Ambers Echo
Still wittering on
There is an 18 month old pony in Max's field. He was bought by non horsey parents as a foal for their teenage daughter. He was gelded a month ago. He is a thug! Several of the children with geldings in that field won't get their own ponies in now as he barges them out of the way knocking them over. Katie was sent flying the other day as he came barreling down the hill to get to the gate. He also barges through the gate. So now whenever anyone wants to retrieve their pony they need to go in pairs - one to halter him and hold him while the other removes the pony. The girl is very defensive about him saying he's fine or 'oh he wouldn't do that'. She gets terribly upset when other horses reprimand him etc. He's not bullied just disciplined from time to time by the herd. YO is aware but at the moment not doing anything about it. All the fields are very large with lots of horses in each and issues arise from time to time with all the fields when one or other horse is overly boisterous or circles people as they are leading in etc. So I think this sort of thing is just tolerated but with this pony it is persistent and worsening. Are there some simple approaches we can take when going into the field. He seems to have no concept of being driven out of my space so my usual tack of just swinging a rope at any horse who gets too close to me when I am leading my own has no effect on him. Or simple ways to teach him this is not ok that the girl could be helped to use. She is there every day and spends plenty of time with him. He's not aggressive. Just overly friendly with zero boundaries.