Has a naughty habit...

[LaurenBay]

Whats he like if theres another person around?

Could you tie him up, go round the corner. But send a friend out to get on with her jobs and be in eyesight of Horse but no attention given to him.

 

[PandorasJar]

This is exactly what I did...carried on as normal...doors banging etc- paid no heed to it. Initially there was snorting and prancing but he soon realised there was nothing to worry about.

He also got my daughter belting up and down the yard on a bright pink bike complete with handle-bar tassels and spoke beads.....

In fact...out of our 3 horses....he is now the most inquisitive and the one most likely to march up and see whats going on

Mine had a leadrope lobbed at her bum the other day, decided to buck head high and take off, so it was going to be thought of as me sending her off... first time she's ever been told off with more than just vocals, leadrope hit her bum, she turned round and picked it up thinking I'd just rewarded her with a fetch toy won't be doing that again!

Ooooh, that's a good idea, I've done with cars and tractors but not bikes yet She had my friends kid run into the field straight at her when she was jumpy and unhandled, I yelled at kid, kid ran into horse, horse looked up at me bemused

Pan

 

[Brightbay]

There is an alternative way to deal with it

There's absolutely no benefit to speculating why the horse is doing it (although if they're pooing a lot, it is likely to be anxiety). What is more important is to work out what's causing them to keep doing it (i.e. what's in it for them) and then use that to work out how to get them to do something else (i.e. what you would rather they were doing).

In this case, the horse does not want to be alone - unless trained to deal with being alone, horses default is to always have some form of company nearby. He has learned that you moving away is taking the companionship he wants away from him, and that rearing and leaping around brings you back.

You want him to stand quietly while you groom, tack up, untack and put tack away. Treat it as a training session - this is something you have to train your horse to do, the same way you have to train them to lead nicely away from other horses, have their legs hosed etc.

The thing your horse wants is for you to be nearby, within sight. You use this thing the horse wants as the reward in your training session. Plan to do regular training sessions until you have the behaviour you want. Start by moving away a little, and before your horse reacts, return and continue doing your grooming etc. Repeat a few times. Now move a little further away, again returning before the horse starts to move around or look anxious. It's important you don't - during the training - put the horse in a position where behaviour you don't want returns. Keep doing the moving away and returning, gradually extending the distance you can go while the horse will still stand relaxed. Eventually, you can go out of sight for a second and return, then build that up.

If you do it this way, you have not only got rid of the behaviour you don't like, but you have also trained your horse that, to get what they want, they need to relax - and this is a powerful lesson that carries through into everything you need to do with the horse At the end of your training, the horse has learned that -to get you to return, they need to relax and stand quietly... and this replaces the leaping around as their default behaviour. Much nicer, eh?