help please

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sarahuk

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i have recently bought a four year old mare, unbroken, but when she was loaded into lorry the friend i bought her from assured me she was fine having feet picked up by showing me, which was brill. 3 weeks on, she wont pick feet up, before the fireworks i managed to get hold of the front ones, now she wont do it atal and wants to stamp on my feet,and ideas? i plan to try to break her and train her myself,but if i cant do the feet im stuck.any thoughts would b great
 
Maybe you could ask your friend how the mare was taught in the first place.

Will you have someone to help you start this mare's education? I find it slightly alarming that you plan to break and train the mare yourself when you don't seem to know the basics of handling young horses. It's a very specialist art and young horses can be very challenging if they feel you are a little uncertain.
 
Hi Sorry to hear you are having trouble with your new pony. The first few weeks can be tough for both of you. Am no expert but I would say take it slowly. You will still be learning to trust each other and young horses can feel unbalanced and insecure when picking up thier feet. Start by touching her legs and not picking up the feet. Talk to her all the while you are doing it. My boy used to be a bit twitchy with his back legs so I just spent ages brushing them and telling him how good he was before actually picking them up. Someone standing at his head reassuring him also helped. Then progress to lifting them gently and praise even if he holds for a few seconds...build it up from there. Once you trust each other it will fall into place I am sure. Good luck.
 
yea thanks.shes 4 and a half,had her nearly 4 weeks now, no not doing it all myself, im planning to build up trust, get as far as i can and then get her broken and schooled professionaly.have done all the nessacary basics, i.e, shel be caught, groomed all over,comes to the gate and winnies at me.i started with a small stick running down her leg, then a body brush, then my hands.firsty she was good and i praised when foot was lifted off the floor, then we had the fireworks to deal with, and shes gone back to being stroppy again.i guess i should just start all of the process again from the beggining.
 
how are you suposed to learn if you dont throw yourself in the deepend sometimes and give it a try and if you fail then you do but atleast youve tried
 
have spoke to loads of people but most say get her trained in the basics and broken at same time but then it doesnt teach her to trust in me.horses in the wild get atacked from ther feet and so i know shes just protecting herself,she was doing good though then we had fireworks,theyve made some kind of difference im sure
 
Most young horses go through the taking the pee stage :rolleyes: if it's a new home they tend to push to see what they get away with.

At that age I would expect her to have been handled and had feet trimmed etc so pretty sure your mare is just testing you.

Only advice I can give is to keep asking her in the way you have been taught but be very firm and insist she does as is asked.

Are you sure you are asking her correctly?
 
Sarahuk - I didn't mean to be rude, I was only concerned for the pair of you - the trouble with young horses (particularly mares) is that they learn very quickly - whether it's the right thing or the wrong thing, they pick it up and teaching them anything different can be more of a challenge. What they self-teach themselves, sticks more in their brain than anything humans teach them. It's hard to teach something with confidence if you are unsure yourself.

I've had a number of horses sent to me over the years, where the owner has tried to do it themselves, and it's been way harder (and taken longer, so been more expensive for the owners) to get them right, having learnt bad habits which I had to overcome before progressing.

I'm sure you'll do the right thing by your girl and there are plenty of people on here to start with, who can give you good advice :)
 
well, shes not new as such,before i actually got her home id been visisting her for 8 weeks, as was trying to find grazing for her.at her yard before she was in the field, shed been handled for a few weeks then the owner had someones horse come in that had to b broken,so she got left.but before that shed had a bridle on and long reigned and evrything because she was going to be driven.any way ive got her now.i am consistantly rubbing her all over, im talking to her sweetly.then starting from the shoulder running my hand down very slowly and have tried lightly squeezing the chestnut,before she was picking them up brilliantly, and we wer getting ther but now were back to normal with the stamping.
 
Well I expect you'll be having her feet trimmed shortly. Your farrier will have her feet up in no time, and will be able to show you the knack.
 
It sounds to me that she has learned that by stamping you have to put the foot down.

Get a long halter rope and put that around her pasterns, Hold that with one hand and when you ask her to pick u the foot lean into her so her weight is on the other foot.
Hold onto her foot tightly and if she stamps it down use the rope to pull it back up.
Personally as she knows how to do it I would give her a hard slap with the flat of my hand on her belly to let he know it was unwarranted behaviour.

Stop finding excuses for her behaviour and get tough with her.

I agree that the more messed around with incorrectly by owners makes sorting out problems take longer when they come to us professionals to do the real work.
 
as some have said, some mares learn VERY quickly and can be quite business like. So, you have to be the same with her. You dont have to be heavy handed as some mares wont forgive that but you do need to be positive and assertive. Pick the foot up in a definate manner and if she snatches it from you, be firm and growl at her. then repeat until she learns. Reward her when she gets it right. Always repeat the process on both sides. Our new boy who is 11 came to us in april. He is well seasoned and knows whats expected but he did lack trust in the begining. Things that he wouldnt think twice about before suddenly worried him. But by being positive and calm and consistent he soon realised that just because I wasnt his normal 'person' didnt mean I was going to eat him or expect any less than the previous 'person' lol. hope that makes sense :)
 
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