I have a young tb mare, i’ve had her about a year and she’s never bit or kicked at me. She needed 4 weeks of stall rest, after that was over i began slowly riding again - she was great. Then she decided i wasn’t allowed to touch her at all,mshe would kick bite paw rear. We had her looked at by a professional and she is not in pain. Now, she is fine with other people touching her, but not me. I am not allowed to pick her feet out, brush her, tack her up.
Anyone have any ideas?
When you start working with her again add a lead shank to her halter. If she swings around to nip, jerk the shank and tell her “no” sharply. The fact that others can handle her shows her trying to dominate you. You must be able to handle her whenever and however need for safety’s sake. Firm but fair.
I agree with the above, “firm but fair.”
One of my horses, also a young TB mare, is of the “give a little, take a lot” mind-set. If I give her a pass when she does something minor, like puts her foot down in the middle of me cleaning it, she will feel that it is then okay to then misbehave under saddle. With her, I need to consistently show her that I will ask the first time, and demand it the second time. Wrong behavior is instantly corrected, no matter what it is.
I’m never mean with her, rather very consistently firm.
My young mare tried this with me when I started working he under saddle. Like someone else said a firm but fair correction with a lead shank will usually do the job.
Two other things:
Don’t be tentative when dealing with her. Treat her as though you’ve never had a problem with her.
It might be worth doing some clicker training with her to get her keyed into you as the handler. The TB mind is always active, and it’s best to get it to work with you rather than treating you as an irrelevant nuisance:lol:
IME, geldings can misbehave just to be mischievous. Mares misbehave almost entirely in order to sort out social dominance relations in their world. In other words, dealing with a mare is like dealing with an eleven year old girl, right down to the squealing and running in circles.
I am the main, almost sole person, now who handles my mare. She is constantly trying to tell me what to do, on the ground and in the saddle. We have worked on this with basic ground manners and clicker, and things are a lot better. And when she is happy, she is a delight.
The interesting thing is, every once in a while some total beginner child will get a chance to brush her. And maresy relaxes completely, appears to be perfectly OK with the situation. But when I brush her, she is constantly telling me to get lost, get out of her space, stop bothering her already. The total beginner child has no authority over her, and she knows that. You would think she would “push” more with the child, if she is so upset about brushing. But in fact she doesn’t.
And I think the reason is, she doesn’t feel there is any need to assert herself with the child. She doesn’t have to score points with the child. Whereas, every time we interact, she is trying to tell me she is the boss from the get-go. Stop touching me! Stop looking at me! Get out of my space! You stink!
So I think it makes total sense that your mare is being nastier to you than to other people. Think about eleven year old girls. They can be really really rude to their moms, because they feel a bit squished and over-monitored. But put them with new adults, or older kids, and they can be very mature and rise to the level expected of them (one reason why even riding instructor’s kids might benefit from lessons from someone else for a while).
So you do need to exercise some tough love with the mare. If she has got beyond what you can handle, get a good ground-work trainer in for some sessions. Unfortunately, often even good riding instructors don’t have good ground-work instruction skills.
I have found with my mare that the most effective discipline is making her move away from me, promptly. We can play nip/slap all day, but as long as I don’t make her move her feet, she feels that she still hasn’t “lost” that round. When I watch her play social games over the paddock fences, though, the horse that wins is the horse that stands her ground; the one that loses is the one that moves away.
Put a rope halter on her, and when she gives you attitude, shake that rope until she has to move backwards relatively fast; do it every time she acts pissy. This might mean working in a larger, but enclosed, area, maybe taking her to a round pen or the arena to brush. You don’t want to make her move around like that inside a stall, and obviously you can’t in cross ties. My horse has a stall with run-out paddock, and I brush and tack up loose, so if she gives me attitude I can chase her out into the paddock.
Clicker training has also worked well. To the point where sometimes she nickers in anticipation when I start to tighten the girth.
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