Advice please, where did I go wrong?

dwi

dwi

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I offered to help my friend bring her horse in tonight as she can be difficult to lead and I thought I could help with the gates. She was in a different field today and clearly didn't want to come in as she turned her bottom on her owner when she went to catch her. I offered to help as I am used to this sort of behaviour, took the lead rope and swished it at her. This got no response so I lightly flicked her with it and she galloped off like she'd been shot. Feel terrible now for traumatising my friend's horse. Any tips?
 
Move her, turn her round, generally demonstrate that turning your bottom on your owner as an evasion for being caught is not to be tolerated.

Works fine on D.

Not sure how else I would catch a horse that is standing with its head in the corner of the field and its bottom facing out.
 
I doubt she's been permanently traumatised. She was probably shocked someone wouldn't stand for her nonsense.
Or you traumatised her
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If my horse turned her bum on me, I would simply walk away.
Easy for me, she lives out and if she doesnt come in or messes about, she doesnt get tea, simple as that
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Not really sure what to say, but well done for offering to help.
What does your friend do normally if her horse does that?
Damn horses
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Doubt she is traumatised so don't worry overly about that! I would be more worried about the turning bottom bit, and main thing is to keep yourself and friend safe, which you did, rather effectively actually
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I would possibly resort to some feed if there were no others about to catch her next time, and then recommend friend does some groundwork with her, making her listen and move about to commands so mare starts to show a little more respect to humans. What works for your horse doesn't for others, especially if no-one has flicked a lead rope at her before.
 
Well done for helping (good buddy), and being assertive! I find these things can take time (having plenty of difficult to catch horses,in lots of ways...I must have picked them, doh!). I agree with above that some ground work would benefit your friend, but a lot of perseverance will come in handy. Never leave field without horse, sinks in (can take a bit of time but worth it) that there's no point in evasion tactics. I have also used leadrope etc but only when required. Horses for courses as they say, and they all need diff treatment I'm afraid.
Good luck, keep at it! You can be my buddy any time!
 
traumatized bollocks,she most probable wondering why the bottom turning didn't work as it usually does. Your friend needs taking in hand otherwise someone is going to get hurt and the mare labelled as dangerous.
 
You did the right thing. A horse needs to know that turning their bum on you is naughty. If you had walked away, she would have learnt 'that is what you do when you don't want to be caught'
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What about your friend learning how to do join up with her horse... making the horse to 'want' to be in her company? One of the girls at our yard does this with 3 of her horses. One of her unruley mares can take a while to submiss, but it works... eventually
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When her mare is behaving badly in the field being agressive and difficult to catch, she uses join up and chases her away, turns her back, and waits for the mare to start approaching her, chases her away, waits for her to approach her, etc... and continues the process for however long it takes, and as soon as the mare lowers her head and starts licking and chewing (this means apparently submissing and ready to join up) my friend will catch her and praise her for being good.
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I've never done it, nor understand it, I'm sure there's alot more to it, but just googled it and found this -
http://www.montyroberts.com/ju_about.html

xx
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[ QUOTE ]
traumatized bollocks,she most probable wondering why the bottom turning didn't work as it usually does. Your friend needs taking in hand otherwise someone is going to get hurt and the mare labelled as dangerous.

[/ QUOTE ]Spot on, couldnt have put it better!!
 
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