Casper's story

I have decided to tell Casper's full story. One of the drivers for this was Muriel's recent defection from EE on the grounds that EEers seem unable to understand that nicely, nicely just does not do the job, and neither is it fair, for some horses. Another is that I am sure there are many people who believe I bought Casper as a dealer to make money on, and I'd like to finally put the record straight on that. I think enough time has passed that Lucie shouldn't be too upset even if she does come across this, and that it is so much less a public forum than EE was so I feel able to put my complete side of this story. First, I bought Casper, unseen apart from photos, intending to keep him. I thought he was a wonderful colour and I'd never had a coloured before.

Unfortunately, he was extremely photogenic, and when he arrived he was no more than a very decent Riding Club horse, and I needed more than that to warrant him staying. I had taken the precaution of telling Lucie that I would not guarantee him a permanent home, and I also urged her many times over many weeks between January and mid March when he arrived, to sell him to someone else for more money than I was prepared to pay her. When he arrived, not only was I disappointed with his quality, but I also found that his passport was "not known" for his parentage and was not even a passport for any breed society, just a cover-all British Horse Database one. Lucie had assured me that he was part warmblood and well bred, and while I am sure this is what she had herself been told, I had no firm evidence whatsoever to suggest that it was true. If I remember right, the passport had been obtained by his breeder, and surely they would have been able to supply the documentation that would have seen his parents recorded? He had an extremely long back - much of it in very weak loins - (the longest I've ever owned for his height) and a very high knee action in canter (he was part hackney) which prevented him from really galloping.

Apart from his physical limitations, he arrived desperately thin. I was so concerned about how thin he was that I actually contacted Heather to ask what she thought had been going on, knowing that she was in the middle of training Lucie to be an EE instructor. Heather told me that he must have lost the weight travelling. I find that impossible to believe - he only came from Exeter, which is motorway almost door to door. He arrived dry and calm with no sign of having been in any way agitated by the journey. I have to say that Lucie had not been deliberately underfeeding him, she honestly, genuinely, believed that he was fat. She laid her hand on his belly while we were all together and laughed about how fat he was. I think this was a case of a gradual loss of weight, that because she saw him all the time (she lived on site at the stables), she did not notice it. And because he wasn't ridden, other people didn't see him without his rug on, so there was no-one to point it out to her. It happened to me with my first horse in a livery stables, so I know that it's quite easy not to notice something that happens so gradually.

The belly was over-development of the stomach muscles, in compensation for his extremely weak back. I did not consider him fit to ride. I put him out in the field for a whole month before I sat on him. In that time, I brought out a saddle to try to fit it to him, and I was ten feet away from him with it in my arms when he saw it, groaned out loud, and sank his back six inches. It was an extraordinary reaction, I've never seen anything like it before or since. I'm totally satisfied that Lucie had his back checked, and that there was, by this time, nothing wrong with him physically, if there ever had been. He had not been ridden, to all intents and purposes, for five months - due to his unpredictable ability to produce wild bronking - and he certainly seemed to me to anticipate something nasty from being saddled.

When I did finally sit on him, he felt like a dog with worms, dragging his bottom to scratch the itch. I spoke to Lucie about it and she said he always did it with anyone new. I was pretty concerned about it, I've never felt the like of it from any horse I've ever sat on. Anyway, I used to ride him at first standing up over his wither, and only sat down once he was moving well, and after a few days he stopped and never did it again. His schooling progressed well and I began hacking him out, where he proved to be quite a coward but amenable to being pushed to do stuff he was afraid of - the "oh shut up and get on with it" school of training - I used this method with him consistently and he responded very well to someone else taking responsibility for him. The "there's a good boy, pat, pat, nothing to worry about" approach just did not work for this horse, who either thought that he was being rewarded for his nervous behaviour and produced more of it, or thought that it meant that he was right to worry in the first place, and so worried even more.

In his work, his head carriage looked pretty but the back was not engaged at all, and the first month was used simply getting him to release his back and walk. I cheered the first day he asked for a long rein and stretched his neck - I ran into the house to tell Superhubby :-) At the same time as that happened, he began to keep his ears forward when he was ridden. Previously, whenever I was in the saddle his ears were pinned to his head, as they were in every photo Lucie had sent me of him.

Did he ever buck? - yes. The first time was when he was fit, well, working beautifully in a walk and from right out of the blue with no warning at all. I fell off. I was totally sure that there was no reason for him to have done it at all. I hit him - hard, really hard, as hard as I could, on a meaty part of his bum. He did not try to pull away, which I have found is not unusual in horses that know that they have done wrong and think that the punishment is justified. I got back on and he was an angel. About a month later he tried the same trick. I did the same thing. That was about the end of May/beginning June, and from then until he left in December he never even so much as threatened to buck again. In time, the belly went, he put on loads of weight, he grew an inch, his narrow chest widened by about 4 inches, he behaved well at every show I took him to, and he turned into a horse that I was happy to sell to a very competent 12 year old with an on-site trainer who also came to see him. I've recently seen a picture of him showjumping used on the promotional literature for Eland Lodge, so he seems to be doing fine. The new owners promised to email me to let me know, but they never have so I can only assume that they would have been knocking at the door if he'd regressed. They knew his full history, and I put them in touch with Lucie to reassure her that he had gone to a great home.

I would have liked a project just like him this summer, and part of the reason why I'm writing this instead of being outside doing stuff is because I don't have one and I'm bored :-)))))) C

ps I also hope that this helps people understand why I am so slow to call in "the Experts" when a horse is behaving "wrongly". This horse had every expert to him over time - Lucie had really tried to get him sorted out, she loved him desperately and she wanted to keep him. Not one of those behavioural experts or back experts or vets or yard managers or semi-pro riders had helped her or Casper to find a way to stay together. I prefer to trust my own judgement. It costs less, and so far it's worked well.

pps and just in case you think I'm exaggerating, here are the pictures of him an hour after he was left in my care.