natrual horsemanship!

liberty and tommy

liberty and tommy

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hi all, just looking for some advice. at my yard we have a 15.1 bay mare (unknown breed) who has basicly been given up on. I am one of the only people who stilll has faith in her! When taken in the school shes great for people she doesn't know... when she does know you she tries to get you off! this mostly envolves doing handstands!! I then tried to lunge her where she spent a good 20 minutes galloping and bucking around then when shes worn out she won't do anything else! I however have been able to get her in the school to do some trick training just in a head collar where she was great! I was hoping that doing natrual horsemanship ect. would get her mind working and eventually be able to bring her into work! although alot of it has to be done in the field as i have to cross through another horses field to get her out!
any help please?!
please no hate! shes a naughty mare and has been since we got her i havent changed her in a bad way in the slightest :)
 
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I have only very lightly dabbled with natural horsemanship with two different horses, the only thing I can offer is that every horse responds differently, the first responded very well and through an hours session under instruction he was doing all sorts of things and was hugely responsive to the technique, however the other horse who had an hours session under instruction spent the entire hour trying the same things as the first with no success, she just didn't respond and stood completely still unless asked to walk on, using the new technique meant nothing to her, I had taught both to walk on and stand ect yet one understood the natural horsemanship and the other just did not get it.

From the little experience I have had though I would reccomend giving it a go with her, she will probably respond better if traditional methods are failing, the only difference between my two was that one responded well to lunging and the other had a complete break down when learning to lunge and would charge at whoever was trying to lunge him, the charger responded to natural horsemanship, the one who completely settled into lunging really didn't understand natural horsemanship...
 
oh how funny! she really does enjoy it you can see her mind working, its just went you put the bit in her mouth she has a little breakdown! shes broken and everything but has just been dumped in a field! :( hope i get somewhere with her x
 
wench said:
Sounds like a vet should be the first port of call
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This ^^^^

And then, as there are a lot of "natural horse" people out there with absolutely no training except they have been to a demo, find someone with credentials. This is a good starting place as the people on this list have attained a certain level and keep heir skills up dated http://www.intelligenthorsemanship.co.uk/specialist-horse-training.html
Good luck - you will learn a lot and become a better horse person yourself in the process. Those of us who have dealt with a so-called problem horse call them teachers, they force you to learn so much.
 
I am assuming you are going to work with an instructor of some kind. I would also go to an IH associate if I was looking but there other good trainers out there too but you need to find them!!

Your terminology concerns me slightly too - the horse is not 'naughty' she is a horse that is either in pain or seriously does not understand boundaries, not her fault, handler / previous handlers usually to blame.

The fact that she blasted around on the lunge tells me she does not have confidence in her handler, this is where I would start.

What do you mean by trick training? What are you trying to teach her? I would be wary of teaching tricks before the fundamentals are solid
 
The first port of call with behaviour like this should be the vet just in case the horse is in pain .
That aside the horse just sounds like it's had not good training , so you need to find someone to train you how to retrain the horse .
As long as the person has a good record of working successfully with badly started horses it matters not a jot what handle they hang their hat on .
 
I surprised the owner has given you permission to be doing things with the horse if I'm honest as you don't sound very experienced to be dealing with this sort of thing. I agree with the above, vet to rule out pain to start with would be a good idea, and then getting help on the ground from an experienced person or instructor, to show you what direction you should be heading.
 
If she does handstands when ridden, perhaps its best to have a vet out before putting another rider on top. Galloping and bucking solid for 20 minutes on a lunge is not normal. Sounds like a rodeo. Is she actually broken in properly? Could be she's in chronic pain. Natural horsemanship would be the last thing on my mind. Good luck
 
I've no idea ester. No riding school I've ever known would be letting inexperienced people/customers take it upon themselves to decide training regimes for the horses though, even with advice from hho ;) If it's a riding school I'd hope there was someone experienced there to take charge.
 
Ah, whereas as a teenager helper in the past I have been given pretty much free rein to try and work with a couple of difficults and it would have been a little bit learn as you go!
 
Sounds like an accident waiting to happen then if that's the case here. I hope everyone and the horse is insured, lol.
 
Capriole said:
Sounds like an accident waiting to happen then if that's the case here. I hope everyone and the horse is insured, lol.
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oh shes not that bad!! (shes not insured that i know off) she always calms down in the school after a few gallops and does handstands when she gets ridden by certain people (never done it with me) defiantly think she needs a new saddle!
 
Wheels said:
I am assuming you are going to work with an instructor of some kind. I would also go to an IH associate if I was looking but there other good trainers out there too but you need to find them!!

Your terminology concerns me slightly too - the horse is not 'naughty' she is a horse that is either in pain or seriously does not understand boundaries, not her fault, handler / previous handlers usually to blame.

The fact that she blasted around on the lunge tells me she does not have confidence in her handler, this is where I would start.

What do you mean by trick training? What are you trying to teach her? I would be wary of teaching tricks before the fundamentals are solid
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I do feel as if she is very nervous when entering the school! But she can do things out of plain naughtyness. as ive started playing around with her in the field shes got a lot calmer in the school when being lunged. ive taught her things like smile which she really enjoys, she defiantly trusts me she always gallops to me neighing and lets me do whatever near her. I believe she has been mistreted in the past and is in self defence mode constantly when she feels at risk
 
Goldenstar said:
The first port of call with behaviour like this should be the vet just in case the horse is in pain .
That aside the horse just sounds like it's had not good training , so you need to find someone to train you how to retrain the horse .
As long as the person has a good record of working successfully with badly started horses it matters not a jot what handle they hang their hat on .
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i honstley believe its her tack, shes fine with me in the field its just when you get the bit in she goes a little nuts!
 
Capriole said:
I surprised the owner has given you permission to be doing things with the horse if I'm honest as you don't sound very experienced to be dealing with this sort of thing. I agree with the above, vet to rule out pain to start with would be a good idea, and then getting help on the ground from an experienced person or instructor, to show you what direction you should be heading.
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we all handle the horses responibly at our yard. shes just a missunderstood mare - she hasnt had proper training so im just tryingto keep her mind ticking over and shes really enjoying it!!
 
exracehorse said:
If she does handstands when ridden, perhaps its best to have a vet out before putting another rider on top. Galloping and bucking solid for 20 minutes on a lunge is not normal. Sounds like a rodeo. Is she actually broken in properly? Could be she's in chronic pain. Natural horsemanship would be the last thing on my mind. Good luck
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she really enjoys it with me! I'm certainly not getting on her until we've got her checked out. she does have brakes in between, but if lunging is something new to her and she hasn't done much of anything except for eatting grass for the last year it doesnt surprise me
 
Mmm, OP, my advice to you is to stick with your own horse - and let the owner of this horse attempt (or not) to sort out any issues with theirs that they wish to.
 
liberty and tommy said:
I do feel as if she is very nervous when entering the school! But she can do things out of plain naughtyness. as ive started playing around with her in the field shes got a lot calmer in the school when being lunged. ive taught her things like smile which she really enjoys, she defiantly trusts me she always gallops to me neighing and lets me do whatever near her. I believe she has been mistreted in the past and is in self defence mode constantly when she feels at risk
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liberty and tommy said:
we all handle the horses responibly at our yard. shes just a missunderstood mare - she hasnt had proper training so im just tryingto keep her mind ticking over and shes really enjoying it!!
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First she is 'naughty' now she is 'misunderstood'. Horses are not 'naughty', that isn't how they think. She has a problem and the sooner people stop messing around with her trying to be clever and spend some time finding out what it is the poor animal will continue to act in ways that are undesirable to you but, in fact, are her shouting for help.
 
Capriole said:
I've no idea ester. No riding school I've ever known would be letting inexperienced people/customers take it upon themselves to decide training regimes for the horses though, even with advice from hho ;) If it's a riding school I'd hope there was someone experienced there to take charge.
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this is not a riding school!
 
Ladyinred said:
First she is 'naughty' now she is 'misunderstood'. Horses are not 'naughty', that isn't how they think. She has a problem and the sooner people stop messing around with her trying to be clever and spend some time finding out what it is the poor animal will continue to act in ways that are undesirable to you but, in fact, are her shouting for help.
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okay:)
 
So you all share her but you and another lady own her..

Who is responsible for the ill fitting tack?

Everyone should at least have 3rd party cover for their horses.
 
just so you all know, i came here seeking advice on natrual horsemanship! which nobody has done except state the obvious to get her vetted. which we will, you all can't except that she enjoys having a play in the field with me! she has got alot better since. I wanted people to share their stories of them and there horses. not accuse me of being inexperienced just because we've had a run in with a not so good horse. If anybody feels like replying to this about anything other than ways of teaching her or your experience DO NOT as i don't wish to have a bunch of people ignoring my question for pointless reasons as i wont listen.
 
ester said:
So you all share her but you and another lady own her..

Who is responsible for the ill fitting tack?

Everyone should at least have 3rd party cover for their horses.
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yes we have insurance just the horse doesn't! we all share her as in me and the other lady. her ill fitting tack would be how we got her when we took her on. We dont use it anymore we have a different bridle but we cant afford for the saddler to come out yet.
 
But it sounds like she has been at the yard for some time and not had a veterinary check or had tack on that fits! You cannot start to make improvements until such crucial things are sorted, that is why people are saying that, it isn't a pointless reason at all!

Poor mare :(.
 
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