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What to do when good horses start to behave bad? rearing while leading!
To all that could help –
I ride a six year old thoroughbred mare; she is normally pretty perfect and has never shown any bad ground manners. The barn that I ride at is in the middle of being moved to another location and her outside stall that she normally is in is in the process of being relocated, so she has been moved into a box stall inside the barn. It is known that she does not like box stalls. She paces and turns into a very cranky, pushy mare.
I can tell she wants to go back to her other stall because when I ride her in the outside ring she is very distracted and stares/drifts towards her outside stall (it is right next to the ring). After I ride I normally let her eat some grass on the property. Tonight I was walking her out, letting her eat grass and she was being extremely pushy. She was trying to trot away while I had the lead, then she would dart to a grassy location and stay there with all of her power – I’ve never had such an issue. She is always so well behaved… when I was trying to lead her back into the barn tonight she was being awful and trying to dart away. Every time she darted I would make her go into a small circle because horses can’t gain momentum too well if you are stuck in a small circle. After about the third time I led her into a circle she reared up (and I backed away, dropped the lead) and then bolted back into the grassy area next to her old stall.
Someone at the barn told me that she saw my fear from backing away, and now she knows she can dominate me. I disagree and I backed away because I have seen bad things happen to experienced riders and I’m not willing to seriously injure myself. Someone else went back and got the horse with no issues and led her back to the barn. I got a stud chain out since I didn’t know what else to do…as soon as I took the lead rope back she was again acting awful. As soon as the other person took the lead rope from me she was perfect.
I don’t know what to do to help the situation or to prevent this in the future. How was I supposed to act? I didn’t back down but she still got away from me. I had been correcting her pushy behavior during our entire walk, do you think its possible she was just angry at me? She normally loves me and is super sweet.
I’m a 27 year old girl that has been riding for about 20 years. I’ve handled a lot of horses in my life and am stumped. I know moving her inside the barn has a lot to do with this, but since moving back outside isn’t an option at the time, what can I do?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Lamm on
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Hi Lindsay. I have a 4 year old Mustang that I have done alot of ground work with and low and behold here I thought we could go outside for a walk...... omg, what a disaster..... he dragged me around like a rag doll..... it was actually a little depressing because I thought we were further along..... now, I haven't ridden him for the simple fact that he is typically very bratty with me and thinks I am a big joke.... not so much domination, but testing, testing testing.... I do not do small circles with Oliver because I do not want him crossing in front of me at all, but when he gets bratty I go for his tail, out of the kick zone and make him turn and face me by moving his back end around instead of his front end.... make sure if you try this that she doesn't raise her head real high as in adrenaline release but instead, see if you can soften her and get her attention and lower her head.... obviously she is having a bad reaction to something..... it would be interesting if it was really her stall location wouldn't it? also, when I make his butt move around, wait for her to lick and chew and give you her full attention and then release the rope and let her know she did a good job..... both of you girls might have gotten jacked up and then when your friend came by and helped you she was calmer..... I don't have all the answers, I seem to have difficulties no matter what, but my trainer told me to go for the tail, go for the tail, and get the horses attention and get the back end moving around, not the front end... good luck!!
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Permalink Reply by Jackie Cochran on
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Is this mare your horse?
Some horses get REALLY attached to an area, it is their area, where they belong, and if it is their stall they can get really pissed off if they are moved to another stall. Some wild equines (mountain zebras or Grevys zebras?), the stallions defend a territory that they do not leave. I guess it might be an alternative horsie paradigm when they are made to stay in one area for lengthy periods of time as opposed to roaming with a herd.
One thing that occured to me is that maybe you should spend a few days JUST leading her around. That way she won't already be mad about the stall as she may be when you ride her in the ring first. Just act as if she knows nothing about being led, and work up to leading her past her old stall. I warn you, it might take a while, as in days (weeks?). Keep the first lessons short. Stay calm. Keep breathing with your diaphragm. Do this with the attitude that if it takes years to make progress so be it. If you try for quick results it seems to incite resistance in the horse. You have all the time in the world.
Sometimes, with hot bloods, if they put their head up and stare intently at something, it can help if you just stand there, with a loose leadrope if the horse will allow it, and count slowly to 10 or 15 before you try to move on. After a few times the horse gets bored with standing still and decides that whatever they are looking at is not that interesting after all.
Be careful. Wear your helmet.
I hope this helps.
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Permalink Reply by Cortni Volkman on
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Sometimes mares can be more awful than stallions, such as my 9 year old TB mare. She used to charge at you when you tried to lunge her or trot on the lead line. And for a almost 17 hh horse, that can be dangerous. She has also done the rearing on the lunge line thing. Since your mare is 6 years old, she may have just become fully developed in her reproductive...self. When that happens, mares can become more dominate. Is she in a herd? If not, she may see you as her herd and is actually trying to gain dominance over you. Little things like pulling you around, jogging on the lead and possibly shoving you around (with her head, shoulders, whole body) are often seen in dominate mares. It was something I really had to work with on my mare because the barn owner's children sometimes brought the horses in. Walking her in a circle doesn't usually help because in a herd dominate mares will circle around others, forcing them to move out of the way. You're going to have to get a little more aggressive in your stand and approach. I'm not talking harsh, but you have to become the alpha mare. When she tries to jog away, hold the lead rope about 6 inches or so from where you clip it to her halter and force her weight back on her haunches by lifting her head up. This way she can't use her weight on the forehand to push through you. Now you're in control of her. Another thing is to make her stop, then press in the middle of her chest to get her to back up. Reward her when she does it, because now you're the one "circling" her and pushing her in the direction you want. Don't let her shove you around with her head when you're just standing near here. When walking back to the barn, I used to make Kiss stop and wait every so often before I let her walk some more. Right before we entered, I'd stop her again, wait till she relaxed, then walked in. Over time, she grew out of her mare behavior. But those are the things I used to do with her, and they helped. However, being in a box stall may stress her some after being in an outdoor stall for so long. Does she get daily turnout? And how much? The more, the better with mares like this. Turn out seems to be like therapy for them. Hopefully this helps you out some. She may be different than Kiss was because Kiss was worse than a stallion. Just some pointers from dealing with moody mares.
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Cortni, this is excellent advice. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
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Thank you! I learned a lot in the year Kiss was here. Lots of hands on learn-it-now experience :)
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Permalink Reply by Lindsay M Snyder on
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Thanks for the advice girls - i really hope this was a one time meltdown! she has NEVER done anything like this before on the ground...always the sweetest thing.
To answer some of your questions:
1) no, this horse is not mine.. i've been riding her for a little less than a year and leasing her while her owner is away in college. right now i'm the only person that rides her except if her owner comes back from a break. I believe she has been in her old stall for about four years now.
2) no, she is not in a herd. we live oustide of Los Angeles and space is limited...no grassy fields for us or our horses. all of the horses are kept in stalls and it is up the their caretakers to longe or turnout to a turnout area, but most of those areas have been moved due to the move. the whole facility is moving, not just the horses.
Jennifer - what did you mean by having me move her butt around?
Cortni - should i use a stud chain? i normally use a stud chain when i longe or else i have a loose horse running around with no one on the other end of the line.
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On certain days, I had to break out the stud chain on Kiss. But those days were very rare because she was head shy and sometimes the chain would make her worse (she has people trusting issues. -rolls eyes- a blast to train). For right now, try going without one until you get the feel of how strong she is and how much you have to one up her on that. Do you use a lunge cavesson? Those work wonders and are more comfortable on the horse when they pull. And you can pretty much pull as hard as you want on a lunge cavesson as opposed to a stud chain. If she gets really pushy on the lead, break out the chain. But for now, try to use your own stregth against her. I promise you won't hurt her :) there were many times I figured Kiss was just laughing at my attempts to stop her :)
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