Please can you explain the horse Psychology of this?

P

pipper

Well-Known Member
Joined
3 June 2009
Messages
430
Location
WILTS
Visit site
One of my lot - an older TB mare is 100% hack with company but alone is useless! She becomes a nervous wreck. we very occasionally have a little go at going out alone and sometimes have had a short but half decent plod. Most of the time though she is very spooky and 'looky' and is generally very tense. So i tend to just hack her with freinds. Yesterday i fancied trying her alone - we set off out of the farm and she wasnt too bad just a little tense and 'looky' after about 5 mins we turned onto a different track and she became much more afraid - so when she stopped i just sat quietly without shortening the reins and let her look at the monster (log by the side of the track) she stood for a few seconds then turned round (wasnt a spin really more of a turn) again i sat quietly and tried to turn her to face it. But she started walking backwards (towards it) i stopped her and tunred her back and sat again before urging her forwards - again she turned and walked backwards? Eventually after a few more of this we got past the log by her walking backwards past it, bit by bit...
i cannot work out why she found it better to do it that way?? can anyone explain??
 
probably in her blind spot so to her it was no longer there. Often horses will back up past something. Other than the blind spot I don't really know why.
 
I have a little s*d who will only back up past things he is worried about. I have tried everything else, but this seems to be the calmest, easiest thing to do (although he also naps so we sometimes end up backing up for ages!!). If it works for you, go for it!
 
Could it be that her rear end is her most powerful defence so she is getting herself prepared to double barrel the nasty log when it jumps out to get her? Just thinking how they will turn their back end towards threats?
 
appylass said:
Could it be that her rear end is her most powerful defence so she is getting herself prepared to double barrel the nasty log when it jumps out to get her? Just thinking how they will turn their back end towards threats?
Click to expand...

Ooooh Yes - never thought of that she does use her back end as defence quite a lot - Bucks ect!

I have to say that i did get off eventually and walked her for the rest of the hack!!!
 
We used to back up past things quite often. Had to do it again not so long ago (going past a bonfire, and leaving her friends on a hack). She sometimes gets a bit of speed up, which is interesting, and you have to watch for ditches (we went down one backwards once, very strange, I thought she had reared due to the angles, but couldn't figure out how comes we were so still and I was so close to the ground :confused::rolleyes:, then realised her backend was down a ditch).

Can you do lots of little trips out? Just a few hundred yards and back again, before or after a schooling session (after would mean she might be more relaxed). We've done this with a few that were iffy about going out alone and it seems to work quite well :)
 
Facing something they percieve as scary and asking them to walk towards/past it is one thing, backing or allowing them to back past something they're facing away from is much preferable and they can't focus or stare at it. That's what I think :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top