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Yearling (ish) filly blow ups

Off Course
#1

My March 2024 filly is extremely docile and unexcitable, almost to the point of being personality-less sometimes. She isn’t super brave but nothing out of the ordinary, generally she’s very easy to handle. She gets handled daily with normal chores, and I do groundwork with her on average 2-3x a week and for less than 10 minutes at a time. Never anything demanding and always just basic handling.

Since we brought her home, there have been three instances (maybe four) that I can think of where we are doing ground work and she blows up out of nowhere. I promise you, I am paying attention. I pay extremely close attention to my horses in general and am very conscientious of everything I ask this filly to do. When she’s blown up, she is not giving me signs that she’s about to blow. I know everyone says this though!

The first time, we were going on a wee stroll and she just took off and ran in front of me. I think this happened a second time at a later point. Another, we were walking around and she reared straight up. Today, I had a blanket on her and it slipped off when we were walking. She ran in front of me and bucked/double barrel kicked out, not pointing at me but I was bringing her in with a circle so it was fairly close. I’ll give her some grace for today because the blanket did spook her, and I will also say that when she’s had these reactions I can bring her back down immediately and we go on our merry way.

I don’t feel out of my depth or anything, but I do want to check in… I don’t feel like I’m asking her to do anything unreasonable. I’m paying attention and her behavior has always read as a normal young horse with not a lot of life experience being asked to do something. Maybe she just has a very low threshold for over excitement? I’ve asked my vet, farrier, etc for their opinions and have been told it’s just young horse silliness. It’s just such a drastic departure from her normal personality that it’s perplexing me a bit. I want to set her up for success though so I am looking for different perspectives. Thank you!

ETA this is the same filly I posted about in the horse care board about having hindgut ulcers so I am wondering if that could be contributing. She’s been on sucralfate and a double dose of Equishure but it hasn’t been 30 days yet so I haven’t retested her.

#2

As a young horse, this is the perfect time for you to start setting the expectation that horsey is expected to be cool, calm, collected and polite REGARDLESS of what sort of spooky, horse eating blankets, bunnies, rocks…etc…crosses its path. If not now, when?

Ulcers can definitely be an issue…but young horses are the perfect time to start setting expectations for what behavior you want in your adult horse. Young horses just have short attention spans, but when you are connected to them, they are expected to be polite equine children.

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#3

What @pluvinel said. Regardless of the cause, she needs to have manners. It sounds like you’re treating potential ulcers, but regardless of pain/stress, there are certain boundaries when I’m handling young horses. All 4 feet stay on the ground, no biting, no running me over. There is my space and their space. The cause does just sound like baby stuff though. :blush: Even up to 4-5 they can explode out of seemingly nowhere. Feelings are hard to contain!

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#4

When was this?

Her life timeline to date is important to her mental landscape. She was born in March 2024, if I understand your first post correctly. She was relocated to your property shortly after weaning, is that correct? So she is now about 9 months old?

Relocating a horse can get some serious reactions that can last for an indefinite time. They all suffer to some degree from separation from their “home” herd, some more than others. Being young can increase separation anxiety.

In this case, your filly “lost” her mom, as it were, both from weaning, and from relocating to your property. How that was done can cause more or less trauma for a young horse. But in any case, a gradual natural separation might not have been the way it was done. Sudden, abrupt and permanent separation has been known to cause ongoing herd-bound and buddy-bound issues in horses. Those issues can be explosive, depending on the individual horse. Sometimes they can be lasting.

Someone who knows more about weanlings than I do might give some insight to this.

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#5

@Demerara_Stables @pluvinel how would you suggest correcting her? The first two times when she ran in front of me I made her move her feet in all directions and we revisited our leading manners. I was surprised by the rear and I don’t remember if I corrected her or if it was one of those “oookk… anyways…” moments and we moved on. Today I brought her in a tight circle until she stopped and then I just petted and talked to her for a few mins before walking her around some more and putting her up. Maybe I am giving her too much benefit of the doubt :-p

1 Like
#6

This is a very insightful post. I hadn’t considered how her weaning experience may still be affecting her. Her breeder told me she was fine being weaned but she was very visibly distraught being separated from her siblings to come to our property. She does have some buddy bound issues with my older mare. Both of them are okay being brought out to work but the one who is left behind will throw varying degrees of a fit. I make sure they have their alfalfa soup when the other is working so they have something to soothe themself with but other than that it’s been one of those things.

We brought her home right around 5 months IIRC

#7

At this stage, until more confirmed in her behavior, which could take years until this horse is +5, I would lead this horse with a chain over the nose on a long lead line or maybe even a lunge line and carrying a longish whip. If you are on the right (near) side, you carry lead line on your left, and whip on the right. Whip defines the invisible wall of “my space-your space” that the horse is never to enter unless invited.

You can practice stopping when you stop. Walk when you walk…if you have done dog training, it would be analog to “loose leash heeling.” You can also turn INTO her shoulder where the horse has to yield the shoulder and move away from you…all on a loose lead.

Yep. I have always said that around horses, you can be right or wrong, but never in doubt. If you are in doubt, a sharp, smart horse will take advantage of your doubt and set their own agenda. Just because she is ~1 year old does not mean she can’t start to learn proper polite horse manners. Just your lessons have to short because of short attention spans and finish with a pleasant activity, like feeding…but no treats from the hand.

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#8

I have no baby horse experience. But I would say this seems extremely limited time working for any real expectations. I would expect the daily, routine handling from stall to turnout, grooming, etc to be solid by now. But the “wee strolls” - where are they? If they are new places I wouldn’t necessarily expect all the behavior from daily routines to carry over. It sounds like 23.5 hour/day she’s allowed to choose her response to every stimuli.

I’m not suggesting that you have to work her more frequently but maybe consider that or lower your expectations. If she were my dog in training I wouldn’t expect much at all with 10 min, 3x/week.

And I might limit training to somewhat controlled environments until feel they are really solid. Or at least - expect spooky baby horse responses in new environments and be ready for them.

1 Like
#9

Do you only have this filly and your old mare on the property? No other horses? Most adult horses would get herd bound in that setting, and babies are naturally more herd bound than adults. If this is the case, I would only work with her in close proximity to the other horse until her manners are more firmly established. Only after she’s solid on basic handling should you start gradually increasing the distance between her and the other horse.

Without seeing exactly what she and you are both doing, it’s hard to give specific advice. A little bouncing around occasionally is expected with one so young, but bolting ahead needs to be nipped in the bud immediately. Never, ever, ever let her get her body ahead of your shoulder. If she escalates, that puts you directly into the line of fire to get kicked. I do not like using chains on babies, personally. I prefer a rope halter for gentler, more subtle corrections and a more immediate release after the correction has been made.

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#10

Her daily routine handling is very solid and she is generally very easy to handle. The dedicated training sessions or walks happen elsewhere around the property. She just turned 9mo about a week ago so I’ve been keeping our sessions short and sweet. 99% of the time everything is copacetic. Maybe it’s time to start increasing to 15min and work up to 20min as she gets closer to being a yearling.

#11

Yes, only the two for now but will hopefully have a third within the next year. They are both fine to be taken out but the one left behind gets anxious. I will start keeping her closer to their paddock when I train her. I have a rope halter and will start using that for training her.

#12

Thank you! I often carry a dressage whip when we’re doing groundwork and will start using it as a “wall” when we’re walking.

She doesn’t get treats, but out of curiosity why no hand feeding?

#13

You can create a pushy, mouthy, and with the right personality a horse that will eventually bite with hand feeding.

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#14

Honestly, if you have only had four incidents in four months you’ve done just fine. The CotH mind always tends to over react with “I’m new to X” posts and respond as if the poster was a complete newbie to horses. Catch and correct, and learn what to work on next. Focus on what you want her doing, and most corrections are simple low key “No. Do this thing instead.”

I am going to say that your filly absolutely is showing warning signs before bolting or rearing. You just haven’t figured out what they are yet. The less common, very subtle signs are hard to figure out, especially when the blow up doesn’t happen very often.

I would keep going away from the other horse, and be ready to catch a bolt. I’d go away and back multiple times, increasing the distance from and time out of sight of the other horse. This is a good time to teach working with the human is more important than the other horse(s). Keep enough novelty in what you’re doing to require her attention. Turns, terrain changes, halts, moving over, moving only hind or fore quarters, backing up, stepping over things, touching things on command. Standing for brief periods, but move on before she feels she has to leave the situation.

Do your standing still practice (grooming, picking up feet, etc) near the other horse for now. When she’s good at doing that stuff, then you do it further away.

And watch her. Watch what she is doing and showing you, not for tension or anxiety. This will open your mind to seeing her tension/anxiety behaviour. How does she show she is anxious?

It’s not always obvious if you haven’t encountered it before. My last foal had a “get outta Dodge NOW” bolt after he was weaned. It happened maybe half a dozen times in two years. So yeah, it took me a while to figure out triggers and signs of it coming.

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#15

Thank you so much - you are exactly right that she is showing signs but they are subtle and I don’t know her well enough yet so I’m not catching them. I guess that is what I was trying to say in my OP. I do pay attention but she’s very stoic on top of only having been with us for four months. My other mare has a very colorful and expressive personality and can be read like a book.

I’m glad to hear that four incidents in four months isn’t abnormal. I will start examining her behavior as a whole and not just look for stress signals to better learn what she’s communicating when we’re working. When/if she does bolt ahead again, how would you suggest correcting it? Moving her feet and making her work? Backing her up? Edit: since you can’t see exactly what’s happening maybe a better question is, what are some different strategies that you have in your toolbox to correct issues like this?

#16

Agree that there ARE warning signs there that you are missing (which you acknowledge). But at the same time … does that matter?

Think of it this way: Horses learn by making mistakes. You do not want to micromanage them and prevent them from making a mistake. Because then you lose your teaching opportunity … and your also training them to not be able to function without micromanaging.

Make sense?

So, even if you recognized the filly was about to spook … LET HER. Don’t prevent her from making a mistake. Let her learn that her decision to do that behavior was not correct. Use the opportunity to show her what she should have done. Because that is how you develop a horse that walks calmly next to you on a loose lead, stays at your shoulder, stays out of your bubble, etc etc etc. That if you wrap a tight chain around her nose and never allow her to move … then you’ll always have to lead them with a tight chain because they won’t know what to do with a loose lead.

How you correct each situation just kind of depends what happened. Can’t blame her for spooking at the blanket when she wasn’t expecting it to slide off. However, I would also expect the horse to always remember where I am, and always remember to keep that bubble. You are not going to discipline her for spooking (that’ll just frazzle her more) but you are going to discipline her from detering away from her job. Her job at that moment was to walk next to you on the lead rope. She strayed from that. So you get her reeled her and then put her back beside you and expect her to stay there, as that’s where she was supposed to be. So whether she just chose to take off, or the blanket spooked her and she took off, she strayed from walking beside you on the lead, so put her back.

Now the kicking and the rearing I would correct a little harsher, personally, just because the dangerousness of the behavior. There’s never a black and white line of what exactly to do, but I would personally always walk her right now with a long whip in my hand. Just in case she would kick/rear, then if appropriate, I can let her know she’s not supposed to do that. Might be a smack on the butt. Might be some vigerous backing up. It kind of depends on the moment.

But I would never never ignore the dangerous behavior.

But if it’s simply deterring away from her job (aka walking beside her) then yet, just correct her, and move on with what you are doing. Don’t make a big deal about it, just show her where she needs to be. Then let her CHOOSE to make the mistake and deter from her job. Then put her back. Its the total CONSISTENCY that will teach her what she is supposed to do.

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#17

I would rephrase and say horses learn by making choices. Decisions have consequences.

I disagree with this statement. This is anthropomorphising. Horses don’t think of “mistakes.” That is a human construct. Horses make choices: (a) I can be with this human or (b) I can leave. It is up to the human to let the horse know that one decision has unpleasant consequences.

No one said to “wrap a tight chain around her nose”…If that is how you interpreted my post, then I wasn’t clear. If anyone has done “loose lead heeling” with a dog, you know that the leash is loose…and the corrections only come into play when the dog pulls. That correction is a quick snatch…EXACTLY the same as with leading a horse. The chain is loose. The leash/lead is held loosely and the horse walks next to the handler. Corrections come into play only when the horse doesn’t follow the handlers request.

Of course you are!!! Spooking occurs because something out there in the horse eating wilderness is more important than the human attached to the horse. Horse needs to know that human is more important than any horse eating acorn out there.

In my book, those are capital offenses that are not to be tolerated and merit a harsh correction.

As far as

This is very important…of course it matters. It helps the handler grow their horsemanship skills. I had a young stallion who required the PhD of horse handling. I finally learned that there was this very subtle change in the lips before he did something…it wasn’t done in a vicious manner…this was a horse with a very dry sense of humor. It was more…“Yo…you paying attention? Obviously not, so I think I will leave.” I finally learned…he taught me a lot. I miss him terrible.

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#18

I’m struggling to envision this. Was it a loose saddle pad or was she being walked with a full blanket that wasn’t buckled?

Are you walking her on a standard length leadrope?

I don’t think the behaviors described are super unusual but I also think it’s super important to set a horse up for success. Having things slide off a horse is a great skill to build but doing those types of experiences in a methodical controlled manner is very different than equipment malfunctioning.

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#19

Yes, set yourself and the filly up for success. If you are not sure she can handle something? Do not try.

IIWY, would not try handwalking anywhere “new” or if she is anxious about her only companion…and guessing no blanket is going to fit her and be secured. Weanlings are notoriously hard to fit. Leave it off. Resist the urge to do too much with a weanling. Just tolerating being groomed, picking up the feet, staying at your shoulder when led for short, familiar distances is enough for most of the weanlings and the younger yearlings. Let them grow a bit.

IME, weanlings and yearlings do better with other weanlings and yearlings around. It is a very challenging time for them and it takes time for them, good to have a same age buddy. Helps avoid them thinking of a mare as a mother figure.

Slow down a bit on work sessions and just ask her to behave with everyday, routine handling with no new stresses or adventures. Save those for when she gets a little older and is solid in the manners department during daily handling.

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#20

FWIW, our foals (TBs) would never have been led soley by a lead rope at the age of nine months.

At that age, their learning-to-lead process would have gone through several stages:
birth to 2 months: lead rope attached to halter and held loosely by person’s left hand which cups the foal’s chest while his right hand is cupped behind the foal’s hindquarters. (The foal isn’t “led”, it is guided, so there’s no pressure on the neck.)
3-6 months: person’s left hand holds the lead rope just below the halter, right hand is on top of the foal’s hindquarter (just above the tail) still providing guidance from the rear.
6-9 months: left hand holding lead rope with some play in it, right hand resting on the foal’s withers, there to provide reassurance/guidance if needed.

Possibly your filly doesn’t fully understand what kind of behavior is being asked of her, and needs to take a step back in the process?

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