Fingle the day I first met him

This is Fingle 3 weeks after I got him - learning trust by getting on the stand.

I first met Fingle when he was 8 years old and was due to be shot within the week. I heard about him because of an email to a natural horse site pleading for somebody to be able to take him on rather than he dies. This was no mean task as he was extremely aggressive to other horses (when he was 2, he kicked a mare, broke her leg and she had to be destroyed). So he had never been turned out with horses since he was 2. He was also very aggressive to people, cats, dogs, children - anything that moved basically. He also was extremely neurotic, which was the root of his aggressive behaviour. He was bred for dressage. His sire is Catherston Nightsafe (Jenny Loriston Clarke's stallion).

He had been sent away as a 3 year old and started by a dressage professional. He came back bucking and rearing when ridden so he was sent away again to another supposed expert and this time he came back so aggressive that you could not go into the field with him.

When I first met him (picture 1), he was very aggressive to me initially, but once I did some natural body language with him, he realised he couldn't scare me and turned into an insecure, scared little boy (his fear was always the root of his aggression). Speaking to him, I discovered that in his dressage training, he had pain in his neck when asked to go on the bit. He was whipped for not softening and then started to rear so was beaten even more. The trainer tried to soften his neck by leaving him in his stable with very tight side reins on, forcing him to bend his neck and would leave him like this for days.

He developed an avoidance behaviour of rearing up and going over backwards. He would do this when you tried to lead him on the ground and also as soon as you got on his back. He injured many people and nobody could stop this behaviour. Thus, why his owner felt the only thing to do was to shoot him.

I took him on to give him a chance to be the sweet, intelligent horse I could see within him. After 2 weeks of him being very aggressive with me, he realised I was not scared and, more importantly, I would not hurt him under any circumstances and he started to trust me.

I retrained him to be ridden in a treeless saddle (because all the rearing over backwards had broken the top off all his wither bones) and actually got him to enjoy hacking out without rearing.

He is now a very sweet horse who has not been aggressive for the last 4 years at all. He is actually a fantastic therapy horse. Because of his past abuse, he can relate to people in ways that only a horse that has been abused can i.e. he does amazing work with abused people.

He now lives with my mare, Tanka, and her son, Chiefy and he has mixed with other horses without attacking them. This started when he saw Tanka give birth to Chiefy and, from that day, once Chiefy was a couple of weeks old they have all three lived together happily- also with my old mare, Livi.

Fingle was one of the most aggressive horses I have ever come across and was extremely, extremely dangerous. I have given him security (I am the lead mare), love and understanding and because I have no fear of his aggressive behaviour he ended up trusting me totally.

He now is a lovely horse to have around and always wants to please and do the right thing. I am so glad I gave him the chance to be the sweet horse he really is