Promise was such a terror

Miniature Horse Talk Forums

Help Support Miniature Horse Talk Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

OhHorsePee

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2005
Messages
1,736
Reaction score
0
Location
Ohio
Was going to put her halter on and work on leading a little. Got it up on her nose and when I was fixing to secure it she reared and twisted and some how my finger got in the little buckle twisting my whole hand over. NOT FUN! My finger was stuck pretty good and I was trying to get her to circle with the other hand (not yelling trying to be calm as it felt like my hand was being torn off). My sis came over and Promise tried to bite her "what not."

You can get a couple of "good days" from her with not too much terror then she reverts right back. I am being consistant with her and introducing things slowly. This morning she was like she was her first day here even with her brush. I am not scared of her, I think she still has fears and that is what this is all about. I just hope these are fears that she will over come. I know that I have only had her for three weeks and things take time but dang..........

Is there any more pointers out there. We are making our Magic hand for her back end, but I need something for her front end as well.

HELP

Fran
 
She sounds like she has alot of apprehension in her for some reason to be so touchy.. I would spend some bonding time with her, once you have her on a halter, and settled a bit. I am wondering if someone is starteling her when you are not around... Find a nice shady spot where you can soothing talk to her, and offer her scratches and brush her with a soft bristle brush.. Circular shoulder scratches are also a bonding type touch for horses. Do this often- even daily.. After she is more trusting, she will respond better in training too. I have raised all of my horses with these bonding methods, and they actually look for, or run to me when they get frightened or scared. It is all about trust...Hope any of this helps.
yes.gif
 
Last edited by a moderator:
It is so frustrating and disappointing when you go backwards rather than forwards with this.

You poor thing, that sounds painful.

I had a mre like this, sometimes with mares depending where they are on their cycle they can be very touchy/grouchy.

Is she bred or open?

The halter is always hard with a head shy skittish horse.

Hope tomorrow is better?!
 
This is not funny and , although I have the greatest sympathy for the mare I am a little scared of what she could do, and what she might have done to you SOoooo....get a tethering collar- nothing on the nose, OK?? Fix a LONG line to it,Next time you want to catch her put the collar on first and tie it to something, THEN put the halter on nice and quiet and gentle, no fuss. If she goes to bite you move into her space and just raise your head and make a disapproving sound. have hold of the long end of the line so, if she really goes potty , you can release her before she hurts herself. I think a LOT more has happened to this mare than we have previously thought and I think you need to go very carefully with her. You need to let her know that, whilst you will not hurt her, you are not about to let her hurt you, either!!
 
She is supposedly bred. I was told she was "exposed" to a reg. stallion. She has had no cycle since I have had her. She does have a belly. Vet said she looks pregnant. I wanted her to get used to being handled before anything like an ultrasound would/could be used. No one remembers when she was "exposed." I can't believe they even "exposed" her to a stallion in the first place.

I had thought she had been beat or something before. When I first got her if you stood up she was fearful. If you squat down she is better. If you would move she would jerk her head away fast and do a little escape routine. She gets neck rubs, cheek rubs, wither rubbed, chest rubbed. I do use a soft brush. Anything that is introduced to her I do it very slow. Sometimes even for a couple of days before I want to use it I just sit with whatever in my lap or some where where she can mess with it a little and smell it.

She was out on 85 acres for who knows how long. She would run to a corner if she would run to a corner (any corner) when she heard someones voice. I leave a radio on at all times and now she doesn't do that and will walk toward you and take snacks from your hand. But she goes right back to "don't touch me." I hope to heaven she wont be this way to her foal.

I'm going to call the vet Monday and see if there is something "safe" that she can take in case she is prego to calm her down while the farrier works on her. She absoluelty needs that done soon. And I think instead of having the one dude come out who called her a "wild b...." I will haul her over to this Amish dude that does my sisters horses. He's really gentle and loves horses.

Thank you

Fran
 
She is afraid of haltering, and it confuses and frightens her.

You need to break this down for her in tiny repetitive steps.

Show her the halter, take it away, pat and praise. Repeat 1 million times until comfortable.

Show her the halter, take it away, touch face with halter, pat and praise. Repeat 1 million times until comfortable.

Show her the halter, take it away, touch face with halter, put rope over neck and remove, pat and praise. Repeat 1 million times until comfortable.

Show her the halter, take it away, touch face with halter, put rope over neck and loop around neck, gently pull horse one step toward you with neck rope, pat and praise. Repeat 1 million times until comfortable.

Show her the halter, take it away, touch face with halter, put rope over neck and loop around neck, gently pull horse two steps toward you with the neck rope, pat and praise. Repeat 1 million times until comfortable.

Build this last step until you can pull her in a circle by the neck rope, willingly and with a light touch. ALWAYS RELEASE AND REPEAT UNTIL COMFORTABLE.

Show her the halter, put rope over neck and loop around neck, standing BESIDE THE SHOULDER FACING THE HORSE"S HEAD, slip the halter up her nose for a second, slip it off, release, pat and praise and repeat 1 million times until comfortable.

Show her the halter, put rope over neck and loop around neck, standing beside facing head, slip halter up nose for a few seconds, slip off, release, pat and praise and repeat 1 milion times until comfortable.

Show her the halter, put rope over neck and loop around neck, standing beside facing head, slip halter up nose and bring crown strap over poll for a second, slip off, release, pat and praise and repeat 1 million times until comfortable.

Show halter, put rope over neck and loop around neck, stand beside facing head, slip halter up nose, bring crown strap over poll for several seconds, slip off, release, pat and praise, repeat 1 million times until comfortable.

Show halter, put rope over neck in loop, stand beside facing head, slip halter up nose, bring crown strap over poll and buckle, NOW UNBUCKLE IMMEDIATELY, slip off, release, pat and praise, repeat 1 million times until comfortable.

Show halter put rope over neck in loops, stand beside facing head, slip halter up nose, bring crown strap over poll and buckle, pull a few steps toward you in a circle, unhalter, release, pat and praise, repeat 1 million times until comfortable.

NOW you are ready to halter your horse.

IF I COMMANDED YOU TO BUILD A SAILBOAT YOU'D HAVE NO CLUE HOW TO GET IT DONE. But if I first spent a year teaching you welding, then a year teaching you woodworking, and a year teaching you sailmaking, and another year teaching you sailing mechanics, and then spent a couple of years integrating those skills into the design of a sailboat, you'd be pretty darn good at building a sailboat, wouldnt you?

Obviously you're not going to need to repeat those steps 1 million times. BUT YOU MUST REPEAT THEM INFINITELY MANY TIMES before proceeding to the next step. SHE MUST be comfortable with the tiny steps before she can progress to the bigger ones.
 
I'm having the simililar thing with my kids. SO...I take a nice soft round lead line and drape it loosely around the neck first, if that is accepted I wrap it around the nose and make a loose kinda halter, if they go up or panic I let go, it unwraps and no harm, no foul. Then we begin again. Yesterday they both accepted it and did a circle...tomorrow we go in reverse. I only work kids every other day.

My mistake..I thought this was foal.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
she has not been there long enough yet to really know her. I would stop most hands on training and just let her settle in. I keep saying people way underestimate the stress a horse goes thru in being moved. For now i would make sure she shows no aggression in feeding and just keep being around her and let her settle in. I think by trying to train her so soon after her being moved you are overly stressing her. 3 weeks is not near long enough for her to feel secure and settled in yet.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top