I recently adopted a 16 year old quarter horse. She was professionally trained and used to be a very chill, fun, sweet little mare with a good sense of humor, who was owned and ridden by a child and then used in the lesson program at the barn. However, she was treated poorly in the lesson program. She is a one rider kind of gal and they were throwing multiple riders of various levels on her all day every day and kids that would not understand how to work with her and it got uglier until the little girl that owned her could no longer do so. She was sold off to another lesson barn where she was physically abused. She was in the beginning a horse that could be ridden fine with just leg only and even in a neck rope with shanagans going on all around. Now she is very sensitive of her neck, sides, and mouth, and has developed an overly-reactive, sassy, and stubborn personality. So how do we work through this?

I've spent the past few weeks working on our bond from the ground and recently I've started experimenting with getting on her bareback and just sitting. Today and yesterday, I tried to ride her and nothing traumatic happened but it didn't go well. She wouldn't move, and I couldn't kick her without causing her discomfort. Little taps got her reaching around to nip my boots. As a reaction I would pull her head back facing forward but of course that is telling her to halt. She was also backing up rather than going forward even with slack reins. I guess I could crop her, but I really don't want to given her history. I've been watching some Warwick Schiller videos this afternoon. Any advice welcome!!