At a total lost on what to do...

[TheBrokeHorse]

Hi,

So in January I bought my first horse (I always used to inherit other peoples horses or they were my moms) she is turning five in December and is an appaloosa cross Tb. When I first went to see her she was calm and curious and the second time I handled her with an injury she received on that day ,since she tried jumping the fence to get to other horses, she was quite calm and even got to see how she was in the stable where she would pull on my shirt for scratches and was well behaved. After a few days of having her, she is a monster, literally.

She takes any chances to bite me when it comes to food, even putting her grass down, and I have already been bitten twice, the second time is was really bad for me. She is very aggressive and pushy as well. After three months she hasn't improved and I have attempted clicker training but she gets bored of the tricks and prefers the basics. I believe if she was getting worked she would calm down more and be less hyped but due to reasons we are not able to take her to the riding school down the road and thus we are finding it difficult to work her especially in the garden with no arenas or paddocks and other horses who like to medal in our business with what we are doing.

My mom knows how to work young horses but she is unable to assist me as she is working full time and the weekends we always have something come up or the weather doesn't allow us to get anything done.

I am at a total loss at what to do. She has the ability to jump and do eventing but in these three months I have no gotten on her. I brought up the subject to my mother to sell her and I am maybe considering leasing her out as I do love her and don't want to lose her but I want whats best for her. I have no idea what to do.

Please no hate.

 

[texel]

Firstly welcome to the forum from reading your post your horse is displaying behaviours she has been taught by humans in the past and does not trust you yet and is probably confused and frightened. This unwanted behaviour can be rectified but it takes time and a lot of patience and the journey is very rewarding.

The first thing is really to spend time with her with the basics; leading her and teaching her that you have a personal space bubble and that she should not barge into it uninvited. This can be easier said than done . There are a few good videos available you can view so you can appreciate how to retrain your horse’s brain. For example to discourage biting a well timed and aimed squirt of water on the nose is a very good deterrent. Simple and effective. You just need to learn a few methods and tips and you need to know how to keep yourself safe and to read your horse's body language during the retraining process.

Have you had a chance to view any yourself? Let me know and I can send you a few links.

In the initial stages you don’t need arenas or indoor schools. You use what you have available. Do you know any horsey friends you can ask for help ?

 

[TheBrokeHorse]

Hi! Thank you!

I believe her previous owner who had her dam for many years didn't have a big interest in her and when she was two and her dam passed the owner begun to handle her more. Then the owner decided to get a new horse and she was ignored. She also likes to take her food bowl and put it on the other side of the stable away from us and likes to corner herself in the stable when eating as well. We think there might have been teasing with food or food taken away if she did something the people didn't like thus she is protective of her food. I have to say lately after she's eaten a few bites she seems to be calm down a bit but still weary of me and will let me handle her such as putting a fly mask on her, going into her stable to correct something such as her shavings.

I have looked up ideas on how to handle her aggressiveness but a lot of ways seem to use aggression and that is a big no no as she will try and go for me even more. I have tried some other ways but in some aspects she gets better (like when we top up their food for the night she can be quite calm with waiting for her carrots) and others she gets worse (like in the morning she has begun kicking the stable almost down while waiting for her food) and a few days later it switches 180 around leaving me confused and frustrated. I have learnt her body language for aggression quite a bit, fortunately.

Sadly no horsey friends as the horsey community around here is quite tense with each other and no one is a big fan of discipline rather then aggression.

Sorry if I said to much!

 

[Pearlsasinger]

Appoloosas are not easy horses, ime. We have had 3 and know plenty more, they all need consistency. Our first one was a nightmare for the first 6 weeks we had her until we moved yards. On paper, there was very little difference between them but she was much happier on the 2nd one.
Your problems seem to be related to food, what are you feeding her?

 

[ycbm]

Are you in the US. I ask because they often do things differently over there than we do?

How old are you, you sound quite young?

You mention giving her grass but not hay. What hay does she get?

How old is the horse?

finding it difficult to work her especially in the garden with no arenas or paddocks

Does this mean that the horse is neither ridden nor turned out?

 

[TheBrokeHorse]

I have handled other Appaloosas and had found them quite lovely but when they have been abused they can be a nightmare but we never saw any indication of it with her at her previous stable.

We feed a cup of riding meal, a quarter Vitaline pellets and a quarter cup of Equus cool n Preform 12% and a little bit of bran.

When I first got her the previous owner had given me a calming paste for the journey but it has made me wonder if she was also not on calming food or herbs or powder.

 

[TheBrokeHorse]

I am in South Africa.

I am 18 years old.

She gets Teff. That is her hay I guess.

She is four years old. Turning five in December.

We have a 2.5 ha garden where she is out during the day and at night she is stables.

 

[ycbm]

I love it that you call five acres a garden. We call that a small holding

It sounds like she's a case for a behaviour specialist, I'm afraid. But I'm guessing that you wouldn't have a big choice of those in S.A.?

Does she still have food left in the morning? The morning behaviour sounds like she's hungry.

She also sounds very like a horse I knew who had ulcers, so I would get your vet to scope her.

 

[TheBrokeHorse]

We always refer to it as our garden as all our pets are together XD and I refuse to live on any property smaller then that.

Nope do not, I think we have like three maybe around somewhere. Usually the natural horsemanship people enjoy calling themselves behavior specialists...

It depends some morning she has a little or a handful or none left. She calms down when we let her out. In the evening she is chilled when there is no food until we come top up as at the riding schools they only get their grass at the time they go in and that's it for them the rest of the night. People always say we spoil ours cause we make sure they have grass through the entire night.

 

[ester]

Why can you not ride her on the 5acres you have?

 

[TheBrokeHorse]

Why can you not ride her on the 5acres you have?

It's to uneven and down slope (we on a hill) so there is no area to cut off and our other horses two are used to other being ridden around them but my mom's OTTB isn't and she freaks which causes the others to freak. We have a paddock on our property but it's to risky if the horses they to break through. She is also quite spririted so she won't remain calm. We planning to lunge her this weekend with the others in the Stables out of view.

 

[Shay]

Where in SA are you? I used to ride with an SJ'er outside Wilderness who might be able to help? PM me if you are in that area.

 

[Theocat]

It sounds as though she's learned she can bully you.

You need your mum to commit to helping you with her - a short ground work session every day, ideally. You need to find ways to get her to the riding school - yes, things come up, but you just need to make time and stick to it.

With regard to feed - does she have access to forage all day? Makes sure she does, and that she doesn't run out overnight. Don't feed any treats or any thing by hand - always in a bucket and always at a set time as part of a strict routine. If she kicks the door, I'd walk away until she goes quiet, and repeat that until you can get right to the box without her kicking. Even better if you can increase the forage and give nothing in a bucket at all.

Make sure you aren't giving an inch - every single time you go in to the box, make sure she backs up and away from the door. When you're leading, she stops and starts the very second you do. Equally, pick your battles- plenty of horses are protective over their food and won't take kindly to bring fiddled with while they have a bucket, so if you do keep her on hard feed, leave her in peace while she eats it.

Do you have lessons?

 

[TheBrokeHorse]

It sounds as though she's learned she can bully you.

You need your mum to commit to helping you with her - a short ground work session every day, ideally. You need to find ways to get her to the riding school - yes, things come up, but you just need to make time and stick to it.

With regard to feed - does she have access to forage all day? Makes sure she does, and that she doesn't run out overnight. Don't feed any treats or any thing by hand - always in a bucket and always at a set time as part of a strict routine. If she kicks the door, I'd walk away until she goes quiet, and repeat that until you can get right to the box without her kicking. Even better if you can increase the forage and give nothing in a bucket at all.

Make sure you aren't giving an inch - every single time you go in to the box, make sure she backs up and away from the door. When you're leading, she stops and starts the very second you do. Equally, pick your battles- plenty of horses are protective over their food and won't take kindly to bring fiddled with while they have a bucket, so if you do keep her on hard feed, leave her in peace while she eats it.

Do you have lessons?

Our horses always have access to forage. If we walk away she goes even more berserk without a hint of calming down but calms down when we are in front of her. No I do not have lessons.