Well, I fixed the problem...!

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Cedars

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More specifically, my OH did!

Thanks for all your help guys. We used a medley of all your methods!

My OH took her straight from field into school. He then walked her around a few times. She reared, a lot, and generally took the mickey. He gave her hell until she started behaving. Then we worked on being really clear with what we wanted, and we're now using only three words in the school with her - Stand, Walk, Trot. If she didnt do what we wanted, we made her stop and back up. Any rearing met "scary man" and "scary lady".

Basically long story short my OH had her for about 40mins (we were determined not to leave without her achieving the basics), then I took over for 20mins. She INSTANTLY started misbehaving with me, but I just followed exactly what he had done, and now she listens!

I have a video that I will attach when it will load. Anyway, she was brilliant, no rearing, just walk, trot, and stand. She struggles to trot straight away so we'll be working on that, and she REALLY struggles to stand still, but she was SOOOO much much much better than before.

Thank you all so much! Really feel like so long as we're firm, clear, insist on perfect behaviour at all times, she'll do fine. Yay. Hehe.

Happy mummy today.!!

xxx
 
Brilliant! Your OH talks alot of sense (if i had my way my boy would understand latin the amount of waffling i do to him!!) You have a great foundation to work on now, keep up the good work, cant wait to see the next improvement! Well done all three!!
 
Puzzle is gorgeous!
If you get fed up of her you can send her to me.
I couldn't watch quite all of the clip (the buffering seemed to go on forever) but I wouldn't have said that she reared. TBH I thought that she simply put her head up when you got in front of her. IMHO, if you both perform a slightly more active walk and you make sure that you stay by her shoulder, especially when asking for a transition to trot, you will have very little trouble.

ETA, sorry I just re-read your OP. You said that she didn't rear.
 
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that was a little bit painful to watch, first of all for a baby an hour is far to much there brains can not cope and you will in the end, end up with what would be deemed as a naughty pony as there attention span can not last that long.

for the trotting. you can not pull a horse along, think of it this way, if i stuck a bit of metal in your gob and dragged you would u be keen on following?

when you do get her into trot your then pulling on her mouth more. do you want her to go or to stop?

teach her to trot by use of a schooling whip and a flick behind you so you are driving her forwards not dragging.
 
pulling on her head then, either way you can not pull a horse or pony.. or donkey along.

think of it like attaching a rope to a car and trying to drag it :)
 
Thanks everyone else. The reason we're going at a snails pace is because we were focussing on being chilled out and calm-in future shall up tempo!! She has a beautiful trot (mum TBx believe it or not!!) so will work on showing it off best as possible!!

So proud of her and myself today. And it is my OH filming-he could be chilled if the world was falling in around him!! Xx
 
OH seems v. sensible You seem very nervous, I'd be tempted to chuck her out in a field and then have her professionally broken at 3 as that avoids the need to do excess work with her without a pro there and get bad habits engrained. Nothing wrong with what she was doing there
Or it OH keen have him with you for the next week + to keep you on the right track. What was the grabbing of her head you did at the first trot?
 
I'm glad you are very proud.

Make sure that you let the little horse know too. It seems like you're actually asking a lot of her (and you). Obviously the video wasn't of the whole session but in that snippet at any rate your horse didn't look very relaxed and there wasn't a lot of praise going on to reassure her she was doing the right thing.

I wouldn't aim to scare a youngster. Someone once told me to 'catch them doing something right' and that really does make sense. When she is behaving in a way you desire praise, praise, praise. Don't make a huge deal of catching her doing something wrong.

It might be an idea for you to practice leading some older horses... go to a RS and get a private ground work lesson/borrow someone else's on yard/whatever but make sure you have a very calm instructor to control you while you're controlling the horse. :-)

Agree that an hour sounds like a bit much for your little one.

Baby steps for nervous horses and handlers.

Good luck!
 
I couldn't open the video as I'm on my phone but I agree that an hour is FAR to long for a baby, especially of walking/trotting round a school (as I assume is the case based on your post)
 
The problem I think will rectify itself when you stay with her and drive her forward instead of getting in front of her and pulling, as has been said - her rreaction is typical of a horse who has a lead in front of it pulling at a rope.

Don't let her 'follow you around like a puppy' as you are tending towards it when leading which equals getting in front of her...

I also wouldnt be too quick to say you've solved the problem as she is a youngster and it will take a darn slight longer than one hour to rectify any annoying bad behaviours, even if it did only take them 5 mins to learn!!
 
Firstly well done for sticking at it and progressing well. Ignore the negative comments - shame some people cannot be constructive and nice at the same time!

Are you left handed? If not, why are you leading from the off side - you will probably find it a lot easier for her and you if you change sides from time to time. Why did you grab for her nose when she played you up on the long side? She actually did not look like she did much but you seemed to panic and grab for her headcollar? This is never a good idea if she is likely to go up or back as you could trap a finger in one of the rings and have a very nasty accident. If you have some rearing issues I would try to get a slightly longer leadrope - helps you get out of the way and still have some rope to play with, rather than ending up at the end of a short leadrope very quickly.

Do you have a dually or similar headcollar? They are wonderful things and would help with the control issues.

Keep at it! She is gorgeous and you look like you are lacking a bit of confidence but it will come.

Good luck.
 
Grabbing her nose-she bit me. A previous trick that we have overcome mostly is to bite down hard on the hands of the person leading her. Fixed it by instructor telling me to 'bite back' i.e. Get hold of her lip.

Will work on trot next time. She does need a whip really but yesterday was tryIng to focus on being calm and I didn't want to give her any excuse to go sky high again!!

Also Ive just been told by my OH that actually he had her for about 20mins and me 10.... Not sure who's right but he had the watch on!! Xxx
 
Oh also the video doesn't show the praise she was getting - it's just cut wrong or something. Particularly when she stood still I was making sure she had a nice pat and a scratch and lots of praise with my voice.

I am right handed, but we had changed rein multiple times and this was just when I was going that way!! Xxx
 
Flamehead, she is only a baby (just a big and therefore scary one!) and they DO put things in their mouths, so I'd be VERY wary of grabbing her lip. The last thing you want to create is a head shy horse.

Other techniques for that (and I have to say I had most problems with this with a nervous horse who was reverting to babyish/stereotypical behaviours when worried about what was going to happen in unfamiliar circumstances)...

1) carry a short stick in the hand you are leading with (sort of like you see with in-hand showing sometimes). This is NOT EVER to hit the horse with it is simply a baffle to keep the mouth away from your hand. If horse turns head to bite then it can bite the stick.

2) move elbow out slightly to create space around you (works best when you are at shoulder not pulling horse along)

3) praise and interesting things to do. You don't want a confused coiled spring of nerves on the end of that lead rope. You want a calm and interested horse. Do just a little, stop, reward.

It will get better with age and calm baby steps.
 
Nope it's not 'putting things in her mouth' it's 'if I bite you hard enough you stop asking me to do what you wanted me to do and then I can mess around'. Im more than happy for her to put things in her mouth I don't mind that, but making a real effort to hurt people is not on.

She isn't headshy as she has a silly spot between her right ear and eye that she loves being itched! I do need to work on personal space however so will try the elbow thing.

Xxx
 
Glad your OH has stopped sulking now (from your post in SB) I think 30 mins of working and concentrating is still too much for a baby, although I do understand that you want to nip the problem in the bud ASAP. Will try to get on the computer later to watch the video
 
I don't ever take her into the school normally for more than 10/15 minutes-even less if she achieves my aims e.g. If she walks round the school once without a rear she gets a fuss and we leave. But this was building up into a huge problem, and was getting dangerous so we made an exception this time!!

I've taken her into the school this morning. We walked round and stopped at each letter. She was perfect every single time without fail-so now she's back in her field eating the carrots I gave her!! Hehe. Xxxx
 
pastie2 said:
Please make sure you post a video when you start riding her. I cant wait!! Hehe. Xxxx
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Hey Pastie, how about you post a video of your horsey skills (whilst we wait the year+ for FH's horse to be ridden)? I bet it will be loads of fun :) :)
 
jhoward said:
that was a little bit painful to watch, first of all for a baby an hour is far to much there brains can not cope and you will in the end, end up with what would be deemed as a naughty pony as there attention span can not last that long.

for the trotting. you can not pull a horse along, think of it this way, if i stuck a bit of metal in your gob and dragged you would u be keen on following?

when you do get her into trot your then pulling on her mouth more. do you want her to go or to stop?

teach her to trot by use of a schooling whip and a flick behind you so you are driving her forwards not dragging.
Click to expand...

agree - are you sure she isnt in pain ???
 
More than that Puppy, will be at least two summers time!!

Pleased with Puz today. She's a good lass bless her. Puts up with my inadequacies!! You lot are superstars thank you xxxx
 
Puppy said:
Hey Pastie, how about you post a video of your horsey skills (whilst we wait the year+ for FH's horse to be ridden)? I bet it will be loads of fun :) :)
Click to expand...




agree - how can anyone like this video????
poor poor horse being dragged about - have u had teeth and back checked
Rather than depending on your obviously unhorsey oh i would suggest a good instructor - poor horse - dont take pasties advice, get an experienced person in to help you both properly
 
Ive come to realise its quite a dangerous thing to post a vid of yourself doing anything on this site! I didnt once read the OP ask anybodys advise on this paticulare thread! She was just simply showing what she had learnt, and so what if the way she has done things isnt the way any of you would do it, its her horse! Leave it be, and instead of critisising her why not focus on the good points?! Some of you people can be very upyourselves!!
 
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