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I was working in a Supermarket yesterday. A child is ignoring his mum telling him to behave.
As I am walking and 4 ft or so taller than him he starts backing into me. I growled uh uh and he magically behaved. I didn’t hear his Mum saying anything to him again.
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Ever significantly underestimated a problem as described?
Horse at the barn, I went to pick her up when the girl bought her. She texts me yesterday that she’s having trouble lunging her, that the horse bucks and kicks, drags her around, etc. Asks me to lunge her to see what I thought.
She neglected to say that the horse has learned to turn and face you and try to pile drive you into the ground.
Wasn’t ready for that one. Had to juke a few times getting my act together, then the problem was addressed as much as it could be in one session.
She admitted the horse was doing that to her earlier in the day. Would have been good information to have ahead of time, lady. Jesus christ on a bicycle.
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Once upon a time I was filling in over the holidays for a barn manager on vacation. Got fed up with the stallion’s ground manners and finally growled “Nooooooooooo” in a low, angry tone as I turned towards him with an expression of absolute fury on my face. He deflated before my eyes like a popped balloon: “You, you…growled at meeeeee!” Either no one had ever thought to resort to growling at him or else my tone surpassed authoritative and verged on borderline demonic
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I was looking at a mustang to buy about 2 years ago and this horse had his owners number and knew it. He was a little sh_t to put it mildly. Walking all over her, trying to pull away, ignoring her, the usual. She had him on cross ties and was going to tack him up, he was squirreling around, pawing, just being stupid. When she went to get the saddle I snarled at him, “knock it off” and he just quit and stood like a saint with his eyes big and looking at me. He didn’t take his eyes off me the entire time she was tacking him up.
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Sitting having a coffee in a cafe garden. A small boy is bored and restless as his mother chats to her friends with their babes in arms. Mum was keeping half an eye and saying “no” or “don’t do that” as he moved around between the tables. He decided to start on the plants, pulling off leaves. “Stop that” says Mum, which he does. Then when her attention moved he started again. “I said, don’t do that”. Small boy stops. Her attentions shifts again. Small boy looks at Mum and reaches for the poor plants again, closely watching her, testing boundaries. “NO! STOP THAT” I say in very firm horse-stop-messing-about voice. The entire cafe goes silent. The child is horrified and rushes for mum to hide. I apologetically explain that I’m the volunteer that looks after the garden as it belongs to the local museum. Everyone relaxes and start chatting again and Mum gives me a smile. But there are times when that immediate impulse to correct bad behaviour in a horse does cause unexpected problems.
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The girl reports that the “pile driver” mare was an angel for her after I had my come to god meeting with her.
I will admit - it drives me nuts that people don’t correct the little things. This mare didn’t one day say “hm, I think I’ll trample a human into the dirt today”. The handler missed probably hundreds of opportunities to nip this before it turned into a problem, and blew it.
I don’t like having to be “the big guns” to horses. I am not going to allow the behavior obviously, and I don’t want the handler to get hurt, but it sucks to have to be that firm on an animal when it could have been entirely avoided by heeding and addressing the warning signs as they came up.
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This sort of thing can go very wrong sometimes. I was riding with a friend, and had my dog with me, and she and I are sitting on our horses chatting, and I suddenly interrupt her and say (in command voice), “SIT DOWN!” Her eyes grew as big as saucers and she immediately shuts up. I’m puzzled for an instant, until I realize she thought I was talking to her, not the dog.
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I have used that voice, and a knee to the chest, on my in-laws’ Komondor, who weighs 125 pounds and is a bit wild.
My mare can get wiggly, but every once in a while I growl at her and say STOP WIGGLING. And she stops, at least for a bit. I will admit to not being consistent all the time with boundaries, which is why she still very politely tests me.
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I had a similar experience years ago. The barn where I boarded my horses also had a small beginner western lesson program and they used a QH mare schoolie for a lot of the lessons. She had started stopping at the gate and the BO asked if I might be able to help. I got on and sent the mare around at a brisk English working trot and sure enough, she screeched to a halt at the gate despite my aids.
Got her going again and this time I did the Pony Club kick as soon as she thought about slowing. Still didn’t work. So I asked the BO for a crop. She didn’t want me to use it because horsie might not like it, but I insisted.
Next time around she got a big wallop behind my leg when when she slowed. I wish I could have seen her expression, because she sighed and carried on at the trot instead of stoppping. Next time around she tried to slow down again and got another wallop, along with a big leg squeeze. About three more trips around and she figured out her ploy wasn’t working any more. The sad thing is that she probably went right back to the behavior because the BO didn’t believe anyone should use crops on horses.
The mare got revenge after the ride, however. I bent over to pick out her hooves so I didn’t track the footing into the barn. Next thing I know, she’d bitten me in the a$$! Not hard, just enough to make her point. I didn’t even get after her because I was laughing too hard. It was payback, as far as she was concerned. That’s exactly why I love mares!
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There is another horse at the barn that I occasionally ride. Nice horse. LAZY. And completely unsensitive.
Spurs? He doesn’t care.
Dressage whip (and trust me, I don’t nag, I use it swiftly and like I mean it)? Takes at least 3 to get ANY response out of him.
He’s not unfit, and he’s actually a spooky/looky type. Just very… desensitized.
Any tips on how to sharpen him up? He flat out doesn’t care about anything I do to him. Spur raking, whip smacking… everything just results in him sluggishly and sullenly getting with the program. But when he spook/bucks he’s a rocketship. When you first get on him he feels “up” but doesn’t want to offer it to you.
On the lunge line, he responds johnny on the spot.
Saddle has been fitted, and he just had a lameness eval with no findings (both per my request to the owners).
Thoughts, fellow COTHers?
EDIT: He was formerly in reining training somewhere. Not sure the whole story on that one, but I can’t imagine a reining trainer would allow him to be sluggish off the leg the way he is.
When Dodge came here from being a school horse he was dead to the leg. Just consistent correct use of aides and probably some voice commands worked to lighten him up back to normal. Of course he was no longer being ridden by beginners for him to backslide.
When we first moved here I tried to limit salt and sugar consumption by hubby. I downloaded skull and crossbones and put them on the salt and sugar.
When I was doing something at the table he reached for the salt and I said uh uh. His hand stopped in mid flight and I continued what I was doing.
He said that he stopped because he thought I was angry with him but he soon realised I was not angry.
The other day I was inside and I heard him say uh uh to the horse outside. We have come full circle.
He still puts sugar in his coffee and salt on his meals so it didn’t work.
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I used to ride a horse like this. Not my type of ride at all. The very best ride I ever had on him was when the steer was loose and kept popping up randomly outside the arena.
We had elevation, expression, and suspension.
Maybe borrow a steer?
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Try getting out to an unfamiliar location. Ask him to do new things such as pole work. Trail ride with a fellow rider on a speedy horse and have a good gallop. Check his feed. In my experience closed down, dead to the leg horses have frequently just given up due to extreme boredom in a monotonous world with no stimulation.
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Is he spur broke? Some reiners are.
Nothing that’s endangered my safety (luckily!) as has some of you according to recent posts, but I asked the barn manager the other day if she planned to take Christmas and/or New Years day off from mucking stalls so I could plan to be there if necessary.
My mare, however, is on outdoor board 
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Good guess, but I think you may mean western pleasure horses?
Reiners are not spur broke, meaning to stop from spur cues?
I think western pleasure trainers don’t go there any more, never was a good idea.
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Erm, I did a stint as a WS for a reining trainer years ago and learned quickly that many are trained what we might think of as backwards aids in English disciplines - to a reining horse, more leg/seat = slow and collect up, leg off/light seat = go fast. Cues that involve rein/spur are practically whispers and responses should be quick.
It’s also possible that he’s just dead to the world/confused/shut down and needs retraining, but try the opposite thing first. 
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They go there still. Lol
I’ve tries pole work with him, and putting all sorts of weird crap in the arena (balls, balloons, blow up cow, etc.). No difference. He’s the same in the outdoor.
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Yes, reiners are trained to use your energy to speed up the horse, or riding against the motion to slow it, as a finished reiner works practically without more than a hint of weight on the draped reins.
As long as you pump, the horse goes fast, when you quit and sit up and start to go behind the motion, horse slows to a smaller, slow circle, you didn’t have to move reins or legs, just quit moving them and also use discrete voice cues.
