| Hello
I just acquired a 2 1/2 year old filly Thoroughbred and need to train her. I have never trained a young horse before ( I own an 18 year old quarter horse mare as well who is very well behaved.) Anyway, whenever I try to lounge the filly she starts out fine and then stops and rears. If I try to push her to start again she rears and seems to come at me. When she does this I yell at her and raise my arms, but it's scary! I believe she has a lot of potential and she is very sweet (usually;-), but how can I get the rearing to stop? I won't get on her back until her ground manners improve and she gets older of course. Thank you for any advice. Rebecca |
| Hi,
Very scary! It took me months to get it through my thick head what I was doing wrong when my guy did this. He was the same age, exact same response. I finally learned that I was pushing him too hard. He felt defensive. It might be good if you quit longing for a while and work on other ground work - yields, liberty stuff, respecting your space. When you go back to longing she'll probably be alright. She'll understand your body language better and feel less intimidated by you. You'll probably hear that rearing is an aggressive response, but it comes out of fear. She thinks she needs to protect herself from you. I was a total idiot about my horse's rearing. I spent days pushing him on and thinking he was just making a big show out of nothing. Finally he scared he me real bad one day and I got the message that I'd have to try something else. I did eventually learn to listen to his quieter signals and regained his trust when he realized he didn't have to shout at me anymore. It's all probably just a little much for her right now. Take a step back. There's a great quote in the Parolee book - horses are recreation for us, can we be recreation for our horse? Jen |
| Hi Rebecca!
Been right where you are! You got some good advice already but here's more! Firstly, once you send your horse away and around you, because he's doing as you asked you must reward it - that is quit doing everything. Don't follow him with a whip or rope, don't even look as he's going around, just do NOTHING. Only do something when he comes in without permission and/or rears. Then get his eye off you - that's right swing the rope toward the head/neck, if this doesn’t work, swing it closer and bigger to him, if he still hasn't gone away let the rope pop him on the neck. Whichever phase he responds to, stop immediately. He'll soon learn that it is more comfortable to stay out on the circle
then cut in/rear. BUT, start of slowly, don't do too many laps, just a
few at first, then bring him in yourself and give him a rub. Don't insist
on a particular gait or speed just yet. Simply work on the first goal -
to have him leave you when you ask, and come back only when asked.
Eva |
| Hi Rebecca!
I think you have got some good advice here already. The horse is reacting to something that you do, so back up a few steps. Do things that the horse is comfortable with and knows how to do and build it up from there. The longing can be broken down into several small steps…. Teach those steps to the horse separately. Start by making sure the horse really leads well, so many things stems from lack in that. Then, practice yielding the forequarters away from you. Release and praise a lot. Let the horse know that it's doing the right thing. Pay a lot of attention to what the horse is telling you, and don't proceed to the next step until the horse is truly comfortable with where you are at. When the horse knows how to yield the front-end away, start sending it out.. as soon as it moves out tell it that it is doing the right thing. Even allow the horse to stop. You want to ensure the horse that you are not trying to get rid of it,
just sending it out temporarily, and that you'll still welcome the horse
back in again. When the horse goes out willingly you can wait a little
longer before you tell it that it's OK to stop.
I hope this helps, would really like to know how this works out for you! Ellen |