Kicking! How to deal with it.

[Pennyhp]

I have a mare who is at livery with me. She is rising 3 and about 15hh.
She is a bit gawky and pushy, not light to lead in hand and generaly lacks respect for people.
she has been rugged up all winter and lives out except for when we have had eceptional cold or storms.
She has never really liked her rug, but lateley she has been kicking out when you try to do up the leg straps.
It fits well, never moves when she is wearing it and there are no rubs on her or anythig.

I have left her rug off for the last few days as she has a good winter coat and she seems fine.
Her owners are young and are nervous of her, but have been making an efort to come up a few times a week to get her in and groom her.
But the other day she was getting a bit antzy when her owner was brushing her and swinging her bottom at her.
I went and held the mares head and she did it again, so I smacked her and she went to come back at me.
I squared up to her and she was fine.

The worrying thing is that every time she makes some progress - like standing nicely to be groomed - then she takes a backward step and starts throwing her weight around again.

How can she be taught respect?
I don't want to fight her on everything and I don't want to get hurt by her, but she needs to know that she can't get her own way all the time.
and especially that she cannot kick out at people.

I only have limited time to do stuff with her, and my contact is really just to get her in and out of the field to feed her or to bring her in overnight.

Any thoughts?

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

She's only young so needs to learn what is and isn't acceptable. I'd start with lots and lots of groundwork. Basic stuff like leading respectfully, staying out of your space unless invited, stepping backwards and forwards, yielding her front end and back end when asked. I'd build up to leading her round mazes made of poles on the ground, getting lateral movement from her etc. And it goes without saying that this should all start in the stable and absolute consistency in that she MUST step back whenever people enter her stable. And I'd always tie her up for grooming so that she never, ever learns to link being handled with walking away. It's all basic stuff and a good source of info and "how to do it" you can find in Kelly Marks, Richard Maxwell, Mark Rashid, Parelli books, dvds etc. I do think though that the owners need to be a part of this or you'll be wasting your time!

 

[PennyJ]

Could you not remove the leg straps and create a fillet string instead from one of the leg straps which is what I do. At least that would remove that source of confrontational behaviour (and make it safer for everyone). Otherwise firm and fair treatment so she knows exactly what she is expected to do. But will her owners be able to cope with all this or are they too scared of her already to be able to start again?

 

[Bedlam]

You squared up to her and she was fine.

I would also square up to her and she'd then be fine with me too I assume.

This seems to be an issue with her owners - not the horse.

 

[Pennyhp]

Thanks for the input.

I know the biggest problem is with her owners. For some reason they will not contemplate selling her, even though I have pointed out to both the girls and their parents just how much damage a big horse like this can inflict, even unwittingly.

They are sending her off to a trainer to be backed and got going under saddle in June and I have tried to stress just how green she will be when she returns and how dangerous it could be. I doubt that the girls will ride her anyway.

Right from the start I made it clear that the livery I was offering was what I outlined in the above post and that they would need to spend time training her and by that I mean just getting her used to day to day stuff. Move back, stand, move over. Groom her. Lead her in hand using voice comands. Really basic stuff.

The guy who is having her to train will at least have them over to discuss her progress and to let them know where she is at before she leaves him. I hope he has more luck in convincing them that she is not the horse for them.

Its a shame because she moves very nicely and is a nice horse most of the time. She has a lot of potential.

The fillet string idea is a very good one and if she needs to be rugged I will definately give it a try.

Anyway thanks again guys.

 

[PeterNatt]

Sounds like a recipe for disaster for all concerned. The horse is not being educated and disciplined correctly at an important stage in it's life. The owners and their parents must be made to be seen that they neither have the experience nor the bottle to handle a young horse of this temprement. What they clearly need is to trade it in for a more suitable horse. There are far too many inexperienced and nervous people who overestimate their abilities and buy a young horses or unsuitable horses and end up over-horsing themselves and sadly it is the horse that suffers.

There are to many people that buy a horse by apperaance rather than temprement

The owners end up loosing confidence and not riding the horse because they are terrified of it and everyone is the looser.

This horse needs handling and educating on a daily basis if it is not to go off the rails.

 

[Guinness]

We never put leg straps on our youngsters at work, I would suggest taking them off and just having a fillet string. I would also start some basic ground work with her, at three she might be ready for something to think about especially if she is getting full of herself. We have had a few at work like this and seems to work really well. Just do it through the summer then turn away again in winter.