If there is one bad habit all owners should sort out...

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Sophstar

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...it's barging horses. Proven even more by my field shares horse this evening pretty much flattening me. Went to get my 2 out the field (open 1 gate for them to go across one field to the yard gate) and said horse who is incredibly rude shoved past my cob almost sending him flying and as i tried to shut the gate he barged straight through me sending me flying too. Even waving hands and a sharp slap on his chest he doesn't bat en eyelid. Once he's started nothing deters him. I learnt this by him barging through me, me landing flat on my back and him snapping all my fence posts and tape as he legged it into a fenced off paddock earlier in the winter. Then I had to get them through the yard gate. Managed to get cob through before he barged again and almost crushed me into the gate. Poor brat pony kept his distance and took some encouraging to get over to the gate!

Barginess is one thing I cannot stand and as shown tonight can be so dangerous. My 2 are incredibly polite and a fellow livery commented the other day on them standing waiting for me to open the gate for them despite it not being locked (open yard gate and they amble down to their stables). If i open the stable door they aren't allowed to budge an inch out the door until i take the lead and are made to go back if they are in the way of the door or i'm entering with hay or feed. This to me is standard management.

So please ppl, sort any barginess out!
 
How exactly do you think the owner can stop the horse barging you, when s/he isn't there?
My horses don't barge but I couldn't guarantee that they wouldn't if they found a soft touch in the gateway/doorway - except that they live at home and only the family deal with them.
I'm afraid that YOU will have to be more assertive with this horse.
 
Perhaps you should address your method of bringing horses in from the field before you lecture anyone about bargyness.:rolleyes:
 
Nonsense! ^

The horse should be taught to respect ANY human space. Simples.

Likewise OP, I teach my boy the same manners as you. I have came across and actually fallen out with someone :rolleyes: over how bargey and dam right rude her horse was, and they expected me to turn it out!
 
I can assure you i'm very assertive when attempting to stop a 16.1hh horse flattening me in the mud however unless i was a brick wall he is a tank!it doesn't matter if the owner is there or not, horses should have basic manners for all people. This horse has almost sent his owner flying too and he's considerably stronger than me. I was just suggesting all owners should have done groundwork to rule out bargy behaviour!
 
justabob said:
Perhaps you should address your method of bringing horses in from the field before you lecture anyone about bargyness.:rolleyes:
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Justabob - I did like your very sensible comments on a previous thread - but I have to agree with OP bargy horses are the absolute end.....I have three chestnuts - Ch 1&2 are miserable sods, but whilst they grind their collective teeth, and pull faces at me if I am all of 2 seconds late to attend to their needs - they move over from a 'look' are good to tie up, shoe, turn out, load et al (they are both ex racehorses.....) The one who will frequently run me over, is a horror with the farrier, will tow me out to the field, and has all but demolished two stables, if he thinks I am not getting to him quickly enough - he leans against his door, and well kepps on leaning to something gives.....is the IDXTB home grown (not by me) lovely - he has very few manners, and I have one or two black toes to prove the point. It has taken some time to bring him in to line, and not by being horrible to him, but firm but fair, I like to think!
 
Tbf though, whilst it doesn't sound exactly polite, trying to barge past another horse isn't rude imo. I also have one that will stand aside from the gate if a child says 'back' whilst they bring a pony through. But flapping arms & shouting she'd plant to prove a point. Much as I hate bad manners, if its realised its two field mates go in, & its wanting to get in too, I think I'd be looking at the management first, not its manners.
 
100% agree. The set up at the yard I'm at means that to get to any of the shelters you first had to get past the very rude TB who is not good at backing off and would block the gate and refuse to move. Owner only seems to understand force / aggression instead of teaching him properly. Other horse she owns is going the same way now too.
I'm not a fan of waving sticks at horses to make them behave but that seems to be all he understands:(
Can't blame the horse in my situation as he's only doing what he's been allowed to do.
 
All of ours are trained to stand and wait in the doorway, while halters are put on, not one of them ever steps forwards, until they are told to. However we paid someone to put them out a few days a week, one winter, every one of them was wandering round the yard on their own, as the paid person was not enforcing the rules. It really does depend on the person doing the job.
 
dressedkez said:
Justabob - I did like your very sensible comments on a previous thread - but I have to agree with OP bargy horses are the absolute end.....I have three chestnuts - Ch 1&2 are miserable sods, but whilst they grind their collective teeth, and pull faces at me if I am all of 2 seconds late to attend to their needs - they move over from a 'look' are good to tie up, shoe, turn out, load et al (they are both ex racehorses.....) The one who will frequently run me over, is a horror with the farrier, will tow me out to the field, and has all but demolished two stables, if he thinks I am not getting to him quickly enough - he leans against his door, and well kepps on leaning to something gives.....is the IDXTB home grown (not by me) lovely - he has very few manners, and I have one or two black toes to prove the point. It has taken some time to bring him in to line, and not by being horrible to him, but firm but fair, I like to think!
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Thank you for the first bit dressedkez, I always follow your posts with complete agreement too,:) As I have mostly had ex racehorses I perhaps should not have commented on a thread that was about their more *heavier* cousins.
 
Fully agree bargyness is a big no no, our TBxCB mare broke my OH's ribs not once but twice barging out her stable, she's now with my daughter and a different animal.
Our current mare, a rescued ex brood mare has no manners, but is learning, I won't tolerate a horse with no manners, our mare is learning if she doesn't barge to her feed bucket she doesn't get put in a headcollar and made to wait. She will be made to stand nicely to recieve her hay, if she doesn't drag you, she will be allowed to graze, ours are big horses and often handled by kids, so need manners, my lad has ears back, lowered head, but won't touch his feed till told he can
 
In all honesty, of all the bargey horses I've met, the vast majority did so for a reason other than just uncorrected bad manners. Ime its often one that is always brought in last when its hungry, or turned out later than others, basically at some point most have learnt its the only way to get their needs fufilled. I'm not saying they then don't practice that without good reason. But I find quite often horses with bad manners have reason to be so, & eliminating the cause vastly reduces it.
 
Littlelegs said:
In all honesty, of all the bargey horses I've met, the vast majority did so for a reason other than just uncorrected bad manners. Ime its often one that is always brought in last when its hungry, or turned out later than others, basically at some point most have learnt its the only way to get their needs fufilled. I'm not saying they then don't practice that without good reason. But I find quite often horses with bad manners have reason to be so, & eliminating the cause vastly reduces it.
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Agreed.

Also OP, perhaps if you brought your horses in where you didn't have to just throw the gates open and leave a horse out on it's own, it maybe wouldn't feel the need to barge?
 
he wasn't being left on his own...4 of them were left out!my field share usually has all his in before my 2 come in as i leave them out later so i don't usually have to battle with the barginess. As far as i've seen my 2 never flatten anyone just because another horse is being brought in. he had to leave his horses out for the night but the bargy one had other ideas!
 
Mine are all taught not to barge, and generally they don't, but the last couple of weeks they have been so fed up in the field and anxious to come in they have a job to stop themselves. I am aware and leave them space to run round me, which is the result of them knowing to respect my space. But maybe just at the moment it could be time to cut them a little slack?
 
Oh, I 100% agree. It's the worst thing, having a horse with limited manners.

We had a little Welsh cob, who was just horrific. My sister climbed in and out the stable rather than using the door. He was lead everywhere in either a bridle or chifney (depending on exactly how bargey he was that week!) and was truly the most difficult horse to handle. He knew that he was stronger than us, and used it against us all the time- he was barely 14hh, but he was a tank.

We tried exceptionally hard to retrain him, and he was generally a very sweet little pony. But he always wanted to be doing what he wanted- even in the chifney he would still plough off occasionally and take himself to the field. We tried very hard to to have to ask people to look after him other than us/ his owner (we loaned him) and he was only ever turned out with our own horses, so no one else had to deal with him.

It's so nice now, having 3 horses who are all well mannered. Bee may be a bit of a cow, but she's not bargey! Reg and Lily are the most mild-mannered horses around and wouldn't dream of barging anyone, and as a result they are an absolute pleasure to care for.
 
I can't stand bargy Horses either.

All Horses should be taught to respect peoples space. It doens't matter if it's not your Horse, it should still have some respect. I had a problem last year with a gate hogger, his owner let him walk all over him and it was hard to get my Horse in and out of the field. I didn't so much mind him barging my Horse because thats just the natural order of things, but when he started barging me, it wasn't on. One day he started barging me whilst I was leading Ruby. She paniced and ran through the gate and I fell over, he then tried to follow her and almost trampled me. I managed to get up and I gave him a smack around the chest and shoved him back. I was honest with his owner and told him he needs to stop letting his Horse walk all over him as it wasn't fair on the rest of us. There were 2 others out at the time, so it wasn't down to him being lonely.

I would be having a word with your field sharer, explain what happened and see if you can come up with a simple soloution.
 
Cortez said:
Carry a stick.
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Totally agree with Cortez! This could have resulted in a very nasty accident to the OP and her horse. Safety is the primary concern here, I would be mortified if I thought my horse was putting others at risk. Yes, horses can get upset if they are left alone (although this clearly wasn't the case here), and I have arranged in the past to bring other horses with mine but that isn't always possible.
 
Grrr don't get me started on bargy horses, quite had enough of one at our yard and the owner! Why should we have to faff about stopping other peoples horses barging around, getting us and our horses injured in the process, when the owner isn't taking necessary steps to sort the problem? :mad::confused:
 
Pearlsasinger said:
How exactly do you think the owner can stop the horse barging you, when s/he isn't there?
My horses don't barge but I couldn't guarantee that they wouldn't if they found a soft touch in the gateway/doorway - except that they live at home and only the family deal with them.
I'm afraid that YOU will have to be more assertive with this horse.
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This! Maybe said horse isn't bargey with its owner. Mine isn't, but I can guarantee she can sum up anyone in 2 seconds and do as she pleases. I think it works both ways, sometimes it is the owner's fault, but sometimes its people who just cannot handle horses correctly trying to get ones out past others. Haven't a clue which it is in this case, but there are always two sides.

Plus I have to agree with Justabob - if what you are saying is that you just open the gate and allow your horses to freely go into the other field without actually leading them, then to be quite frank you are just asking for the other horse to follow! There is no direction going on and how is he supposed to go "oh she wants those two, but not me"....
 
Orangehorse said:
Before I even read this I was thinking "bargy horses!" There is nothing worse.
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Ditto!! My mare was bargy when she arrived and it's taken a while to have her wait patiently knowing that the good things always come and she won't be left out etc. Agree with other comments that it's past experience of poor routine or feeding etc that makes them do it initially and when it works just keep right at it.

I was at a yard with a bargy 17hh chestnut boy who was very highly strung and not good for his owner either, but he was talented and she was broke. He wasn't the sort of chap you could bring in either as he reared and kicked out in hand. We used to dread when YO was away and this livery was late:(
 
This is a difficult one. My mare is the easiest horse to lead and handle UNLESS she thinks she is going to be left alone, and then she panics and tries her best to get out of the field the same time as the other horse. This is not bad manners, it is blind panic. If there is even one other horse left in the field she is her usual polite self. So I avoid this situation occurring with her and we have no problems, no barging, nothing. So I would say that it is not necessarily rudeness and bad manners that makes a horse barge in the situation the OP describes. All seven of the horses in my care are normally extremely well behaved, but nearly all of them have some situations that would test their manners. The key is knowing the horses well, understanding that they are a flight animal, and managing them in a way that everyone stays safe and calmness reigns. :)
 
Or the answer could be to train the horses from the beginning that they WILL have to cope being on their own (ours have to), they WILL respect the human (ours do), and they WON'T be allowed to be rude.
 
Can you not talk to the horses owner about this?

Also, just out of curiosity, do you know how he brings his lot in? The behaviour is veeeeery similar to what I've encountered with owners who just open the gates at let them all find their way in! So the horse may have just thought........MY TURN!
 
Cortez said:
Or the answer could be to train the horses from the beginning that they WILL have to cope being on their own (ours have to), they WILL respect the human (ours do), and they WON'T be allowed to be rude.
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I think that that MOST horses can be taught this, but some simply cannot cope on their own, and TBH I don't think that we should expect them to. If you need a horse to cope on its own, you avoid the ones that can't. My mare can come in by herself to an empty yard when all the others are out. She can hack out by herself, but I know she would practically kill herself if she were left alone in a field. In the yard and on a hack she has human company, but alone in the field she has nothing. TBF there is only one horse on this yard that I know would be happy and content out of site of other horses or people. Most of the others would fret and call.One would fence walk, the other two would go beserk, galloping and calling.
 
Yes, I also can't stand bargy horses but also agree that in certain situations, some horses do forget their manners.

Mine is very polite but I don't trust her not to barge me or anyone else if something scared her... she is after all a herd animal with extremely strong flight response... a horses' instinct is ACT FIRST, LOOK LATER.

You cannot programme that out of them.

Which is why we have to make the best out of situations for them... sadly muddy gates and hungry horses (plural) are not conducive to perfect manners :)
 
I think in winter, when bringing in horses are too focused on getting their dinner to be bothered about anything else, its a natural behaviour that in some situations is going to bubble to the top whether you like it or not. Bargiest horse gets the first access to food, simples.

My sisters horse is one of the worst for barging I've ever known, when he went to college with her he had to had someone leading him on a chain from either side, he was that pushy. We have now owned him 18 years, and he will still barge the stable door open and rush out if given an inch. I don't think any amount of ground work, whips, piping, beatings (!) etc would make a blind bit of difference, as all but the last have been done repeatedly and he just has never learnt. All ours others are complete angels really, not bargy at all, very polite, so its not something we've done/not done - its just his personality. And yes, he's the one horse in the field I will avoid like the plague if he's cantering, its likely he'll flatten me! :eek: :D
 
I could not agree more. A well mannered, disciplined , trained horse will not barge, rear, kick or bite or leap about when handled competently under any circumstances. They may get a but anxious and march on or be fizzy but there is a line they should not cross. Point in case tonight bringing in horses in sideways sleet and gales. All the horses were desperate to get to yard as quick as poss but there were only a predictable couple that were actually difficult bordering on dangerous. They were the ones who are bargy on a good day!
 
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