Agression issues

haejilnyeok

haejilnyeok

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Since being on lockdown I've started doing a bit of liberty and trick training with my gelding to keep ourselves occupied as my yard closed and forced us to turn the horses away to grass. He's very established with basic tricks we've done previously like smiling, giving kisses and lifting his legs on command but as we've started shifting towards liberty style work he's becoming quite aggressive when being asked to follow and now when asked to rear.

Has anyone experienced anything like this before? I was able to ask him to follow and rear without any aggression but the past few days he's been coming towards me with his ears pinned, leading up to today when he reared quicker than he's ever done from my cue
but jumped towards me as he was up and tried to chase me. I chased him away and waited for him to come back and asked him for some simple tricks to end the session on a good note. I'm fully aware of the dangers of teaching a horse to rear etc but I'm unsure why his behaviour has changed and how I can resolve it. He's a really smart horse and he picks things up super quickly so I'm really eager to find a solution as he was really enjoying learning new things before his aggression started. I don't know if it's something as simple as food agression or something deeper such as a lack of respect or something similar.

Any help is greatly appreciated :)
 
I'm not continuing with any tricks etc until I find a solution to the problem. But since it's a problem on the ground I think its essential I take a step back and continue to work with him before it manifests into a serious problem. I'm not fussed on the rearing. It's just a trick and if he never did it again I cant say either of us would be bothered but following me with the ears pinned is really annoying as I'd hate for this to happen when he's being led etc.
 
I know a lot of folk will disagree but every liberty horse video I have ever seen the horse has looked unhappy with body language that screams surpressed aggression. I have never done any kind of training my ponies all bar 1 just follow me about and get fussed and groomed they come and go as they please I will bark at them from time to time but not because they are aggresive to me but they will push each other around with me in the middle which is not on. The one that does get nasty if he doesnt get his own way was born aggresive so you have to keep a wether eye on him but even he will happily follow me about with the other when the mood takes him.
 
You have to be very careful training things like this. Asking for a rear is very advanced - if in fact really not a good idea at all. I know you see it in liberty shows and circuses but in real life teaching ahorse to rear is seldom a good idea. Even if ti was, the 5 weeks of lockdown is no where near long enough to teach him this safely. The first things has to be to create and control personal space and it sounds like you have skipped that step. You are putting yourself at risk - please stop!
 
I have no idea about liberty work sorry but he is clearly indicating to you that the balance of power is shifting, or he would like it to, and that really isn't a safe place to be with half a ton of horse loose in close proximity. At the very least he is interpreting what you are doing as desire to play and horses play rough! Put some traditional tack on and reestablish the traditional boundaries. You have probably confused him. Horses are working animals not performing monkeys IMHO. Treat him as such and you will have a better relationship.
 
Yikes. Bin the rearing and the tricks. Go back to basics - work on simple transiations, walk on, trot, halt, rein back, turn on the fore and moving the shoulder away - making sure you are always at his shoulder, maybe even use halter to start with. I think the "tricks" can blur the lines between training and how they would play/interact towards another horse in the field when they get a bit overzealous which can become dangerous. The more boring stuff where you are controlling speed and foot placement naturally establishes you as being in charge.
 
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