Help with PMU mare

[lorraine]

Hello everyone,
I adopted Katie-an 11yr old PMU mare, Fjord/Qtr cross. I have had her 3-4weeks now. She was shy, snorty and standoffish at 1st. Did not like her back end/legs touched. She now lets me touch, rub, hug everything. I have been working with her on longing, saddling, bending-but slow and easy, no pressure. So far she has been an absolute joy to work with, very kind and willing, relaxed, inquisitive and quiet. As I progress I plan to work with a trainer, or send her to one depending on our progress. I have been searching for literature about training PMU mares and can only find stuff on PMU foals. If anyone knows anything I can read, people who've had experience, etc. I would appreciate it. Although she is doing great-I am wondering if I am getting my hopes up about the ease of working with her-or if 'hidden' issues will surface due to her history.

[wendyp]

Hi Lorraine,

Hystyle and I adopted a couple of PMU mares (I think they were from the same place Katie came from) almost 4 years ago. My mare came around very quickly......, accepted the saddle easily, but was a little grumpy about the bit. I found out the hard way (literally - was tossed a couple of times) that Ground Driving is VERY important. If you want to do it yourself (and you can, it's relatively easy) I highly recommend Mark Rashids DVD on Ground driving - www.markrashid.com . My Mare did excellent with the ground driving, and I have no doubt that she would have been a great trail horse, but she colic'd and died in April '07.

Have you read any of Mark Rashid's books? Very entertaining, and enlightening. You can order them on Amazon.com.........start with Considering The Horse.

Where are you located? There is a gal in Othello, WA that could help alot...........if that is anywhere close to you.

I don't think there are any 'hidden' issues. If you don't expect any problems, you won't create any. Just work with the horse you have today - every day is different, but horses are very honest. I think the draft in these PMU mares causes them to be easier to work with. Accept that she is just a really good girl, take it slow, and treat her like the green horse she is. That way, you won't have any holes when it comes time to ride her.

Check out the ground driving DVD, it truly is wonderful for a green horse.

WendyP/Bend, OR

[rocky]

WOW.. I totally agree with Wendy about "working with the horse you have today". I have come recently to the same conclusion in working with Sarge (non-Draft). I was so caught up in the "How he was trained before as a Police Mount" I was missing out on who he was today... . It sounds like you are making good progress ...keep up the good work..Rocky

[watermarkfarm]

Hi Lorraine,

I remember Katie! Someone did some research on her and the other Fjord mare who came with
her (via their brands) when they were on the lot----did you get any of that info?? I believe they tracked down the farm they came from. They may not have been used on the pee-line, as they are pretty young, right? You might just be dealing with a horse who has not had a lot of handling, or positive experiences with people. It sounds like you are doing a lot of the things Katie needs. Fjords are super horses and your mare should turn out very nice with time and training!

I took on 3 PMU mares right off the PMU farm. They were somewhat standoffish and took a while to come around. It took a number of months for them to allow me to handle their rear feet safely (we used sedation for farrier trims).

What helped me to some degree understand them was knowing more about how PMU mares live. The ranch my mares came from was in Canada. The mares' feet were trimmed only yearly, and they were placed on a tilt table (like a cow) and their feet were ground down with a power grinder. Other than that, their feet were never handled.

All 3 mares were "funny" about having their back ends handled, especially their genital areas. On PMU farms, they use a rig that hangs behind them, with a cup that fits against their vulva, to collect the urine. I had to do lots of gentle densensitization to help them overcome their nervousness about behind touched behind.

None of them kicked ---- it was explained to me that on PMU farms, kickers go to auction very fast! But they were nervous!

They were used to motor noises, as they used ATVs pulling carts to clean up their poop in the PMU barns. They were NOT used to being tied hard, as they are tied using a pulley system, with a weight at the end. I figured they would tie well, which was not the case. I had to work on tying.

They were NOT properly halter broke, so we had to kind of do that all over again.

I did tons and tons and tons of work on ground stuff before I started backing them. I backed all three of them after I'd had them about 6 months. I followed John Lyons' methods for teaching leading, trailer loading, etc. I followed Linda Tellington-Jones' methods for leading, also, and I used her ideas for creating ground obstacles (tarps, bridges, poles, etc) to work them around. We did lots of sacking out.

Mostly, what I found was that none of my mares had ever really had a relationship with a human. They had been handled somewhat, but humans did things TO them, and not WITH them. I tried to spend a lot of "fun" time with each mare.

Three years later, two of these mares are being ridden, and all three have great homes. It took time and patience, and it really took a long time before they became pocket ponies, but now all three are. They were ages 5, 6, and 12 when they came to me---- that 12 year old mare had had many babies (the 5 year old mare was her daughter!), and had been on the pee line a long time, but she came around nicely with lots of work. She is now being trail ridden!

[lorraine]

Thanks for all the great advice. I will definitely check out the DVD suggested. I have never ground driven before-but I have been reading about it and plan to work on it. I think that I got kind of worried reading about all these horses with all these past histories which created problems that I have been starting to worry about stuff that I don't even know about. Regarding the woman in Othello-I am not far-about 40 minutes away and would love information about her. I am wary about trainers-sent a couple of Arabs to one in Kennewick about 12yrs ago and found out THAT was not how I wanted my horses worked with. If anyone knows of great trainers, that would be helpful (I can't afford Jeff!). From what I've read, some PMU farms would put their horses in small standing areas where they would stay for up to 6 months-without any exercise! It sounds like Katie was at a 'good' farm where hopefully this did not happen. She is 11yrs old, I don't know how long she was at the PMU farm-and then what was done with her after. She is so different from the horses I used to have-(Arabs) and does not do any of the stuff I expect so I am worried she may blow up without me realizing it's coming-it seems Arabs tell you that it's coming. Her temperment is interesting-when I'm cleaning the paddock-she now stands close to me, curiousand wary at the same time. She still walks away from me, but then stops and lets me catch her and seems to like the attention. The farrier is coming in a few days so we'll see how that goes-I have been continually working on her hind end area but it seems no big deal now.