Attention seeking pony.

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littlen

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Does anyone have any advice for a pony that has learnt that bad behaviour= attention?

He is our project pony who was labelled as dangerous as the previous owners couldn't handle him at all. He isn't nasty in any way but was gelded late at 7 and previously lived with no equine company and as a result is very attached to people and loves to be fussed, he likes people more than horses which has created a few issues!

He mainly paws, scrapes and swings his quaters around when tying up. He also nods his head and tries to untie himself. If this dosent get him what he wants he will start to paw the walls with his front hooves, he loves to paw things!
In the stable he door kicks, in the trailer while waiting he stamps and does mini rears while waiting.

He is fine as long as he is getting attention or food, but if I leave him for a second he starts again. He also gets worse if horses come and go as he wants to go with them but if he is turned out he hangs around at the gate! He lives out most of the time and is stabled rarely although I would like to stable him at night sometimes once the kicking is sorted.

He is absoloutley not scared, but he did have previous owners that were scared of him and he learnt that doing his behaviour got him out of doing things. For example if he kicked off in the trailer he was immediately removed incase he ruined the trailer hence the problem is quite deeply engrained in him! He is not nasty either just desperate for attention, I think whenever he pawed or kicked he was removed or given attention (good or bad!) and he has learned this is a great way to get what he wants!

The problem is I am moving to a livery yard in spring as he is fantastic and would make a great competition pony and I'm worried that he is going to cause problems with other liveries or YO when he is doing this as it's very annoying! I also don't want my trailer ruined with his temper tantrum.

I've spent a long time egnoring him, which does work eventually although he has a lot of will power (more than me!) and the walls and concrete floors have taken a battering in the process. He also forgets this by the next day and it takes another few hours to repeat the process.
Shouting at him does not work at all, he stresses and starts to panic.

Like I said it's not the end of the world but very very annoying!

Anyone got any tips that may work?
 
you need to be consistent in ignoring him,you could line walls with rubber,out a bar across stable door and a rubber mat the doorway to-this will reduce noise he produces. also offer to rubber mat the tying area. Put a sign on his door for every one to ignore him and not to feed him under any circumstances. Or pop hobbles on him.
 
Time and consistent messages - I bought a homebred gelding which was nicknamed the " the dog pony" so I should ve known - he wants attention all the time -was hand fed and nipped - didn't like being on his own in field or stable etc but slowly I have increased his alone time and tie up times and he now just calls occasionally rather than rushing around and being upset. How long were you intending to keep him if he is a project as it does take time.
 
twiggy2 said:
you need to be consistent in ignoring him,you could line walls with rubber,out a bar across stable door and a rubber mat the doorway to-this will reduce noise he produces. also offer to rubber mat the tying area. Put a sign on his door for every one to ignore him and not to feed him under any circumstances. Or pop hobbles on him.
Click to expand...

This, i have a four year old who craves attention, i have had to line her walls with rubber matting and put one in her doorway also. She still has a paddy every so often and kicks the walls, but now theyre lined i can ignore it a lot easier than before.
 
I'd be trying a few hard slaps with the end of a lead rope just like their field mates woudl have done if given the chance, but would not do anything other than "growl" at him. And i'd try a rack chain to tie up [one with a quick release fastening].
Lots of hard work, treat like a slave not like a pet.
i'd try to stop giving him feed in a bucket but put on a clean floor under ad lib hay, put any feed in at different times and try not to let him anticipate a feeding time. it may not work!
 
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I'd say just keep ignoring him - hard but there's no other way really!! I have a now 3yr old home bred filly who is the biggest diva ever! She was cross when she was born because she was wet and to this day, if she gets rained on she has the biggest tantrum! I just ignore her! I've always made a conscious effort not to humanise her but she's just one of those horses that likes to know what everyone's up to (even my neighbours in the village say that she watches what they're doing - she's better than a guard dog!) If we have visitors and they come to see the pony or my other horse the filly bucks, rears, kicks out at the walls & squeals in her pen as she wants the fuss - we just let her get on with it & she is gradually learning that being stroppy gets her nowhere but I feel it may be a lifetime's work with her - she'd better blummin jump!!! :D
 
Just keep ignoring him, it's the only way!

If it really irritates you that much when he scrapes, whip his shoes off, much less annoying! ;)
 
My rising 5 yr old does this. He even paws when he's eating. Its so annoying. I moved to a new yard 2 months ago and he's on box rest so every time he saw me he'd kick the door. Ignoring him didn't work.

He's now going out for 3 hrs a day and was a **** for others to bring in. So he's now on boot camp, he paws I stamp the ground to stop him. He.usually backs up and stops doing it. But I'm being consistent, the yard manager is also doing the same. And within 4 days he's a different horse. So much nicer. I cant believe he's been a pain for 2 yrs and it's been so easy to stop him doing it

Sunday I was stood at his door chatting. He had his head out listening but doing kick it once. Normally he'd have been kicking it half to death
 
one thing would be to ignore him but stand his coronet band without making an issue of it when he does the pawing stamping bit. Dont speak just stamp on the foot that is on the floor. It may change his mind without stressing him as he wont realise it is a punishment but oh dear it happens every time he misbehaves
 
Taking away the noise can help as for some, the noise is reward in itself. Rubber everywhere or removing the opportunity for him to kick is the answer! My share horse kicks his stable door so we don't shut it! We just have a couple of slip rails across the opening. There's nothing to kick so he can't make a noise, problem solved! The noise was the 'reward' for him as he did it even when he had attention!

The only time we have to shut the stable door is when one of the other liveries' dog is there. For some reason he is fascinated by M, so stands and stares at him. M hates having his space invaded so pulls faces at the dog and the dog then barks - it's daft as they both do it as they're feeling threatened. If we shut the door M feels safe and ignores the dog (who still stands and stares at him!) so dog doesn't feel the need to bark back! He doesn't try to kick the door when the dog is there!

We have also put rubber on his stable walls as he kicks them, but that's a different issue due to an allergy causing itchy legs. He doesn't have it easy, bless him!
 
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