Please share your observations re young horse behavior pre-backing vs. under saddle

[CanteringCarrot]

@Texarkana

@CanteringCarrot

@Texarkana

@beowulf

There’s hope for your girl! My filly went through this phase so you have my sympathy. Just keeping it consistent, one day she turned a corner. She’s a joy to be around now. Occasionally, if she is really over threshold (AKA at a new overwhelming venue) she can get bargy. But she’s learned to keep her feet to herself.

She does still pin her ears at feeding time. I tried in every way I knew how to change that behavior, but now I just ignore it. She doesn’t try to get into my space anymore and I think it’s her just expressing Opinions.

BTW. As pushy as she was on the ground, she has been nothing but a joy under saddle. One of the easiest horses I’ve ever brought along. Charitable, sensible, and willing to try anything new. Just don’t ask her to move fast cause she’s a Luxury Vehicle not a street car.

Oh, I have hope for her. She’s just ANNOYING. And it’s not even the pushiness or ear pinning that’s the most annoying, all of that is very manageable. It’s the fact that everything in a 20ft radius at any time is a “toy” to be played with and destroyed with her mouth and feet. Water troughs, hay bags, feeders, buckets, lead ropes, crossties, salt blocks, halters, fly masks, fly boots, brushes, spray bottles, the actual barn… I can’t believe she actually keeps blankets on, because she has to mouth and/or remove everything else. It was a nightmare when she had a major injury I had to keep wrapped.

It’s not like I let her or encouraged her, she’s been obsessed with doing it from day 1 and really doesn’t care if she’s told no.

She’s from the first crop of her sire, and from what I’ve heard, she comes by this honestly through dad.

Although I hope she turns into a joy like yours!

This is my 3 year old in a nutshell. He gets it through dad because he has some half siblings with the same habits and behaviors. He will only keep a blanket on and not mess with it if it’s very very cold. He tolerated a blanket when the temps were in the negatives.

He’s destroyed buckets, knocked over huge water troughs, gotten into troughs (he LOVES water), dumps water buckets, can undo carabiners (which results in throwing haynets and buckets), will roll buckets around, will stick his hoof in a bucket no matter how high, will open things, untie things, and generally isn’t fit to live a domesticated lifestyle lead ropes, cross ties, and reins are all edible objects. Trash cans are awesome too. Amazingly, he didn’t destroy fly masks.

He does these things whether he’s stalled, out 24/7, on 2 acres or 20. He’s smart and generally nice to work with. He does like people and is interested in most things, but he’s ANNOYING.

He was “begging” last night because he wanted someone’s plastic cup with ice in it because he loved the sound of the ice. He’s not rude, and he is corrected when he’s too much, but I don’t want to totally kill his intelligent and inquisitive nature. He gives zero f*cks about some things that would matter to some horses, which can be nice. He was very easy to start under saddle and has taken to it very well, so there’s that!

We own the same horse.

I’ve always seen horses like this and wondered what happened when raising them to make them like that. Turns out, nothing… they were born like this.

Yep. The fact that his siblings are like this too and owned by different people, in different countries even, makes me feel a bit better about it

[goodhors]

You might get good mare a Selenium test to see what her levels are. We are selenium poor in our area, so we get horses tested here, to keep them comfortable. They sweat off selenium in daily work. They get worked regularly, sweated most days in work, so we need to keep their selenium levels up to the correct level, since the body does not store selenium lIke it does fat.

Lots of people THINK they are giving horse enough selenium with daily supplements. Might be true, could be WAY off in what THIS horse needs! Selenium affects the reproductive system of mares, making for poor heat cycles, erratic temperments, “mare-ish behaviour.” You won’t know they are high or low level until horse is tested specifically for selenium. A chronically “sore” or tired horse, who SHOULD be fit to do his work, could lack selenium. It is a “helping” mineral that touches lots of areas beyond reproduction and muscles to keep a horse well regulated in use!

We have several mares, various bloodlines, all are even tempered in any part of their cycle. They pee more often when fertile, but no bad acting or carrying on when worked with (driving) or near the stallion or geldings. We put good behaviour to mares being at the correct selenium levels all the time.

[4horses]

Thanks. I will ask the vet about that. It may just be the way she is. She’s actually a really nice horse but she does swoon over the boys. My vet just asked me if I wanted to breed her when I mentioned how much she likes geldings. Funny she doesn’t even look twice at my gelding but I think she thinks he is still a baby. Just not her type.

Now my friend’s gelding thinks he is still a stallion and whenever I need a teaser, I use him. She is absolutely crazy about him. Tall, dark, and handsome… She loves him.