Baby horse had a strop... Did I do right?

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Gypley

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Bathed baby horse (2 1/2) this afternoon and my friend was poo picking one of the fields (no horses in there at the time) so I thought I'd stroll baby horse over there and let him dry in the sun whilst chatting to friend.
Baby horse was happily munching the grass when all of a sudden he jumped and span round kicking and flailing his legs all over the show. I tried to settle him by being firm but fair and he turned to face me and started scooping/ kicking his from legs towards me. At this point I got cross and told him off and tugged on his headcollar twice. He took great discust at the fact he had been told off, whipped the lead rope from my hand and charged off bucking and farting around the field. He eventually stopped at the gate and I went and retrieved naught baby horse.
I checked him for cuts, bites or stings, or anything that may have caused a tantrum but couldn't see anything.
I didn't want him to think he had 'won' by taking him straight back onto the yard so I walked him back over to friend. En route he turned to scoop me again and I'd had enough! It was downright rude! We about turned and I took him straight into the school, where we did join up to reinstate my position as 'boss' . Did I do the right thing? And is this to be expected from a horse of his age? I'm learning on the job here as I've never had a youngster, but I will NOT be intimidated by my own horse.
And constructive criticism greatly received :)
 
Not sure what you men by scooping either but IMO you did the right thing by restablishing your boundaries.
 
You took a young horse into a field, where he is normally allowed to have his free time. He wondered what you were doing, had abit of a woo 'mum whatcha doing usually you've let me off by now what's going on', you reprimanded him, he asked you why?! You let him go, caught him again and he once again asked you 'why am I stood in my field on a lead rope?' So you made him run round in circles in a school, he probably wasnt sure why either....

I think your better outling his parameters and boundaries without all the join up, head collar yanking ect.

I don't blame him for his reactions, he is two, imo he wasn't testing you he was just asking you questions?
Try more constructive ground work, but that's my opinion.
 
He's used to being out there on his own. We do a lot of desensitising out there and I've dried him off out there numerous times before. I didn't think twice about taking him out there for a munch. But thank you for your opinion. It may well have just been yeehaa! But aggression towards me, in my book is unacceptable
 
Buds_mum said:
You took a young horse into a field, where he is normally allowed to have his free time. He wondered what you were doing, had abit of a woo 'mum whatcha doing usually you've let me off by now what's going on', you reprimanded him, he asked you why?! You let him go, caught him again and he once again asked you 'why am I stood in my field on a lead rope?' So you made him run round in circles in a school, he probably wasnt sure why either....

I think your better outling his parameters and boundaries without all the join up, head collar yanking ect.

I don't blame him for his reactions, he is two, imo he wasn't testing you he was just asking you questions?
Try more constructive ground work, but that's my opinion.
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Out of interest how would you 'outline his parameters and boundaries'? Whether it was a field he normally plays in or not he was on the lead rope and needs to understand that being on a lead rope means he can't play so how would you make him understand this? He has to learn because what happens if he needs to be caught and held in the field for any reason? vet/farrier etc
 
Hmm interesting, as amymay said why was in that situation? However op says that he often does this.
So therefore I would of effectively ignored his woopee moment, perhaps given him a growl, a pat when he stood still and gone on chatting when he calmed. Yanking on his headcollar meant she picked a fight with something bigger than herself with only a strap on his nose to control him therefore (in hindsight it achieved nothing).
I never work horses in their turnout fields, I am lucky I don't have to and this is my prerogative.
I don't do 'join up' or any of that with my horses, its bull hockey imo ;)

I would continually outline his boundaries. With general handling and keeping him in line with his manners but it wouldn't involve head collar yanking as imo it doesn't do much.

HOWEVER op has her methods, we are all different, her horse is obviously well handled ect he stands to be bathed ect.
 
I don't think it's unreasonable to ask any horse, regardless of age, to stand in a field.

Obviously some may need to be 'taught' how to behave appropriately in that situation but it's not really a lot to ask.
 
Two and a half isn't that much of a baby, depending on how much training he's had.
I agree you/I/we should be careful to put youngsters in situations where the chances of it going wrong are minimum, but you can't always get that right hard as you might try.
Yes, he needed to know that sort of behaviour isn't on, how you/I/we explain that depends on us, our way of doing things, and the horse.
I'm not sure about join up, but if it worked for you then good.
 
striking out like that in a baby isn't aggression-more like a prelude to play behaviour. A bit 'cheeky' maybe but normal behaviour, not aggression. Stamping your foot back at him will sort that out.
 
The yanking on the headcollar I would , in hindsight have never done. It was a spur of the moment thing that I wouldn't normally have done.
My personal thoughts are that anywhere I walk, with him on the other end of the lead rope , I expect him to be reasonably sensible and act with respect towards me. Wether we are walking through his field, standing for the farrier or strolling down the road.
I do expect on occasion for him to test me, which I feel I dealt with in my own way, that works for me.
But I won't deliberately avoid a situation (within reason) just because he's a baby. And I felt that strolling into a field to quietly dry off was not too much of a big ask considering he had done it on numerous times.
 
I think what you did in this situation was fine.

I have a big 2yo - ive yanked his head collar when his been a toad and not listening to me. His to big not to respect me and when I'm leading him he needs to know I'm the boss.
Join up again is fine IMO - its something I would do.

He needs to know that field or open space if his on a lead rope your in control and he requires manners. What if you want to go to a show that's on a grass show ground - he can't piss off then just because he feels like it. Playtime is off the lead rope IMO.
 
teabiscuit said:
Striking out with front feet is pretty dangerous if you're on the receiving end.
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depends on how it was done-having been on the receiving end from a 5yo entire TB who wanted to hurt me-well, yes, it was and it was bloody fast. From the 2yo colts I've had that who did it, no it wasn't aggression in that sense, and it was stamped out (sorry!) very quickly without confrontation.
 
Scooping as you have described it, "pawing with his front foot", does not sound as though he was "striking out" - it sounds like he was bored. He had stood for a bath, which was good enough I think for a horse of that age (you don't say how big he is, but I know when my big boy was this age last year that was all I could have expected out of him). To ask him to then stand in a field as well, was probably just too much for him baby brain wise.

At least you didn't beat him, but I am not sure what he will have learned by having a session of "join up" in the school. Try not to put him into situations whereby he can fail again, ie don't expect him to stand around, especially as it was so freakin hot today, beyond his boredom threshold. You don't want him to associate having a bath as a precursor to long periods of boredom and a negative ending?
 
3Beasties said:
I don't think it's unreasonable to ask any horse, regardless of age, to stand in a field.

Obviously some may need to be 'taught' how to behave appropriately in that situation but it's not really a lot to ask.
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Agree with this.

Actually cannot believe that some people think leading a 2yro into a field and not immediately letting it go, somehow makes it ok for the horse to strike out at you with legs going everywhere?

OP, you were much more polite to your horse that I would have been in the same situation if a youngster had struck out at me and then pi$$ed off when reprimanded.

However, I wouldn't have done join up to make my point clear, just some simple in hand work so he realises I am not another horse to play with or intimidate and if I want us to stand or I want us to walk somewhere we will do so with no fuss, no anger and no tantrums.
 
millitiger said:
Actually cannot believe that some people think leading a 2yro into a field and not immediately letting it go, somehow makes it ok for the horse to strike out at you with legs going everywhere?

OP, you were much more polite to your horse that I would have been in the same situation if a youngster had struck out at me and then pi$$ed off when reprimanded.
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Ditto! It wasn't even as if he was being asked to stand still doing nothing, he was allowed to graze whilst stood there!!
 
maybe it needs clarifying then as in a second post OP said horse was "pawing" the ground, that to me doesn't sound like striking out at her. If the horse was, then yes, he would have got told off by me. But I still think when dealing with babies, it is our responsibility to not get them to that stage in the first place. I think a bath was enough, although we also don't know if baby has done much before or not.

Could have been got by a flat fly too, they are hideous beasts and even the best behaved horse would find it hard to behave after having one of those on them.
 
It's difficult to always get it right (God knows we have had an almighty big baby problem today) and sometimes we make the wrong decision on the spur of the moment, but if my two year old struck at me we'd be having words for sure. You did what you thought was appropriate at the time, your horse probably isn't going to hold anything against you, and if you take him out there tomorrow to do the same you'll be prepared and may react the same, or differently. I try to set situations up so my two and four year olds can get things right and be praised for it, but it's not always that simple.
 
HBM1 said:
maybe it needs clarifying then as in a second post OP said horse was "pawing" the ground, that to me doesn't sound like striking out at her. If the horse was, then yes, he would have got told off by me. But I still think when dealing with babies, it is our responsibility to not get them to that stage in the first place. I think a bath was enough, although we also don't know if baby has done much before or not.

Could have been got by a flat fly too, they are hideous beasts and even the best behaved horse would find it hard to behave after having one of those on them.
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She also said he was jumping around with legs going everywhere- I class that as unacceptable behaviour when in hand.
I also cannot abide horses pawing the floor so I wouldn't have hesitated to give his headcollar a shake to say 'hey, enough' and would not expect the the horse to then gallop off!

I personally don't think a bath and then walking to a field is too much to ask a 2yro horse but even if it was, when you are already in the situation you cannot allow him to dictate what you do or when you do it.
 
3Beasties said:
Ditto! It wasn't even as if he was being asked to stand still doing nothing, he was allowed to graze whilst stood there!!
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Exactly. His not a foal nor a yearling his nearly 3yo. He obv has manners and today needed reminding. There are loads threads on here about leading babies on the road ect - so why that's expectable and not grazing in hand is beyond me.
 
I'll just clarify , I did in fact mean striking out with his front legs. Not pawing or 'scooping' as I (now inwardly cringing) described it. I couldn't think of the word at the time, sorry guys ! .... Replace scooping with striking :/
 
others might think i'm mad as a box of frogs but if it were me I would have gone over caught him, praised him by giving him a scratch on his forehead and let him loose. Purely because letting me get back hold of him would be the right thing for him to do in my mind and his, he would have recognised the scratch and praise for the actual moment it happened i.e. when he let me catch him again
 
i dont think asking a horse of 2.5 to stand in a field still!? mine does.....and she was the naughtiest thing on 4 legs.... :o

but i would lay of dodgy situations until its safer/your pony is better trained... ive done a lot of groundwork with mine leading upto doing that (standing in a field).....when i ask her to leave her piece of grass and walk on - she will - before i did the training she would kick off and buck (like yours)!

:)
 
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