Three questions (hogging manes, possessive mares, young horses)

[spotty_pony]

I am a few questions which I am looking for answers to so I thought I would make just one post instead of three separate ones!

1. When hogging a mane is there a certain way to do it? And is it easy to go wrong? I need to know as I am hogging my mum's boy myself for the first time this week and I don't think mum will be very happy with me if I do it wrong!

2. My young mare is very aggressive at feed times. I do not know much about her history but I think she has been badly treated in the past so I think she is being possessive over her food. The stables either side of hers have bars so she can see the other horses through them and the other horses only have to move and her legs are flying in the air at them. I just wondered if there is anything I can do to make her less aggressive or is it one of those things that will improve with time?

3. Also, any advice on how to improve the canter with the same mare as she is very green and wobbly. What exercises would be good to help improve her canter and help her to become more balanced. Both ridden and lungeing ideas please.

Any advice much appreciated

 

[spacefaer]

Hogging is easy - I start at the withers and work with smooth sweeeps up the line of the neck - make sure you only take the mane not the neck hair.

You may need to do a couple of sweeps, depending on how thick his crest is, to get all the mane hair.

Re your food agressive mare - is it possible to feed her away from the other horses or does she have to be fed in the stable? It won't get better - it may even get worse if she's really stressed by the perceived threat of the others. Can you board over the bars, so she can't see the others?

Cantering..... practice! She'll get used to cantering - make sure your transitions are clean, clear and ask her where she can give you a good transition. Don't canter for too long, trot before she loses her balance, re-stablish a good trot, then canter again. Give her time to learn where her legs are! Also, cantering across fields is good for her to learn her own balance as well