Help with a boisterous 2 year old

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PennyBlack5

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Hi all
I'm after some tips / advice if possible please.
My 2 yr old is great in many ways - she brave with tarpaulin flapping, horses coming / going from yard etc
What I'm struggling with is handling her to / from the field. She's fine on the yard but going any kind of distance, walking past other horses & back out to get friends just blows her mind. She starts jogging, then you see these beautiful elevated paces - that's when my heart sink & I wait for it to hit the fan ! She will start to spin etc which in a big open space wouldn't be so bad but it's on a farm with electric fencing & barbed wire on route. I'm constantly trying to contain her so she doesn't get injured but I'm not as relaxed because it's a confined space & so I'm more tense which makes it worse.
I've got a dually head collar which helps a bit but she'll ignore it if that worked up.
I've tried giving s good tug on it & shouting no every time but that just stresses her out more & I don't want to damage her trust as I can see she gets scared if I get really stressed out & cross (I only shout I don't ever hit her)
She's a pushy girl anyway & we constantly have discussions about her being in people space & I have to move her back.

I'm not looking for an ear bashing just some help or advice from people who have been there & done it previously.
Ps I don't have access to a school only a field or yard to play in.
Thanks in advance
 
If you aren't confident in this situation then I would strongly suggest you get some help on the ground pronto.
In this type of situation I wouldn't be averse to one if the intelligent horsemanship people come and give you a few groundwork lessons.
 
She's approx 15hh. Welsh x TB x Appaloosa
I'm not scared of her I just worry about her safety when she's being silly & there are barbed wire fences on the way to her field. It frightens the life out of me that she will land on one because the tracks are quite narrow
 
I had a RI out to help me with my youngster, it took 3 sessions and I never had a problem again. Don't think it means you can not cope, or that you are not experienced. You have just hit a problem you need help with. Good leading and ground work will help with backing.
Good luck.
 
I'm not sure how much help I can be as LL was always quite sensible as a youngster, like she was old before her time... :p
I did find that certain little body language movements would help if she started getting excitable: I would walk at her shoulder and if she attempted to speed up, I would immediately slow my pace down, eyes and head to the floor, shoulder turned slightly in to her, rope with contact but not pulling and she would be distracted by this and look to see what was wrong. When she slowed and turned to me, I'd lift my head, turn my shoulders forward, meet her eyes and talk to her and then continue at the pace I wanted. Sometimes it took a while to get up the field with the stop-start pace but she eventually learned that if she behaved and went at my pace to start off with, she got there quicker overall ;)
I started subconciously teaching her hand signals and physical signals as soon as I got her - so "Back" was accompanied by a nudge in her chest with my hand AND a finger point at her chest. It was a bit confusing for her at first but paid off in the long run; when she's in front of me she gets the finger point to move back and when I'm leading her a simple nudge in the chest with my knuckles will slow her down. SS isn't quite as responsive to hand signals as she's a lot naughtier but they work on her too. It gives you room to be a lot quieter round them on a day-to-day basis so if/when you do raise your voice, it has more of an impact.
I will admit though that mine do get slapped every now and then, but that is reserved for serious misbehaviour such as attempting to bite me (they'll never kick) or each other while I'm leading both of them. At the end of the day, they are a lot stronger than I am so that kind of behaviour is zero-tolerance. But I only have to do it once per incident.
I'm afraid the biggest obstacle I've noted with most youngsters is that you have to keep repeating yourself until it sinks in. Their attention span can be your biggest enemy, coupled with the fact that a lot of them find learning quite tiring mentally and once they have tired, they just stop trying. I struggled with this a lot with LL when teaching her to lunge. She always put the effort in to try and do everything right but tired herself out doing so within 10/15 minutes and then became difficult. Then when she became really tired, the temper tantrums would start. I learnedvto gauge how long I had and finish on a good note.
I would say try a few methods to engage her while you're leading... Try to keep her interested in you rather than her surroundings; talk to her, pat her neck, click your fingers under her neck, anything you can think of until you find something that works and build on it. If she's focusing on you, she's more likely to stay at your pace.
Also maybe think about teaching her something like leading over poles, small obstacle courses ( going round barrels and through paths made between poles) and find something that challenges her mentally but that is suitable for her body strength (lunging may be a bit too much depending on how she's grown, but if her build is up to it, go ahead and start trying) and the stimulation may make her calmer generally :) x
 
I would do less handling not more if possible turn away in a group and do minimal handling for care only until you send for starting next year .
I would also send a horse like this away for starting a strange place makes them easier.
 
Get in touch with intelligent horsemanship and if possible get one of their RAs to come out. You need to learn how to use the dually properly.
 
My section D was boisterous when I used to take him out into the feild. First thing I would say is dont get worked up yourself, It will make the pony worse! Second thing that I used to do is if he charged through the gates like a raging bull then I would drag him back out and make him stand. I would have to do this about 5 times at the begining as he was an absolute pig!! Now he knows he has to be calm when he goes to the feild. Also, another quick fix that I found..... I used to put him out in the arena first and let of some steam before putting him out.

Hope you get it all sorted
 
I'm another who would suggest turning her out and leaving her for a while with minimal handling. She is still only a baby and doesn't need regular handling. My now rising 4 year old wasn't brought out of he field she was born in until she was 3 she is a big sport horse filly and as well mannered as you can get. I honestly feel too much handling makes for a much bolshier horse.
 
I have brought in a NH practiciner for my 4yr old cob who has started throwing temper tantrums, money well spent, he is at the nibbling stage, it was suggested a nicely timed shaking of a bottle with stones in helps stop this behaviour, it does with the verbal command of a firm NO, my baby has an old head on young shoulders, but he still needs to process what he learns, so it's little and often with him, a lot of long reining with a leader giving him confidence, he will just get the basics over winter, standing, feet picked up etc and he is rideable, but I can tell when he gets tired, so I would rather bring him on slowly, I wouldn't expect my 4yr old grandson to do a days work, even though he enjoys poo picking, throwing straw about a stable etc, another easy winter can only benefit my baby cob and I'm in no hurry
 
I have a four year old with the same breeding. She was unhandled until she was three, then herded onto a lorry and taken for breaking, within 8 weeks. I bought her at the end of that process and would not recomend it! A year on and I have not yet rebacked her. I have taught her ground manners and got over a foot issue which we had when she was injured. I have found with mine that the handler must lower their energy. She is eager to please and enjoys praise. She has responded well to clicker training. When teaching her to lead well, I used an old fashioned rope halter, lead from both sides alternatively, stopped her and rewarded her for stopping. One of the main things we did was deal with her in the stable, untied, so that when she co-operated it was from choice, not compulsion. She is a pleasure to lead now, and Sis who has a broken foot turned her out this morning, with the mare going at sisters (slow) pace.
 
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