Nasicus
Well-Known Member
My filly hits 1yo this sunday, and appears to have gotten some sassyness in her!
Usually docile and easy to do, but yesterday when leading her back to the field she was a bit of a witch! Putting her head down and shaking her head about, pawing, pulling, dancing around me, barging into me, trying to jog off. Very unusual for her, usually just plods along at my side on a loose leadrope. Occasionally gets a little bit silly but a growl or a reminder pull on the head collar gets her back in line. Usually use a rope halter but regularly use a normal, padded headcollar. Rope halter was because we had a planting issue coming away from the herd at first, but pressure and release and patience and she now happily comes to me and leads away from the herd.
She came out of season a few days, and had been in overnight due to slight lameness the night before (trotted up fine yesterday, farrier still came out and all okay), but this is nothing unusual for her. She comes in every other day for feed and thorough check over, and once a week comes in overnight. Other than that she lives out in a small, well settled mixed herd. She's been with me for 5 months, and been in this current set up for 4, so it's nothing new. Stable has plenty of toys (salt lick in a net, likit and the boredom buster, Jollyball on a rope), hay in a net and hay in a tub on the floor, and she gets a treatball filled with plain fibre nuggets when in overnight to keep her occupied.
It could just have been a one off, caught her in a bad mood maybe, but I was a bit blindsided by it, and I'm not happy with how I handled it. I yanked on the rope when she wasn't listening to my regular aids, and gave her a few flicks with a crop (dont normally have one, but she was really barging into me) when she was shoulder barging into me. When she was trying to pull me along, I pulling her head around and made her circle, waited until she stood nicely and then signaled to walk on the moment she stopped being an idiot. Rinse and repeat every few meters. We made it to the field, I did not let her barge through the gate and we did our usual routine, through gate, turned her to face me/the gate, took the head collar off, made her backup a step (this she did listen to) then rubbed her forehead and gave her a fibre nugget.
I don't know, maybe I did handle it okay, but it was so out of character for her, she wasn't even that bad when we first came to this yard and she had to stay in her box for two weeks (quarantine, bloods taken at end of two weeks and tested). We do plenty of ground work when she's in, back, over, whoah ect and she's very compliant and eager to please.
Maybe I'm just dwelling on this too much, and should just wait and see how she behaves when she next comes in from the field. I'm hoping she was just trying it on. Any advice or reassurance appreciated!
Thanks for reading this essay! Cookies to those who made it this far haha!
Usually docile and easy to do, but yesterday when leading her back to the field she was a bit of a witch! Putting her head down and shaking her head about, pawing, pulling, dancing around me, barging into me, trying to jog off. Very unusual for her, usually just plods along at my side on a loose leadrope. Occasionally gets a little bit silly but a growl or a reminder pull on the head collar gets her back in line. Usually use a rope halter but regularly use a normal, padded headcollar. Rope halter was because we had a planting issue coming away from the herd at first, but pressure and release and patience and she now happily comes to me and leads away from the herd.
She came out of season a few days, and had been in overnight due to slight lameness the night before (trotted up fine yesterday, farrier still came out and all okay), but this is nothing unusual for her. She comes in every other day for feed and thorough check over, and once a week comes in overnight. Other than that she lives out in a small, well settled mixed herd. She's been with me for 5 months, and been in this current set up for 4, so it's nothing new. Stable has plenty of toys (salt lick in a net, likit and the boredom buster, Jollyball on a rope), hay in a net and hay in a tub on the floor, and she gets a treatball filled with plain fibre nuggets when in overnight to keep her occupied.
It could just have been a one off, caught her in a bad mood maybe, but I was a bit blindsided by it, and I'm not happy with how I handled it. I yanked on the rope when she wasn't listening to my regular aids, and gave her a few flicks with a crop (dont normally have one, but she was really barging into me) when she was shoulder barging into me. When she was trying to pull me along, I pulling her head around and made her circle, waited until she stood nicely and then signaled to walk on the moment she stopped being an idiot. Rinse and repeat every few meters. We made it to the field, I did not let her barge through the gate and we did our usual routine, through gate, turned her to face me/the gate, took the head collar off, made her backup a step (this she did listen to) then rubbed her forehead and gave her a fibre nugget.
I don't know, maybe I did handle it okay, but it was so out of character for her, she wasn't even that bad when we first came to this yard and she had to stay in her box for two weeks (quarantine, bloods taken at end of two weeks and tested). We do plenty of ground work when she's in, back, over, whoah ect and she's very compliant and eager to please.
Maybe I'm just dwelling on this too much, and should just wait and see how she behaves when she next comes in from the field. I'm hoping she was just trying it on. Any advice or reassurance appreciated!

Thanks for reading this essay! Cookies to those who made it this far haha!