I've just come back from a terrible evening with the horse.

"The" horse, not "my" horse, because sadly, he belongs to somebody else. Somebody I need to get him away from, because I believe that horse is being abused.

As some of you might know, I've been riding Jackson for a while, on loan, and have had plenty of problems with him. He was aggressive, spooked at everything, and wouldn't listen to me from the saddle or on the ground. Fortunately, I've been making good progress lately. He's gaining confidence and learning quickly, and so am I.

I went up to ride after work today. Hadn't been since Friday. But the owner and his son rode him during the weekend, so he should have been fine.

Should have been. The owner decided to take him to a jumping tournament. Neither he nor the horse has practiced jumping since summer last year. The owner is proud that he's never taken a riding lesson in his life, and his horsemanship in general leaves much to be desired, to put it mildly.

Today I found a totally traumatised horse. He was worse than ever before - wouldn't stand when tied, tried to walk right over the top of me, and spooked and tried to bolt even while I was leading him. He was completely tense and wouldn't drop his head for anything.

There was no way I could ride, so I managed to get him over to the paddock - took 15 minutes for a 20-second walk - and ended up doing a sort of modified join-up, letting him run around me in circles until he'd calmed down. Then I spent a good 5 minutes just scratching him all over, while he stood there trembling.

We've been working on clicker training, so I decided to go back to the very basics that he knows perfectly, to reassure him - he'd know what was expected of him and be sure of how to earn a reward.

So I got out his target cones - I have him trained to touch a cone with his nose if I point at it. Instead, he tried to bully me into feeding him by threatening me. So I stood on the other side of the fence and refused to give in until he went and found the cones. He kept returning to me at the fence for his treats, and finally settled down and worked properly.

Then I made the mistake of leaving him in the paddock while I went to the barn for more carrots. He ran up and down the fence the entire time, calling, and when I came back, he wouldn't leave me for anything, not even a carrot. I kept pointing at his cones and he'd take a couple of steps toward them, then turn back and come back to me with his head down, licking his lips, asking for permission to stay.

I eventually had to go in and walk up to the cones with him - he'd keep checking to make sure that I was still beside him. I felt really, really bad leaving him in the stable at the end.

It's obvious to me that Jackson is far too sensitive to stay with his bully of an owner, and it's breaking my heart. I want to buy him, but from what I've been told, they'll never sell. And now he wants to do this jumping thing every Saturday. Any ideas?

Yes, I will be doing my darndest to buy him off them. I'm not sure I'm ready for the commitment of owning a horse, but I refuse to stand idly by and let this happen.

Thanks - I suppose it's a lesson learned the hard way. If I can't buy him, I'm going to have to walk away. I can't keep paying money for the privilege of re-training their horse whenever they wreck it.

Thanks. As my mother said, "let's face it, you're going to buy a horse sooner or later anyway - so why not this one?"

I've just put in an offer. He didn't say no - he said "I paid more for him than that" and went off to think about a counteroffer...

*sigh* still no news on the selling front, but today, the owner was bragging about his "training methods" for a kid's pony that include thumbtacks in the bridle!

I take it back. It hasn't improved. Today, he was back to being terrified and aggressive - he bit me so hard it drew blood, then stood there shaking.