Raring & kicking stable door dinner times

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myhorses2015

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My 3 yr old has always been a greedy git! However when it comes to feeding time hes not excatly rearing but jumping up at stable door ears back kicking the door but when i walk in his stable i tell him to back up he dont try to nick the bucket off me & does aas hes told just very excitable as hes only 3 i want to nip this in the bud now before he thinks he can o it and/or it gets worse hes same when fed in field but does as hes told when told to back up, anyone else ever had a problem like this & how did you nip it in the bud?
 
Don't give him his feed until he has calmed down and do not put the bucket down / hang it up until you have got him away from you. He tries to nick it off you he gets a smack on the nose. Don't give the bucket until he has back up, even if it is one step.

Out of interest, have you started breaking him yet?
 
Yes - with a stud. There are a variety of routes to stopping this but here's mine. The first thing is to make sure you have the horse's respect so it won't just run you over. Once you've done that, you can try practicing giving food and making the horse wait for it with you as the barrier. I would do this in an enclosed space but not a small one like a horse box... As that can be dangerous. Carry a schooling whip and really make the horse move away if it goes for the food. I don't necessarily mean hit the horse though - whack the ground or swish it in the air and if the horse ignores it, tie a flag to the end (or a plastic bag) to make it more formidable! Only let the horse have the food when it actually starts to lose interest. If you keep it up, the horse will learn that it gets food when it is calm and has your permission. To begin with do this with a bit of carrot and let the horse have it if it starts to look away/sniff somewhere unrelated/wanders away. Keep going until the horse will just stand some distance away looking bored and you can walk away from the food and the horse still doesn't go for it. You have to build that up too, moving away gradually and rewarding with increasing distance. Have a word/phrase you say to allow the horse to eat like "eat now" or whatever - just something you can be consistent with - and only say it when you are ready for the horse to come over and eat - you can couple this with a hand gesture and walking away. Once the horse will do this with a carrot, you can start doing it with its meals. This could take days or weeks depending on how cemented the behaviour is and your timing/persistence/patience so in the meantime, feed it somewhere new every day so it doesn't predict when the food is coming. Take it out into a paddock for a few mins and have the food waiting there or tie somewhere or take the horse out, put the food in and bring the horse back to find the food... In general it's easier to have the food waiting rather than bringing it over but eventually you want to be able to bring it so mix it up. Anything to break the habit of reacting in anticipation will do.
 
Tern said:
Don't give him his feed until he has calmed down and do not put the bucket down / hang it up until you have got him away from you. He tries to nick it off you he gets a smack on the nose. Don't give the bucket until he has back up, even if it is one step.

Out of interest, have you started breaking him yet?
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He never tries to knick it off me & he does back up when i say, yes i have just started working with him not got on yet though but this has been something he has been doing for last 8 months or so its not getting worse but im afraid it will do one day, as soon as he hears the feed bins open he goes mad
 
Sorry, your op wasn't written brilliantly so didn't realise he doesn't nick if off you.

I would say turn the blasted thing out with a grumpy horse who will bite him when getting excited around feed time.

I find when they get nippy and bolshy it's time to start breaking but you have obviously started..

Do you need to feed him? he is only 3 after all and the grass is currently growing a lot!
 
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