I recently started riding a lovely 7 year old TB mare. When riding in the ring by herself she’s absolute perfection. Add one or two other horses and she’s alright. Add more than three horses… watch out.
For shows: red ribbon in her tail!
Lol of course! I honestly just need to paint her red…
Sounds like a training issue to me,you need to get her attention on you and not put up with the behaviour period.
Have a gelding who if given the chance will charge another horse when under saddle,will attempt to kick. He won’t dare do either now he gets a good what for and how too. He knows he CAN"T act out period!!
The reason your horse “gets along” with the alpha mare in the field is that alpha mare has told her to behave herself, and they have worked out their relative hierarchies. She doesn’t “dislike” the other horses, she just feels she needs to be sorting out her status in relation to them at every minute. Very much a mare thing.
I also ride a mare that can be over-reactive to horses in the ring. I find that this disappears when I have her full attention, but is a major problem if I don’t. When I have her full attention, she does exactly what I ask, will trot circles around the lesson horses, etc. If I don’t have her full attention, she gets pissy, balky, and also does other naughty things unrelated to other horses.
As a boss mare, I think she feels she needs to be paying social attention to the other horses, just as if she were in a pasture. But when I am riding her, she needs to understand that I make the decisions, and that she is not free to socialize, and that she doesn’t get to make the decisions. I will keep her safe from the other horses and she doesn’t need to think about it.
Kinda like getting the little girls in class to stop whispering and hitting each other, and have them all focus on the teacher.
Wow! Is this timely. I got a new mare in the fall and she was from a Southern barn without an indoor ring. She was an angel for me the first few months and didn’t mind any horses working around us in the outdoor rings. Now we’re stuck in the indoor and if there’s more than 1 or 2 others, she pins her ears and grinds her teeth. I must keep her working and busy (shoulder-in, stay on the bit, etc) otherwise she tries to slow down and/or snark at any horse nearby. I’m sure she’s slowing down to take aim and kick, but so far she hasn’t done it. Mostly because I keep her working. I’m sure her aggression would ramp up if I let her.
I’ve realized this isn’t a supplement issue - it is behavioral. I don’t smack or hit her because I don’t want her to associate that with another horse getting close. I do make her work harder and pay attention, as another poster said. I am hoping she will slowly lessen her snarkiness, but if not, I gotta stay in control so no one gets kicked. It is a little frustrating though, because she is a beautiful and talented athlete. She can make herself very ugly with the grinding and ear pinning. This is the first horse I’ve owned who’s done this. She does not do anything if someone needs to squeeze by us in the aisleway or when horses pass her stall!
I own an out-and-out alpha mare. She is compelled to “instruct” other horses when she feels the need.
She is the sweetest, most affectionate animal on the planet on the ground. With submissive geldings she is an angel. With youngsters, she will teach them about her “space bubble” and then be sweet as pie once they get the message. She will NOT share her turnout buddy with any other horse.
In the outdoor ring and at shows, she is fine with traffic, provided it’s respectful (I always say if another rider gets close enough to a chestnut mare to be in striking distance, it’s a Darwin Award).
In the indoor arena, her “space bubble” expands. What would technically be a “safe” passing or following distance outside becomes too close for her comfort.
If we have to share the ring with a naughty horse, she gets fierce and wants to correct that horse. If the rider of said naughty horse lays into it, she gets terrified, yet she’s never, ever been beaten.
And only twice we have shared the indoor with the other alpha mare at our barn. All I can say there is DON’T. Just don’t. You’re better off letting two stallions go at it. We managed to get out without any damage both times, but it was not fun for anyone.
Hitting or spurring my alpha gets me NOWHERE. She will fight to her last breath. Instead, when she gets all uppity about traffic, I might park in a corner (arse to the wall) for a moment, let her observe and use her body language to tell the others to feck off. Amazingly, after a minute or two, the entire ring does what she wants.
I do have to say that I have had great success with a product called Feisty Mare. The main ingredient is chastetree berry.
“Hitting or spurring my alpha gets me NOWHERE. She will fight to her last breath. Instead, when she gets all uppity about traffic, I might park in a corner (arse to the wall) for a moment, let her observe and use her body language to tell the others to feck off. Amazingly, after a minute or two, the entire ring does what she wants.”
You can’t just park a horse on the rail in a class at a show.
OPs horse needs training. Sounds like OP needs to be more assertive and correct the bad behavior, encourage the good and teach mare who IS boss mare at all times.
(that would be OP)
And, I would NOT be bringing this mare to showgrounds where others do not know her --red ribbon or not. It’s too much of a liability until the OP gets in control and can manage this behavior. Anything else borders on irresponsibility.
[QUOTE=Sansena;8528126]
You can’t just park a horse on the rail in a class at a show.[/QUOTE]
You can, actually. It just means you throw the class. But better that than a kicking fit that hurts someone. You can also turn into the center, or exit the ring.
I have also found that when my mare is showing, she is “on” and more concerned with impressing people than the other horses. Her kicking is almost always when we’re trapped in the indoor with a group in the dead of winter.
I’m a very experienced rider. I’ve started and made up dozens of national champions in the hunters. I can mainly get any horse to comply. I work with a top-notch coach that recognizes all horse/rider combinations are distinct.
But ANYONE who has had success with a true alpha knows that fighting WILL NOT WORK.
Is OP’s horse a true alpha? No. She is a frustrated alpha, as demonstrated by the OP saying the only horse her mare gets along with is the alpha. Sometimes those are harder to deal with. Frustrated in the field, they try to dominate their person under saddle.
There is an old saying: tell a gelding, ask a stallion, beg a mare.
The OP’s mare is also a TB. There are many former trackies who come to riding horse life with some baggage about bumping, head-on traffic, or even claustrophobia from the starting gates. I’ve had OTTB fillies and geldings who just couldn’t handle anyone getting too close. My best-ever OTTB was a dream in every way, so long as no one started to come past him on his right side. He learned the hard way at the track that if another horse started to pass him on the outside, the whip would come out. So in under saddle classes at shows, we hugged the rail going to the left, and stayed to the inside going to the right. And he pinned most of the time, including indoors.
I do hope the OP is working with a good trainer who understands mares. But since we don’t know, I hope she will also take heed of my recommendation regarding chastetree berry, or involve another hormone therapy in her regimen.
FWIW I don’t think this is just a mare thing.
I have a 9yo gelding I’ve owned from his first breath. A sensible, game horse. A good egg. He came back from a year at another barn with very definite issues with those approaching alongside during our sessions: tensing up and threating to kick. So far, his efforts have missed because we’ve been vigilant.
My trainer says the only time he’s seen this before was when the horse in question was charged or in a body collision, so there’s some food for thought. In the context of this discussion I find it interesting too that my gelding bosses my mare around within an inch of her life.
My OTTB mare was like this when I first got her. I had to be very careful getting my other horse out of the paddock. I also had to be careful getting OTTB mare out. If the other horses got too close it was nothing for her to back up and kick at them or turn and kick. She also didn’t like other horses to get close to her under saddle. I use the term close very loosely. Another horse could be 10-15 feet away, and she would still take offense and try to turn her butt and back up to kick. She also didn’t like the dogs riding with us on the trail. My solution was to carry a longer riding crop when I rode. If she started to put her ears back, I growled at her. If she continued, I popped her between the ears or on the neck with the crop and kicked her forward. I also put her on some raspberry leaves to see if that helped. She has gotten much better, to the point were we have been practicing walking her right next to my older mare. We may try some musical freestyle dressage with the two of them as they are about the same size. The secret was to be consistent and pay attention to her behavior and immediately reprimand her.
[QUOTE=DarkBayUnicorn;8529166]
You can, actually. It just means you throw the class. But better that than a kicking fit that hurts someone. You can also turn into the center, or exit the ring.
I have also found that when my mare is showing, she is “on” and more concerned with impressing people than the other horses. Her kicking is almost always when we’re trapped in the indoor with a group in the dead of winter.
I’m a very experienced rider. I’ve started and made up dozens of national champions in the hunters. I can mainly get any horse to comply. I work with a top-notch coach that recognizes all horse/rider combinations are distinct.
But ANYONE who has had success with a true alpha knows that fighting WILL NOT WORK.
Is OP’s horse a true alpha? No. She is a frustrated alpha, as demonstrated by the OP saying the only horse her mare gets along with is the alpha. Sometimes those are harder to deal with. Frustrated in the field, they try to dominate their person under saddle.
There is an old saying: tell a gelding, ask a stallion, beg a mare.
The OP’s mare is also a TB. There are many former trackies who come to riding horse life with some baggage about bumping, head-on traffic, or even claustrophobia from the starting gates. I’ve had OTTB fillies and geldings who just couldn’t handle anyone getting too close. My best-ever OTTB was a dream in every way, so long as no one started to come past him on his right side. He learned the hard way at the track that if another horse started to pass him on the outside, the whip would come out. So in under saddle classes at shows, we hugged the rail going to the left, and stayed to the inside going to the right. And he pinned most of the time, including indoors.
I do hope the OP is working with a good trainer who understands mares. But since we don’t know, I hope she will also take heed of my recommendation regarding chastetree berry, or involve another hormone therapy in her regimen.[/QUOTE]
Well, I wouldn’t park ON THE RAIL, I would go to the middle of the ring instead (as you suggest). But yes, what some horses need is to be schooled DURING a class and if your horse is being a wreck and a danger to other horses in the hack, you say “forget the ribbons” and get the heck out of the way. What other horses need is to GET OUT and if that’s the case, you do it.
