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Post by Angel62197 on Aug 30, 2010 16:22:57 GMT -5
I have a friend that was recently given an approx. 8 month old filly, as a horse for her 16 year old daughter. This filly was apparently "saved" from a worse situation, but was in a pretty dirty place when she was picked up. They've hit some big behavioral/training problems, and don't know anything more about this little lady's history. It's definitely outside of my realm of expertise.
The first problem they're having is flipping. She's done it on 5 separate occasions. The first 4 times were all when having her back legs handled, the last time she stepped on a dropped lead rope and flipped herself again. They're concerned obviously with her hurting herself, or someone else, in the process.
Next is a kicking problem.... the filly will kick any time you mess with her back legs, but ALSO will kick out at the daughter or anyone else when they come into the pasture (even if they're not messing with her). For example, daughter was filling the water trough... filly came over to say hi, very friendly (always is), but when she was done being friendly and daughter went back to filling troughs, the filly intentionally turned her back end around and kicked out. These are little kicks, but fully intended to be kicks.
My friends are experienced horse owners, but have managed (by some miracle) to never really have a problem horse before, and they want to nip these problems before she becomes a real danger or too big to handle.
Any training ideas I can pass along? They will get a trainer if necessary, but want to try working it out with her first. These are very patient people, willing to work patiently and put the time in.
Also, on an interesting note, a friend came over and Parelli'd with her... and the filly never did a thing. Even with rope around her back legs...
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Post by hops on Aug 30, 2010 21:27:07 GMT -5
She needs to learn who's the boss. Anyone who goes in the field with her should have a lunge whip in hand and push her out of their space.
Does she tie? If not, she should learn. Tie some baling twine, or something else that can break, loosely around a post in a stall. Slip the lead rope through so that she's "tied" but you can undo her if necessary. Groom her all over and emphasize the hind end. Hands first, then a brush. Desensitize, desensitize. Pretty soon it'll be no big deal. She needs somebody confident that'll tell her "Yes, you must," not "pretty please?"
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Post by horsehaven98 on Sept 5, 2010 17:04:55 GMT -5
good idea. maybe you could try some lounge line work as well?
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cricket
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Post by cricket on Sept 6, 2010 15:14:10 GMT -5
She needs to learn who's the boss. Anyone who goes in the field with her should have a lunge whip in hand and push her out of their space. Does she tie? If not, she should learn. Tie some baling twine, or something else that can break, loosely around a post in a stall. Slip the lead rope through so that she's "tied" but you can undo her if necessary. Groom her all over and emphasize the hind end. Hands first, then a brush. Desensitize, desensitize. Pretty soon it'll be no big deal. She needs somebody confident that'll tell her "Yes, you must," not "pretty please?" I agree you should take a whip or an extra lead rope into the pasture with you to teach her to respect your personal space. I used a soft rope with my obnoxious QH gelding (and it sounds like he was more aggressive than this filly is at this point). Anytime he crowded me or did anything disrespectful, I would flick the rope at his chest or swing the rope in his direction until he backed off. If it was needed, I'd give him a good whack on the chest or the butt with the rope. I'm not sure if this would work as well in this case, though. My gelding was very obviously challenging me (charging, biting, grabbing clothes, etc. -- more "head on" type behavior). She seems to be doing more "stealth attacks." :-) I think just working with her on a lead rope would help. Teach her how to lead properly, without barging into you. Teach her to back up, etc. Just basically get her used to doing what you ask her to do and to stay out of your space. This should help with any respect issues. If it was me, I wouldn't add in teaching her how to tie at the same time. It seems like she needs to learn to respect people first, then you can teach her to give to pressure, tie, etc. This is just what worked for me. Good luck!
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cricket
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Post by cricket on Sept 6, 2010 15:16:37 GMT -5
good idea. maybe you could try some lounge line work as well? She's way too young to longe. You could easily do permanent damage to her growing body.
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squirrels
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Post by squirrels on Sept 6, 2010 19:30:04 GMT -5
Sounds like a similar situation to my pony. Whom I got as a re-sale project and still have her 2 years later... ;D You're lucky, though, as the filly is so young, so it'll be easier to deal with (IMO) than a full-grown, adult horse. I agree with the above posters who said to go into her pen with a longe whip and teach her to stay away. I've dealt with a couple of horses with boundary issues, and I just bring a longe whip with me for protection, and make an invisible "bubble" around me. They are NOT allowed in my bubble while they are loose in the pasture. Ever. I can go into theirs, but they may not come into mine. And this has to be enforced all of the time. No exceptions. As for the flipping, sadly, that one is a lot harder. My pony is a severe rearer (EXTREMELY head-shy), even though she has only flipped once or twice. I found that she panics when she feels resistance on her halter/lead rope, and it would trigger a rear. So I taught her how to ground tie. I take pains to make sure her lead rope never gets stepped on. I never tie her to anything sold, at most I just draped the rope over the top fence post or whatever. If she starts pulling back while being led, I walk towards her to keep the rope slack instead of pulling. At times it seemed like she would pull back just to challenge me. Whenever she pulled back, I would still keep the rope slack, but swing the end towards her butt to chase her FORWARD again. I never pulled her forward, I chased her forward, if that makes sense. Sometimes I had a longe whipe or a dressage whip handy, other times I just used the end of the lead rope, but the message was always "go forward NOW." After a while, she stopped trying. When she was well-behaved, she got lots of love and scritches and praise. Now this pony LOVES to hear "Goooood Pony!" and will try her little heart out for a pat or scritch. She's smart and figured out (eventually) that praise and love is SO much better than getting growled at and chased away. Fast forward to 2 years later, I am comfortable cross-tying her in my grooming stall (if she backs up, she runs into the back of the stall before her cross ties get too tight). She never rears or flips anymore, and she is a pro at showmanship (she loves it). I can clip her face and legs and bridle path, but not her ears yet, and only with lots of cookies. So I'd say lots of time and patience are necessary. Lets see, what else? Oh, the kicking. I taught my psycho mustang mutt gelding (and I say that with love ) to pick up his back feet (it would send him into hysterics) by hosing them off first. I can hose his hind legs while safely at his head. Hose them (with pressure) until the horse does not care anymore that something is touching it's legs (it took me a few weeks of this- again, it wont happen overnight). Let her dance around as much as she wants. As long as you are by her head, you are out of kicking zone. Eventually she'll learn that kicking wont make it go away. After she's fine with the water, I would move on rubbing the longe whip up and down her legs (again, from a safe distance) until she deals. Then practice with other random things you find. While grooming, nonchalantly brush further and further down her leg each time, but back off BEFORE she tries to kick. Pretty soon, touching her hind legs will be no big deal and you can start messing with picking them up. While *I* was able to pick up my gelding's hind feet, he never really got over his fear of people handling his back legs in general, so my farrier just trimmed him in his stall with my horse sandwiched between farrier and the wall. My farrier was also awesome and was really patient and worked with him every time he came out. But again, it took at least a couple of years to get there. The first few times I had his feet done, I had to get the vet out to tranq him. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to stay safe. Just keep in mind that none of these behaviors will disappear overnight. It will take time. My mom came out to the barn to visit my horses a few weeks ago, and I asked her to go get the pony from the paddock and bring her in, and Mom looked at me and said, "Do you remember when you first got her, you wouldn't even let me in her stall?" That was a really awesome realization. I had completely forgotten that.
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