PaddyMonty
Well-Known Member
With horses (or any animal) rules and consequences should be very back and white. Grey areas are very confusing and often result in further undesired behaviour. Horses do not have the ability to put things in to context so should be handled with 100% consistency. Then in lies the problem, humans are very poor at being consistent as they see degrees of compliance and accept it as the horse making the correct response and reward it. Reality is the horse will constantly test if the rules are still in place and escalate the behaviour if any opportunity is given.
I've just started working (last 2 weeks) with my daughters new horse. Really lovable character and not a bad bone in his body. As a result his manners are seriously lacking. For instance, I expect a horse to move back away from the stable door when I enter. He didn't do this initially but after a couple of times of being sent to the back of the stable rapidly (no beating involved) he then moved back respecting about a 3' space between me and him. Last night he only stepped back about 2'. Now a lot of people would read this as he is doing what he should and ignore or even praise him. Wrong, he is testing the boundries to see if he still needs to move back from my space. My reaction was to send him rapidly to the back of the box. He was perfectly happy with this and will probably not try again unless someone else allows him to ignore the rule.
When I started with him I discussed his issues with my daughter. She thought I was being too strict with him. She now acknowledges how relax and happy he is and that he is so easy to deal with.
Horses either want to be in charge or be subordinate (mostly subordinate). Moving rules confuse and upset them.
I've just started working (last 2 weeks) with my daughters new horse. Really lovable character and not a bad bone in his body. As a result his manners are seriously lacking. For instance, I expect a horse to move back away from the stable door when I enter. He didn't do this initially but after a couple of times of being sent to the back of the stable rapidly (no beating involved) he then moved back respecting about a 3' space between me and him. Last night he only stepped back about 2'. Now a lot of people would read this as he is doing what he should and ignore or even praise him. Wrong, he is testing the boundries to see if he still needs to move back from my space. My reaction was to send him rapidly to the back of the box. He was perfectly happy with this and will probably not try again unless someone else allows him to ignore the rule.
When I started with him I discussed his issues with my daughter. She thought I was being too strict with him. She now acknowledges how relax and happy he is and that he is so easy to deal with.
Horses either want to be in charge or be subordinate (mostly subordinate). Moving rules confuse and upset them.