I usually don’t post questions at all but I am just lost on what to do. I purchased a gelding from a premier select auction in my area a year ago. Absolutely nothing sold for under 10k at all and the ranch has a good reputation from what I have seen. I purchased a six year old AQHA gelding that has seen plenty of ranch work and was started on the heading side. He is a stunning horse, really put together. He has a fantastic handle when you ride him and is as smooth as they come. However my problem is that he is so antisocial and difficult to catch it takes trapping him in a round pen absolutely every time. He is unpredictable and dangerous on the ground, if you walk up to him and touch him with anything or even your hand he flips out. When the farrier approaches him he will lean back on all four legs and just shake and look like he is having a seizure, his eyes are almost rolled up and he is trembling and shaking. My farrier is quiet and patient and tip toes around the horse. If I walk towards him in the pasture or during feeding time he will snort and run off or he will barely let me touch him and he will spin and bolt away. When he rides he is smooth and listens, occasionally he will spook HARD at something and bolt very hard, if you don’t have a good seat you are gone. I have given him a year of my time being careful and tiptoeing around him. I recently started riding him at a slow walk trot lately and he seems to be stiff in his stifle on his right hind leg. My hang up is if it is worth having a vet  help with his stifle problem. The expense that it will cost to treat for a horse that almost falls over backwards shaking with his eyes rolled back in his head during basic handling. He cost me a fortune but I know if I sell him he is not worth much needing stifle work and mental work. In all my years I have never seen a horse roll it’s eyes back in its head and lean back shaking. He is literally having a standing seizure. I am afraid if I just let him go for peanuts he will end up a high dollar slaughter horse. If I keep him  he is going to end up hurting me or the farrier real bad. If you are in the saddle on him and in the round pen or arena he is smooth and nice to ride, completely different animal. I am lost period! 

Ask your vet for a prescription for fluoxetine (horsey Prozac).  This kind of horse warrants that drug, for sure.  It might change him enough to make him a solid citizen. 

Thanks I will ask!!!

I’m sorry you’re having to deal with this, it sounds like you’re definitely struggling. At first I thought maybe the horse had vision problems, with him bolting when someone touched him, etc. like he can’t see you walk up. Once you mentioned the setting back and shaking, I agree that it’s a more mental issue. Unfortunately if you’re worried about either you or the farrier getting hurt, I’m not sure a vet would even be able to properly evaluate him for a stifle injury if he’s that spooky. Nerve blocks may be impossible, and I’m not sure a vet would want to be in the close quarters near his stifle if he blows up. I also think that if he’s a danger to you, he could be a danger to someone else, unless the absolute right person got their hands on him. There’s a few routes you could go with him. Firstly, if you know of anyone in your area that takes on “problem horses”, you could send him off and see if they can make any progress with him on the ground. If progress is made, then you can evaluate if you’d like his stifle looked at and go from there. If no progress is made (or you don’t want to pursue that option), then you still have the other routes. Secondly, he could be a pasture pet with a stifle injury that you can’t catch. Thirdly, you could have him humanely euthanized. I wouldn’t send him to slaughter personally, as it sounds like he already gets stressed out on the ground and loading him up on a trailer bound for Canada might just kill him or hurt someone along the way (plus you wouldn’t want someone to “rescue” him before he gets to the slaughterhouse).

At the end of the day, he is your horse and whatever you feel is best in this situation is all that matters.

If you don’t want to spend the money at the vet to find out what is going on, then the kindest thing is either leave him a pasture pet that you don’t mess with or put him down.  Harsh as it sounds stop to think how miserable it must be to either be in so much pain you react with fear at every little thing, or to be so messed up mentally you react excessively to any little thing. 

WOW!!!! I'm sorry that you are going threw this with this horse, he does sound he could be dangerous..Was he like this from day 1 after buying him? I would have him tested for EMP, I bought one years ago and still have him, more of a pasture pet, but hes such a sweet boy and loves the attention, but riding wise he gets to worring and will throw fits, I traced him back to differnt owners and found the girl that trained him from barrels, said he was a awesome 1D horse for her but after a few years of running him he started to wig out on her, people were telling her that he acts like hes got EPM with the spooking he was doing while running and on the ground, her parents didnt want to spend the money on him so sold him, after a few different owners I got him didnt know much about him at the time, but after hearing what he was doing I understood why now, At the time I didnt know much as to why he would wig out on me just out of the blue, he fliped on me one afternoon while just standing still while looking at the barrels, I steped off of him while he was going over, so after that I turned him out in the big pasture with the other retired horses, {theres more to tell but not getting into this story, just learned a good lesson, not to trust just anybody when buying lol} then learned all the problems of this gelding, he was never dangerous on the ground, hes just a big lover but riding him was a different story, I never had him tested for EMP since I learned all his problems a few years after I turned him out, I'll never sell him hes here for life, I just dont want anybody to get hurt/killed on him so he'll stay turned out. 

If you can afford it get him tested and rule that out, good luck to you I felt the way you do about your horse and its a awfull feeling.. Hugs 

A lot of ranch horses can be the way you describe. 

Im not into drugs but sometimes a good magnesium supplement will help. I like MVP magnesium 5000 pellets. If double the dose for a couple weeks. If he’s getting a lot of grain, I’d switch to straight hay. I don’t see Mag work every time but for a horse that’s scared and acts like it hurts eveytime you touch him, it will help. 

I just want to say that my heart breaks for this horse & you.  Very sad situation. Is there any way you can talk to the seller & ask, what is up with your horse. 

Thanks for all the suggestions and kind words! I am going to take him to a vet that specializes in horses next week to see what they think. I want to know what is bothering him lately with limping and see if he may have EPM or if he is just extremely over reactive because of mental hang ups. I don’t want to endanger anyone by just selling him but I don’t want to keep watching everyone tiptoe around him like he is a bomb. I want to do the right thing for the horse.  it’s usually horses are nice on the ground but ride like crap but this horse is dangerous on the ground but a great ride, go figure!

Please up date on this horse after you have taken him to the vet, horses like this just makes me sad to think that everything is out to get them when we are trying to do our best with them, sometimes they are just to mentally messed up to bring back, hope that this is not the case with him,

Quit tip toeing around him. 

I bet this is a training issue. 

I lean this way, not saying skip the vet, by all means do your due diligence.

We have one who did not have the kindest start to life on the ground.  Once you crawl on his back he’s a different horse.

When we got him coming on 2 years ago this fall he was hard to catch, set back, panicked etc - sounds really really similar to what you describe.  He’s lucky he’s really cute and rode well.

He’s still not one you’re going to walk up to in the middle of the pasture and catch.  But if he knows he doesn’t have an escape route he is fine - he use to spin away and bolt even if he was locked in a run.  We don’t tie him real solid if we’re handling him and we always keep an eye on his body language - but he is night and day different.

We treated him like a horse.  We read his body language and let him tell us when we were applying too much pressure, always tried to stop before he panicked, but we didn’t treat him with kid gloves.  We used a blocker tie ring with him, if he never hit solid pressure he handled things better.

He did go to our colt trainer this spring for 30 days because he needed some wet saddle pads and our plates were full with other things.  Colt trainer doesn’t baby them a bit - won’t be caught? He’ll rope you.  Want to sit back, he’s ties them high to cedar tree branches, nothing to pull against.  So on and so forth.  He came back with a better outlook on life.

Sorry you drew the short straw. Unfortunately people mess up horses permanently with drugs, then sell them at sales. It happens more often than you think. Well, than you USED to think. You have now been educated. Nothing like experience to teach us lessons. I agree to just turning the horse out. You will get so many suggestions from chiro, to acupuncture, to drugs, restarting in a round pen, etc, etc.. It's not worth risking injury, dealing with an unsafe animal.  Anyone who has owned one feels for you & the horse. Again, sorry for you & your buddy. I wish the people who destroy these horses minds were held accountable, but "wish in one hand spit in the other, & see which gets filled faster." 

Check your PM inbox.

A friend of mine purchased a horse similiar to this years back, the people she bought him from were selling him because they couldn't deal with is spookiness on the ground, loved how he rode out. I remember rolling my eyes and thinking "sure, beast on the ground and total sweetheart on his back...like that happens" . But in fact that was exactly how he was. My friend ended up contacting the ranch he originally came from, apparently they tend to bring the colts in, rope them and get them saddled and just get on. They break them by riding them out , very little ground work except for the getting the saddle on them. You couldn't catch the bugger if he was in anything larger than a 12x12 pen and you better have you track shoes on to even do that, whatever you did don't brush him, just sling the pad and the saddle up there and by all means let the stirrups and breast collar slam into him. That was much more soothing/normal to him than easy it up there and gently droping the cinch on the off side.  By his ground manners you would have guessed unbroke pig but put a foot in strirrup and he was a roping machine, both ends and a bad (  I  ) breakaway horse to boot, just don't pet him gently.  

Having said that, I agree with some of the other issues you are having to have him checked for EPM too, the eyes rolling back and the trembling sounds almost nuerological.

This is why after getting burned once, I never in my life purchased another horse at an auction. 

I probably would have gotten back with the owner a long time ago in your case.  Asked a few questions.  A lawsuit may have been in order.  I've seen folks win them before.  Whoever the owner was knew...........

Does your horse go back to Impressive bred?  Could he poss. be HYPP?    Rolling of the 3rd eyelid and having sezuires sound to me like it could by HYPP... which you would need to look at his diet at that point.  

thanks for all the advice I appreciate it!

We bought a cutter long ago that had won a lot, but came with a warning about being bad on the ground. I was much younger and had some success in fixing problems. I was sure that with time I could get him over his issues.  Well, we never did get him over it. He could not have been better once you were on him, and he won us a lot of money. He was insecure and scared. A horse that is afraid is more dangerous than an ill tempered one. I would not deal with it again. 

That’s what is bad about him, he has absolutely no problem running you down. He has kicked out at me twice. I have absolutely never laid a hand on him. I will see what the vet has to say.