Trust

Question
HI, I have a 5 yr old quarter/appy cross that I have had for almost 2 years.  I have been doing alot of ground work with him using the Clinton Anderson method.  We ride in an adult drill team weekly and take lessons weekly also.  He is ridden every other day approx.  We have 3 other horses(1 gelding and 2 mares)  everyone is pastured together and get along great.  I recently ( 3-4 weeks ago) opened up another section of my pasture to the group and have had no issues.  This section of pasture is behind our neighbors houses.  I left all neighbors know 2 or so weeks ahead of the horses being left out to stay out of the pasture and to not fed them (signs are also posted).  All of the neighbors are adults with the exception of 1 who has 2 sons approx 15yrs and 8 or 9yrs.  My daughter seen the youngest boy in the pasture in the creek a few days ago, I had my daughter bring them over to keep them away while the kids were in the creek.  The problem is in the past 1 1/2wks he has become terrified of halters, lead ropes, and anyone coming near him.  You can talk to him and once you get up to him he tenses up and has so much white in his eye he almost trembles.  After a few minutes of petting him he calms down to a point and is not so tense.  Just wondering what the best way is to get him through this.  I have alot of time invested in his ground work and now I am needing to restart this due to the ignorance of someone.   I have questioned the neighbors and of course they deny being anywhere near them.  I also found a bottle rocket in my driveway which is atleast 5 or 6 hundred yds from the neighbors.  I know I will never know what someone did to him but I need to help him get past this so we can continue to move forward.

Thank you
Heather

Answer
No polite way to say this, but the horses are being messed with, possibly shot at and possibly ridden by neighbors.  Someone has done something to these horses, and signs would point to the boys.

Is the creek on your land?  If so you possibly would have some luck with having the sheriff tell them to stay off of property.  If not, then restricting access to the pasture near the neighbors is your only solution.

And I would quietly install deer cam, which can be bought for 100 dollars or less, and may already have one, or have friends you can borrow one from, so there will be proof.  DO NOT tell anyone you are setting them up, but this needs to be done.  And done when no one can see it.  You may also be able to see if someone is crossing fence, or property line as may be prints.

Be aware too, due to the violent nature of so many of the video games, including Red Dead Redemption in which the character walks up to horses in a corral and shoots them point blank in the head, with the resulting realistic blood spray, that that could be the end result if you continue to let your horses into this pasture.  I know of several people who have had horses beaten, maimed, shot and killed just this year alone.  All gentle horses, and kids were to blame in most of the cases.

And would be interesting to know what take the school has on these kids, or if the police have
any contact with them too?

The best way to help your horse is to protect him and the others.  If that means installing electric fence, or restricting access to that pasture, and the deer cams?  So be it.

And be aware that now that these kids, and feel certain that it is them too, have found out tormenting horses is fun, that even closing that pasture may not work, as may come into other one.

I would also contact the juvenile authorities in your area and see if either of these boys has a record, although they might not disclose to you, they may be on probation for something.

Do you know where these people came from?  Check with that law enforcement agency too, and you might get a better grip on what these people are like.

Until you can protect the horse?  You will not get anywhere with him, and all of the horses are in danger much greater than a lapse in training.

Someone may be "roping" him, or throwing things at him, or he has allowed himself to be caught since he had had no reason to fear that, and then tortured by the humans.

I would also involve the law, as I said, even going so far as to make a complaint formally.  The sheriff might be willing to go "ask the neighbors if they have seen anything, as they want to make an arrest" type of speech, which COULD scare the kids.  Doubt that it will.  But might.  And would tell neighbors there is no trespassing and then have the law tell them too, as would then be legal to prosecute.

You have a real problem here.  Until the trespassing/tormenting is stopped, you will get nowhere with the horse, or horses, as they will be next.  And may well result in your horse becoming so unmanageable and panicked about things that you will have to either sell him, or destroy him due to his becoming unsafe.