Hello,
so ive had my mare close to a year. She just turned 10 and is herd bound or herd sour. She’s getting better about leaving the herd. However when the herd is on the grazing pasture and I take her away from grazing and we try to work in the arena she gets pissed and throws her head down to yank me out of my seat as well as spins to try to get back to the herd and it’s really annoying. She can be a [edit] when it comes to being herd bound. Anyway to deal with the rein pulls? Suggestions?
Sit deep and drive her forward.whallop her ass, if necessary. If you don’t have enough riding skills or core strength to prevent her from snatching the reins, get somebody on her who does, before you get hurt. A horse that had been spoiled by being allowed to get away with bad behavior may well escalate when the old tricks don’t work.
Work her near the herd, let her sit and chill away…lather rinse repeat
I second Luvmydutch - but it will certainly make your horse angry. So if you can’t sit a buck, lunge her near the herd and let her relax as you leave the herd etc
This ^ … be careful … get some help.
It is your stomach muscles that stop her pulling you out of your seat. You will need a lot of strength and as others said it will make her angry, so there will be consequences.
FWIW, I would do lots of in hand work in the arena and learn how to get her to focus on you without the increased risk of her bucking and throwing you. If she ever does that you are going to be in deep doo doo trying to keep her from doing that again.
Set some ground poles or jump standards and do some exercises where you do lots of transitions and changes of direction. Keep her so busy she won’t have time to be distracted.
Use positive reinforcement.
I don’t know if Warwick Schiller has a specific video for your problem but he has good videos that can help you with training your horse.
Also consider getting a pro to deal with this and to teach you how to deal with this. A pro might get on your horse and she’ll behave for the pro but until you learn how to deal with it she’ll just keep trying it cause she can.
good luck and let us know how it goes.
is your arena fenced in?? Sometimes it helps if they know they can’t get out anyhow…
Sit deep, raise your chest, open your shoulders, close your legs. and send her forward. If she is moving her feet it will be much harder for her to drag you down. A change of bit is not the answer.
Of course you could always get a rig similar to that used on ponies, who put their head down and graze to the fury of a child rider.
If you feel confident to deal with this, I’d put a bigger bit on her and carry and whip and SMACK her when she is being an idiot and get her to move forward where YOU want her to go. (You get to decide; not her.). If she’s downright being a brat, then treat her like one. You are not going to keep her in the bigger bit forever, but she needs to not pull on you so you can get something accomplished. If you need to change bits to accomplish that, then do it. Go back to your usual bit when you’ve got her under control agian.
If you don’t feel confident to tackle this, get someone that does to come ride her in your arena.
It takes lots of consistency and time. Correct her each and every time.
I’d also tie her away from her buddies about half the day every day. She needs to get over being buddy sour and the patience tree will do it.
Put a bigger bit on and kick is one way to teach them to rear.
When utilizing these tools correctly, you will NOT teach them to rear.
Yes, and I’ve found teaching verbal cues for walk, trot, and whoa to be very helpful. You are basically installing a forward (and stop) button, which solves a lot of issues. Balking, spinning, rearing, even jigging at the walk have all been fixed by teaching verbal commands. Good luck!
How old are you, SassyGrey? How long have you been riding (really riding, with a trainer, not just getting up on a horse)? Do you have trainer now?
Before we go giving advice to a stranger whose age and experience we don’t know, like we don’t know anything about her/his horse …
Because if OP were boarding at our barn, we would know at least an approximate age and experience level, in which case we could refer her/him to the BM/trainer.
If able too do that correctly they would not have the problem in the first place and would not be asking this question on a forum.
I’m not sure if you are trying to start an argument with me or what your goal is. You specifically said in response to my post:
“Put a bigger bit on and kick is one way to teach them to rear.”
which is simply not true if you are doing things correctly, as I responded.
I do not like to make assumptions about people (including the OP) which I why I did also specifically say to enlist in-person help if the OP does not feel comfortable with trying this herself/himself.
If you don’t like my method, fine; you don’t have to. But there’s always more than one way to get from point A to point B.
Bridge your reins to prevent her snatching them.
As for the herd-bound, that’s a hard problem to fix and its takes big guts. Get someone to help you.
If you are a small person and your horse is large, depending on the horse’s disposition, you could try a a “daisy rein” as someone else mentioned.
Your attitude can have a lot to do with things like this. I don’t agree with a bigger bit or a smack but for safety’s sake she MUST listen to you.
When she tries to put her head down pull on one rein at a time and make her move her feet until she gives up. Then make her stand and repeat as necessary. Relax between working the reins. You can also make an “ut ut” sound when she tries to go down.
Don’t ever let her eat with the bit in. Some horses (like mine) can be taught a (yes you can eat) but with a horse like this I wouldn’t ever allow it.
Don’t wallop her, you don’t know how she’ll react. If your horse is not responding to your aids, making them stronger won’t necessarily help. She clearly knows what you want and is not interested in doing it.
Being “herd bound” is often the result of low confidence–in herself, in her rider, in being alone. Work on building up her muscular strength on a longe line and via many downward and upward transitions. Build her connection with you [and her obedience] with some ground manners workshops…my guess is your horse isn’t great about letting you pick up her feet, load her into a trailer, pull her mane, etc. Work on each of those steps, and be clear when you want her to halt or walk on. Once you get that obedience on the ground, it’ll be that much easier to have it on her back.
An intermediate step would be asking her to do something mentally demanding–work on a longe, work over trot poles, work on a particular activity that’s really difficult for her [shoulder in, flying changes, figure eights, whatever] while other horses work on a completely different activity in the arena. Once all of that is developed, then try her again on trails.
You really don’t want to be trying to fix an obedience issue while you’re alone on trails. Avoid that until the problem is fixed.
No I don’t fight. I don’t fight with people. I don’t start fights.
The thing with these forums is your comments are not only being read by the OP and the people posting. They are being read by a lot of people who are just reading and in need of help. So I am careful with what I say for their sake. As I never want to see what I have seen happen happen again. There are consequences.
The first time 2 kids swapped ponies to ride home. I saw it happen. I was only a child myself. One child kicked the other’s pony. She did not release her hands. The pony went up, overbalanced and killed the rider.
This divided the community. People wanting the pony put down. It is dangerous. Other’s rightly saying it was the rider’s fault and the pony deserved to live with it’s child’s rider who had lost her friend and was now going to lose her beloved pony.
Fast forward 2 decades and this time an Instructor’s school so in experienced hands you would think. A green mare was brought out of a paddock and put in the school for an instructor without a horse.
That mare was doing so well. She learned so much. I was on the Instructor’s horse taking the lesson in the lead. We were in trot and she called out prepare to halt and halt.
I halted and I saw the Instructor’s face turn white with terror. That face was so shocking that I dismounted before turning around.
The mare was up as high as she could go and in slow motion she went too far and started to fall. Her rump landed first which meant she fell sideways. She just missed killing the rider.
Who sat there as white as a ghost for 5 minutes just saying uhhhhhh while shaking.
What happened?
When we were told to halt. The ride halted and so did the mare. But the girl had not told her to halt. Instead of thanking her for covering her mistake. The girl kicked and did not let go of the reins, as she was doing it in punishment and did not want the horse to go forward into the horse in front.
So I will admit I am a little sensitive about telling a horse and rider to do exactly that who you have not seen. I apologise if I upset you.
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