Help. My new horse is turning her butt to me in the stall. I know what this means, but I need some advice on how to deal with it.
I'm round penning and it's coming along.
I'm fixing the ground work.
The butt turn comes only when I enter and start to do something she doesn't like. Then I push her hard (mentally and with hand motions) and she gets quite upset, but moves eventually. By upset I mean she seems to act scared.
I kind of wonder if in her week when she was sold to somebody (then returned) if something happened that she has to get over. Or if this is just rust.
But I thought if I had things fixed in the round pen (or better, anyway) she'd be okay in other spots. Does the transfer to other places just take time?
I'm not expecting miracles, but I want to make sure I shouldn't be round penning harder or something.
What do you think?
7 comments:
From trailrider: When I have to catch or otherwise re-introduce myself to a horse, it's always a struggle to get them to "join" me and "leave" the herd. Some days it goes easy, other days, it's hard. Lily is not sure she's ready to "give" to you when she first sees you. So a nice pop on the butt when she doesn't move will reminder her quickly that you are the boss from the word GO.
Let me ask you, after a round pen session, is she slow to move her butt when you put her back in her stall?
Trailrider: Let's put it another way: if Lily showed her butt to another horse, she would get bitten, and/or the lead horse would pin its ears and let her know very quickly that Lily is NOT the boss.
Lily deserves a good pop on the butt, not a tap, but a solid POP, that tells her in no uncertain terms that YOU are the boss and that showing her butt to you will NEVER be acceptable.
Remember Spirit? I had to go through this dance EVERY time I saw him. We would establish that I was the boss in the first few minutes, and that was that. No hard feelings remained, and he knew I was in charge.
Lily is NOT Canyon. Lily can take a firm hand just fine without losing it. Remember her kicking and bucking when she wouldn't be the first to get taken out of the pasture at feed time? She is a spoiled princess, and she needs to be reminded she is a working horse! ;-)
She has a pretty strong reaction, actually. It's surprised me. I'd like you to see it sometime. I'm getting pretty harsh on her when she does this number, I just wasn't sure if it was a sign that I wasn't round penning properly.
Everything else is coming around. She's a pill about her back feet, but I'm making progress. She is dropping her head. I rode her today, she has a fantastic trot - very comfortable. Kept her at that level. ANd her headset is gorgeous.
oh, and after a round pen session if it's back in the stall immediately, she's pretty good. It's when she's been standing for a while. Like it doesn't stick for more than 15 minutes
I know I shouldn't say this, but since I have a mare, I'm just gonna do it anyway.
Darn b*tchy mares! lol!
I swear...with my own mare, it's always some kind of attitutde and an opinion she's got to give me. Always testing me to make sure I want to be the alpha leader. Always ready to take over that role if I let my guard down a little.
I have no advice. But I just wanted to say that I do understand some of what you're going through, and I'm cheering for you!
~Lisa
All I have to say is, the minute I started telling Jackson I WAS THE BOSS and that he wasn't getting away with his c***, alot of that c*** went away and my horse suddenly started to seem to LOVE me. Go figure. Nice guys never come in first, eh? LMAO....;) Sounds like things are going well with Lily, what does Canyon think of all of this????
Lisa, I think it's been so long since anyone laid down the law she's checking every limit...
Jacksongrrl: you are so right. Today I had a big fat slam down with both of them and all of a sudden it's like a whole new day. No more rodeo.
It's good to be the alpha mare. finally. LOL
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