Horse Sense and Cents

Sneak Peak excerpt from Turning Challenging Horses into Willing Partners. Due for public release in 2010.

Horse Sense for sour equines

• Rule out physical issues that may be causing pain and the horse’s associated frustration in his failure to communicate.

• Do not continue to push a sore horse, or you will only make him sourer and could turn him mean. Give him the help and the time required to heal prior to resuming training.

• Figure out whether routine or varied activities are the preference of your sour horse and give him what makes him happiest.

• Be patient, flexible, and accommodating with a sour horse when their behavior is justified. Conversely, if you’ve taught a horse to be sour by rewarding bad behavior, resolve to stop the pattern or get some help.

• Try getting a horse out of the routine with some fun activities, trail rides, and long walks if his sour behavior is likely due to too much of the same grind. Some sour horses will bounce back pretty quickly once relieved of the drill that has made them bored and cranky.

• It is rarely effective to discipline a sour horse for his behavior. If a horse has come to resent riding, punishing them aboard only reinforces this conviction. Instead, try finding an easy activity they enjoy and rewarding them for their cooperation. Once you’ve gained a rapport, reintroduce them to the discipline training in lighter doses and with greater rewards for their achievements.

• Horses that have turned sour rarely become standout competitors (unless you change their career to something they learn to enjoy), nor fun pleasure horses. If your aim is to put them back into the routine that created their sour nature (unless this is due to pain you address and correct), you are likely to be disappointed. Consider a different project.

• Find some riding activity that’s really fun for your sour horse and reward him with this after every positive response to a lesson (this could be trail riding, jumping, riding with a companion horse, going fast, going slow, a long rein, a swim in a pond – each horse is different and you need to figure out what makes your horse happiest).

• Know when to call it quits. Sour horses are some of the toughest to turn and sometimes there is no reward for the effort. If you come to hate riding or working with this horse, it may be time to say goodbye. Quality of life (yours and theirs) is something worth considering with these projects.

Clover is a three-year-old Irish Draught Sport Horse filly. She’s always been precocious, a bit belligerent and an extreme athlete. This year, she effectively challenged her mother (who may school her after her current foal is weaned) and a newcomer last year to serve as the new herd leader. We started her under saddle this month with a whole lot of caution and a bit of concern over whether her ability to move at dizzying speed in leaps, bucks and directional changes might come into play when faced with a rider. Fortunately, none of this has been a factor, yet, but we haven’t ventured to the outdoors either.

Her personality was obvious from day one with her fearless, savvy and brazen attitude toward people and the fact that she was standing and nursing within about twenty minutes of being dropped. We knew an early blacksmith encounter was a wise and necessary duty. At week four, we introduced her to our patient and kind provider. Mind you, this filly was prepared with rituals prior to his arrival that involved picking up all four feet each day and having her do so with ease, tolerance and staying power as we required longer time periods for each foot to remain up and secured. She accepted this routine easily and willingly. We weren’t looking to trim her, just get her accustomed to the routine and some of the equipment. Of course, Clover had already demonstrated her alpha penchants in her proclivity for testing every new human she encountered to the max.

What unfolded was a scene we had never imagined. Two hours later, after unfathomable athletic maneuvers in response to mere request from the blacksmith to lift a left front foot, the light bulb went off. I sent the farrier off to a corner, picked up the foot in question (with ease) and handed it to him. We did each foot the same way and she calmly and willingly behaved.

This same filly was jumping in and out of our five-foot-high wood board paddock several weeks later just for fun while she was still nursing off her mother – with perfect form.

Later, she grew tired of this game, and found it more fun to send the entire herd through the fence (during winter months, of course, so replacing posts required hours of chipping through frozen ground) by getting them going toward the perimeter at about 30 MPH and slamming on the breaks inches before impact. Her dupes would slide and crash as she watched and chuckled unscathed. Then, she’d exit the paddock (never going much beyond the perimeter fence) and giggle at the crew who obediently remained in the pasture that was no longer secured.

She’s a hoot and we’ve been careful to channel her heart and spirit instead of defeating it. Each day, we chuckle at her antics and bravado, knowing this attitude is what will make her a stand-out athletic performer in the future.

Do you have a horse that makes you laugh? Please let us know by e-mailing (to NLevin at HorseSenseAndCents dot com) or through the comment section of this blog. We may feature you in a future blog post.

This week’s chuckle comes from one of the youngest members of our herd. Our four-month-old Irish Draught Sport Horse filly has been an imp from the start. She’s clever, but generally very cooperative after she makes it clear she is choosing to comply, and not obliged to do so. For the past month or so, she’s delighted in leading her younger (by two weeks) and dumber colt buddy into a small wood-fenced paddock or other areas he can get lost in, then ditching him. He idolizes her and is more concerned about being separated from this brazen filly than he is when his mother is out of sight. She’ll draw him out to a far corner of a paddock on the way to her known destination and then books for the gate and a return to the moms heading to the big digs. Interestingly, she’s a lot faster than her purebred Thoroughbred dupe, who’s also a little on the slow side where brains are concerned. She then delights in seeing him scream and gallop at the fence line adjacent to the large turnout area, unable to find the exit from the area (for the 30th time).

She lost her freedom privileges this past week (she’s been halter and lead trained for months, but we’re lazy and time starved) when she got the entire herd going. She decided it was much more fun to run the 26-acre perimeter of the grazing pastures to incite the various groups divided among the fields, than merely tricking and confusing her best friend. Of course, her mom, who is used to dropping independent and precocious foals, was the least concerned of the group (besides the filly in question, of course). Mom’s sharp, kind and helpful, though, so when called to the gate to help collect her foal, she kindly complied. Once mom got into the mix (she’s our alpha mare) the kid knew the jig was over – or else.

Do you have an equine comedian in your life? Why not share your story?