Why Does She Do This?

[SkyWarrior]

This is a bit late. Sorry to hear (read) about your accident. But I definitely agree with goodhors. You need a horse that "wants to work for you". Not all horses are a good fit for every person. I bought a horse that I had ridden in an arena for several weeks. She seemed "hot" but manageable. After I got her home and word got around that I had bought this mare my horsey friends started telling me how this mare was an outlaw. Totally unrideable (sp). Crazy. You name it and every horrible word to describe this horse was used. After I had her for a while and she learned to like and trust me she turned out to be a pretty good horse. She just did not like men to ride her and would really misbehave under saddle. I bought her from a male horse trainer that used force to train and control. What I am saying is she was not a good fit for men or anyone that wanted to force her to do something. I eventually figured out she did not like a bit so I retrained her to voice commands. I just talked to her to control her speed and tried not to use the reins for anything but turning. What it all goes back to is she liked me and wanted to work for me.

Thanks. We took her to the vet again today and her leg is still needing further rest and treatment after the tendon injury. So, I have a lawn ornament for a while until I can either sell her for a registered broodmare or rehab her.

Damn. What would make a mare go flighty and run off a known trail and down a ravine? I know there was no other traffic or wildlife -- my husband was about 60 ft ahead of us.

Sigh.

 

[violetsky888]

I hate to say this after all you went through, but reconsider breeding her or selling her as a broodmare. There is a big trend in breeding unridable mares with bad temperaments and the good using mares people don't want to give time out for a foal and they get live their lives as a riding horse, thus increasing hard to train or nervous tempered horses. The reality is there are some horses that will never be "safe". Even a sweet dependable horse can pull something unexpected on the trail. A long long time ago I was rather recklessly racing a friend across a dam backing a large lake. The trail was wide enough to drive a tank across and on either side was a steep drop off, one side piled large rocks and the lake, the other side dropped down into a ravine and a drainage pond. My speedy and agile QH took a 45 degree turn into the ravine at a full gallop. Miraculously I stayed on. After inspecting the site you could see kids climbing down the ravine had made a little trail to the pond. My perception of what was the right path was obviously different than a horse and I probably was giving her head and lost a little contact. Something similar may of happened with your mare. I wonder if her vision is off and she feels safer in an arena?? I had an appaloosa gelding that always shied in the dark woods at big objects. Later I found out a lot of apps have night blindness, but I loved the horse and just learned to live with the shying. (it was predictable and mild)

One time I had to halter break and gentle 3 yearlings that were born on the same farm and raised like cattle with little handling. They were all filly's and the same breed and only contact with humans was a man driving in the field to check on them. He even wasn't sure which filly went with what mare and later they had to be dna tested to registered. What I'm getting at, was I had a unique experiment in temperament. One filly was a cinch to train and was very calm and the first to move forward with anything, one was in the middle, and the last one was probably more like your mare. She spooked a lot stronger with much less stimuli. The first day in the round pen just approaching her had her trying to jump out hanging up. In the end she wound up gentled and trained but will never have the tractable calm disposition of the first mare. That mare anyone could train and ride, the other one a lot will depend on her training and later job. Again we need to start making temperament the most important factor in breeding. Color, confirmation, pedigree, all nice but pretty much worthless if the horse is naturally strongly reactive. Think of it in reverse. You've seen rodeo broncs? There are horses out there you could never make buck like that no matter how ill-fitting your tack is, or your riding/training skills are. There are plenty of horses that come home from a long ride with blisters on their withers or girth sores and never so much as crow hopped. (not that I advocate ill-fitting tack, but sometimes a horse that "acts up" has nothing to do with anything other than the horse's temperament).

 

[w c]

Most likely, you have made mistakes in how you correct this horse. You may be circling, but that may not stop the behavior because it doesn't happen quickly enough, assertively enough, or in the right direction.

MANY people believe that if a horse abruptly turns right, they can simply keep turning the horse to the right, wind up pointed in the direction they wanted to go, and thus have 'won'. They believe they have 'outsmarted' or 'tricked' the horse and that the horse has been 'surprised' and thus has 'lost'. They are then amazed that the behavior continues.

This does not get rid of this behavior in MOST horses. Do not correct these horses in this way.

I'll address the dodging to one side as well as the backing up where you don't want her to.

When a horse dodges to the RIGHT, turn her LEFT, no matter which direction you wind up pointing - if it's so important to you what direction she points in simply keep turning, but NEVER EVER NEVER turn your horse right after it dodges right. The same goes for the left. NEVER keep turning a horse left if it has dodged left.

Always 'turn against' it when a horse turns when you have not asked it to turn. NEVER halt the horse during or after this sort of correction. ALWAYS keep moving and make it brisk. DO NOT HALT.

AGAIN.

If the horse turns when you have not asked it to turn, turn it BACK the other way - do NOT HALT. That is a reward. KEEP MOVING AND CIRCLE THE OTHER WAY. Go AGAINST the way it turned. DO NOT turn the way the horse started to turn. Most horses will NEVER stop dodging if you simply 'go along' with that direction and turn til he's facing 'the way you want to go'.

You have to understand that a horse does not think like a human. Make sure all your corrections are very simple, very, VERY quick and are on the move. DON'T HALT. Halting is a reward. So is even a tiny delay in a correction. You have to understand how a horse thinks. ANY DELAY and he just will not learn anything from the correction.

You need to look at which way the horse dodges to. If it is dodging to one side all the time, or if it varies equally, to both sides. If it ONLY happens in one branch of the trail I'll get to that in a sec.

Generally if it is dodging only to one side all the time, no matter where the horse is, you may not realize it, but you are leaned or shifted over too much to that side all the time, or not using your leg as much on that side, or both. Also check if your rein is shorter on that side or you pull too much on that rein. You may be 'opening the door' on that one side all the time without realizing it. 99% of people don't sit in the middle of the saddle, use both reins equally or both legs equally. And 100% of them don't realize they are doing it.

Also, if you have trouble turning at one point in the trail, the same point every time, the horse is trying to tell you something. You haven't been in charge all the way UP TO that turn. You need to be more in charge all the time.

That means you use your rein, you use your leg, and the horse has less than one second to do what you want, and then you punish him and make him do what you want. If you use your leg and he doesn't react, you punish him. Immediately. Hit him with a whip(you are NOT going to get anywhere by beating on any horse in a temper tantrum, that only makes things worse - one quick smack, and ONLY as hard as required to let the horse know he needs to pay attention to what you're telling him to do - when the habit has been allowed to develop for a long time and/or the horse is very insensitive, it may be a good hard smack, but the goal is NOT to hurt him but to make him pay attention). MAKE SURE you do it immediately, none of this count to ten stuff. Horses don't connect things up unless they happen in less than a second after.

As to your reins, if the horse is backing up a lot you may be 'into his mouth'. In other words, be SURE when he backs up, to put your hand forward so there is an actual loop in both reins and no pressure on his mouth.

And if you are using your legs properly, again, when he backs up when not asked, you use your leg once and then go to your whip. Punish him. Don't keep squeezing harder and harder with your legs, and don't give a little squeeze, then a harder squeeze, then a thump with your leg then use a whip....that's all garbage. A horse's brain is just not that complicated - keep your process very, very simple. Use your leg CLEARLY and he must react IMMEDIATELY.

Make absolutely sure your signals to your horse are clear. Don't pull back on the reins when you want to go forwards. Don't pull both reins when you want to turn. If he doesn't respond to neck reining put one rein in each hand and consider a snaffle (no shanks, just a bit with rings). If you don't know how to ride 2 handed get lessons.

That also means that you have to be telling your horse more, what to do. If you are walking along the trail, steer over to one side a little, then to the other. Use leg AND rein. Get the horse in the frame of mind that you are in charge and he needs to be listening to you all the time. Don't let 'the trail ride the horse, you ride the horse'. Same with going home. You always ride on past the barn, then turn around and walk back, you pick a very slightly different route each time, a little over to this side of the trail, then over to that side, and never do anything twice in the same place. If you don't, most horses will start running back to the barn.

Also....a suggestion. Get some riding lessons, and stay off the trail til you are more in control of your horse.

 

[Briebomb241295]

I would start doing lots of ground work with her in a round pen. Working to gain her respect. Ground work solves a number of issues in riding and handling. Teaching her that she can't push/boss you around. Just a thought.