third "rescue", two others we bought from a woman who could no longer afford to keep them. They were on a small dry lot with two other horses, they were fed pretty well but were never groomed or worked with. We try to groom all our horses at least four days a week and we go out to them every day and talk to them and pet them. Four of them are very well mannered and sweet tempered with us, another a Tennessee Walker we recently purchased is rather testy, we named her Princess and she has registration papers that show her lineage. We believe she was a brood mare at one point! She has tried to bite several times and each time she is reprimanded and she has kicked me once...very hard...needless to say I give her back end a very wide berth until she settles in more, we have only had her a few weeks and she came from a place where she was all alone, when she got here and saw other horses she was very happy, but she was very dominant at first... she has learned her place in the pecking order as our gelding can really put her in her place. If all goes well we hope to breed her next spring after we have the vet check her out to make sure she is in good enough condition to have a foal.

In regards to Sunshine, we will do our best with her and hopefully she will settle in and become as sweet as our other four are and maybe Princess will too.

[WashingtonBay]

Boy it sure seems like you've taken on enough projects to keep you busy :)

You can create a photo album here to post pictures in the thread by clicking on you "User CP (Control Panel) and choosing "Pictures and Albums" to load them, Or you can attach them to any reply by clicking the Manage Attachments button below the reply window (Advance Reply) That will upload them and attach a thumbnail we can click.

Your choice :) Depends on what's easier for you.

[Ladyann]

Here are some pictures of our horses and one of our donkeys. Little John is a Belgian Draft horse, Missy is a Quarter Horse/ Tennessee Walker cross, she is three and a half, Dudley is a gelding Tennessee Walker, Cimmaron is a Paso Fino and Sunshine is a Quarter horse. Big Jake is an 6 month old Spotted Donkey and is a real sweet heart. I have yet to get a picture of Princess or the two other Donkeys we have, Jennie and her daughter Jackie! Just for the fun of it we have 14 goats, with eleven nannies all pregnant. Four are due any day now. I hope the picture shows how badly deformed Sunshines knee is, she is standing in the shadow with her leg cocked out a little. We enjoy every minute of the day and love all our animals, including one 13 year ols house cat called Pansora.

[WashingtonBay]

I can see it. I sure hope they can fix it.

Look for some of the people who can help with her gentling to come on by this evening. Hopefully they'll see this. I mean... I have handled foals, but usually started younger, not necessarily one who has not been handled early who was perhaps handled roughly when she was. It might come down to sitting there by her feed pan till she decides to eat or she doesn't get to eat. Only when you come out. Also just sitting there in the field with her helps, bring a book to read and just spend time out there. Eventually they get curious!

I love your draft. :)

[Ladyann]

He is beautiful isn't he...he is very gentle and we can do anything with him. He is spoiled because we have had to treat an eye problem, plus when he came to us he had very bad feet. My husband trims them often and he gets a supplement to help them too. He loves Big Jake, the donkey, he is the only one who can share John's hay.

Sunshine is a little under weight, but she has good graze in the field we have her in. so grain is not her first priority...she does like hay so we have decided not to give her anymore. Hopefully when we grain and hay the others she will then go for the feed...the vet said to put feed through wormer in the feed since she has not had any dewormer so far. What a shame the original owner let her go...her leg might have been easier to fix if she had been younger. Poor little girl needs a good brushing, she has a lot of dirt on that bad leg. I will look forward to some expert help maybe tonight. I appreciate all you have had to offer me..this problem is very new to me. Missy, the three year old had nothing done with her either but she was used to humans and it only took a few days to gentle her and within a week she was picking up her feet for cleaning, now she comes up to us any time...in fact she is very ,very nosy:) and has to stick her nose into everything.
Thank you for every thing.

[WashingtonBay]

Your foal will come around too, I'm sure of it. :)

[Cat]

Welcome to the forum!

If this was my filly I would get her into a smaller area for the time being until she was gentled. A 20X20 to 40X40 pen would work well. Then take some time every day (whatever you have to spare - 15 minutes, an hour, 3 hours) and just put a chair somewhere in the middle of the pen and sit down and read a good book. Ignore her. The curiosity of a horse usually gets the best of them for that first contact and it may only take one session, or a couple, but usually works. I've seen people set up chess games in the middle of a mustang pen and played chess until the horse finally came over out of curiosity. Plus you become "part of" the surroundings instead of "intruding into" the surroundings so they are more comfortable with your presence.

However, if you don't have a pen, a stall can also be used and this is actually sometimes faster. A nice big box stall is how I got my wild QH filly calmed down when I got her a couple years back. Unfortunately I sold her last fall, but she was very easy to handle and catch after I got her gentled down in the stall.

Also, never reach your hand out palm up. They tend to read this as an aggressive move. Hold out your hand palm down with your fingers relaxed, not held out straight. And trial and error will tell you where the horse is most "comfortable" with you. With my mustang it was on the spot right above his muzzle. Other horses its the side of the face or even the shoulder. Find that first spot of contact that they will allow and then slowly expanded that touchable area.

Keep us updated!