Hoping for some suggestions of ways to deal with a horse who is aggressive on the ground. Mainly in the cross-ties tacking up he pins his ears and snaps at me. He’ll lift his leg in warning and give a half-hearted kick but never puts much oomph into it. He’s been like this his whole life (according to his owner) but the level of aggression seems to fluctuate. He’s pretty good once you’re on his back and always in a much better mood after the ride, but still gets cranky about being groomed. When you lead him he can be pushy and will strike out if you correct him. He has reared a few times when being led after being corrected for trying to bite the handler. Any tips for managing this behavior so both horse and rider have a more pleasant time? Corrections for being snarky seem to escalate the amount of angry that he becomes. In the past his owner has just stopped what he was doing when the horse acted badly towards him so I know this is a learned behavior. Thanks!
Basic ground work manners and a couple of you will die if you try that sessions in a rope halter and lead rope in a round pen.
There have been lots of threads on this here.
Plus deciding how much expression you will tolerate. Biting people is not OK. Is biting the cross ties OK?
Yes I have one here. You say what you do to correct him. It is very important to praise when he is being good.
This comes down to timing, setting boundaries and following EVERY rule for horses.
Such as put a halter on to rug and feed. Throw the rug over and I correct with uh uh until ears are forward when it is thrown over before I do it up with Good boy.
Same with the girth. It is done up way too loose to start with, so no reaction is allowed.
He is not allowed to have his feed until his head is up and I give two soft pats at the top of his neck.
NEVER hand feed.
I have control with a look and uh uh. I can feed and rug, groom, tack, untack and brush him all over with permoxin. Hubby does not have this level of horsemastership and I have told him the rules.
I go away for 3 weeks after Sim being here for 10 years. Week 3 he attacked hubby who is over 6 foot tall and gave him a black eye. Hubby is lucky that he wasn’t fully going for him and backed off and said sorry when hubby yelled. But it could have been a lot worse than a black eye. Me being here has been enough to keep Sim in line with a husband that won’t follow the rules and keeps hand feeding him carrots, etc. SIGH!
Once body discomfort is eliminated (because I have known a fair few ulcer-ridden horses, and horses who are bodysore in other ways to be particularly defensive on the ground), it turns into a consistency thing.
Keep in mind that you need to pick your hills to die on. As mentioned above, figure out what you are willing to deal with. Some people I know don’t tolerate the tight lips/stink eye expression - and certainly not ears back. Other people are fine with a horse who bites at air (or a stall door, or crossties) but not “at” people. There’s a range of behavior tolerance, so figure out what your line is to draw, and then keep to it consistently.
A quick note: Some horses are just going to be sour on the ground. I think it is very, very uncommon that a good handler cannot train/reinforce bad behaviors out of use, but do keep in mind that there are some horses I know that, despite being owned by some of the best horse people I know (not just riders, but handlers/ground work/consistency as well) still have completely sour, bitey types of horses when it comes to grooming and tacking up. One of them has been owned by the same people since he was a weanling, was raised with a good peer group & responsible “adult” horses to keep the “kids” in line, has had good handling and training his entire life…and he is just sour, sour, sour on the ground.
For a horse who views correction as excuse to escalate, the first thing is to identify what the horse that is willing to escalate won’t escalate through. I am a big fan of rope halters if rearing or a horse muscling around is on the table. However, sometimes horses “escalate” through corrections because the handlers aren’t correcting in a way that is effective for the horse. (And some horses, when you correct them, it is almost like you are adding more fuel into a chemical reaction - it just feeds the situation and makes it bigger.)
It is all highly situational (the people doing the handling, the horse in question, the environment), but one thing that comes to mind for horses that are difficult to correct is that the “correction” needs to seem like it was something they themselves did. If I am brushing a horse who wants to bite me, the brush is in my “offside” hand so my arm closest to the nose is free. If they turn to bite, I position my elbow so they run their nose into it. I did not “correct” them, they did it to themselves - and all the while, I keep brushing with the opposite hand.
That said, it does sound like this is a horse that doesn’t necessarily respect people on the ground. A rope halter, a round pen, and a few come to jesus sessions of “nothing in life is free” (good behavior warrants good responses, bad behavior elicits more work). Even outside of a roundpen, have a rope halter on and redirect. If horse is truly being spectacularly bad, I will back them up (or turn them quickly in circles in both directions, making them yield the hind quarters to my pushing them). “standing still and being chill” is less work, essentially. And again: any and all directions a handler takes in this needs to be calm, concise, and well timed. Getting emotional, angry, or making it personal is not going to be effective. I have seen some people work against their purpose when correction is overblown, past the point of usefulness, or just downright punishment.
A new horse here and I had no idea that he tried to bite as he was oerfect for me
His owner said he tried to bite her and when I watched it was 10 times in 10 seconds.
As above I have taught her that he has ro stand without turning his head. The easiest is hold a brush in that hand. When he turns he hits the brush. He did it to himself. Like with an electric fence. They won’t intentionally touch an electric fence.
Knew one who was so nasty, he once picked up his groom by the ribcage and tossed her against the wall. Tacking this horse was a Defcon 4 game of dodge 'em. Teeth, feet, squashing you against the wall with his butt… you name it, he did it. Only experienced folks could lead him. – sometimes.
We pulled a titre on him and his lyme came back 1:40,000. Had to treat 3x w/doxy, then do IV oxygen-tet. His behavior improved about 60%.
He was in an economy barn so we never tested or treated for ulcers, but I’m positive it was a component.
You can’t successfully train a horse in that type of excruciating pain.
