4 year old filly acting out..

[Sandee]

I'm wondering if anyone has opinions on this situation. The filly that I've had since she was 5 months old, that does all the performance classes with ease, that drives and is so sweet, is becoming a real "(night)Mare". I first noticed last fall when I went to discipline the boys for playing tug of war with their halters and walked thru her pen with the whip in my hand. I noticed motion from behind in time to stop her from biting my rear!

Now it in the stall when cleaning or clipping the chain on the gate she will try to nip and if I holler at her she turns her butt toward me. These are not acceptable actions and I deal with it as the situation arises. I holler at her, tap to the nose if she gets too close with the teeth, don't ever leave the stall with her "in charge".

My question is WHAT happened? Has anyone else ever had a sweet docile horse do a 360 in mood? MOOD has also occured to me; could it be hormone problems? Anyone please and suggestions on what to do about it.

 

[Ashley]

I have never had a mare do that, but wonder could she be barn/show sour?

 

[Carolyn R]

While hormones may bring it on a little stronger, she is just trying to be the alpha mare, and that includes her trying to dominate you too. Horses are constantly establishing and re-establishing their pecking order. A top command mare may fall down in the chain of command if they have a foal by their side (rather flee than fight reaction). Horses will continually test their limits, you know how it is, give them one chance to feel that they are getting away with something, they will push their limits when the next oppurtunity presents itself.

Just keep her in check and remind her who is in charge.

Carolyn

 

[wcr]

I agree with Carolyn. Somewhere she has gotten the idea she is more dominant than you and putting that theory to the test. I notice that it usually is worse after winter when eveyone has down time and they think they are "wild" horses again. I deal with this in one of 2 ways. As they are trying to see if they can dominate I will turn around and yell, agressively advance on them, do anything that will make a very big impression that their behavior is totally unacceptable to the alpha mare. This is basic herd behavior from the alpha mare and when pecking order is set all she has to do is look at them and pin her ears. This is language they understand.

The second is a good roundpen session. There is an art to roundpen work and it doesn't mean just running the horse around in a circle and change gaits and direction. If you cut the horse in half at about the girth area this is your angle of control. When standing in the middle of the roundpen, if you shift your body towards the hip it will speed and urge the horse to go faster. If you shift toward the shoulder or more towards the front of the horse it will slow the horse down. If you shift toward the head the horse will stop. This is the ooh and aah part of most of the clinics you go to. This is just basic horsemanship. No big trick to it.

Using these principles, you can control every movement the horse makes in the roundpen. So going back to a good roundpen session, You go in and work on controling every movement the horse makes and once they are doing what you want, you have reinforced that you are dominant.