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Re: [RC] aggressive mare - RDCARRIEIn a message dated 1/20/2004 12:36:01 PM Eastern Standard Time, Elkenchild writes: The double barrel is unacceptable on the trail or in the arena and I want to discourage even the thought of it!
I agree 100%...I had the same problem with my mare when I first started riding
her with other horses as a 4 yr old. It sounds like, rather than aggression,
your mare is displaying fear, and a defensive "strike first, before they get
me" attitude. My mare was the same - she was low ranking, and saw other horses
as a threat to be defended against.
Whatever the reason for her behavior, you're right, it's not acceptable. What
I did was to buy a crop with a wide flap (to make lots of noise). Then I
enlisted the aid of some friends, who would ride another horse just close
enough to elicit my mare's pinned ears and threat to kick (while staying out of
range). When she did this, I simulataneously yelled "QUIT!!!" in a nasty tone
of voice, kicked her forward, and smacked her hard on the shoulder with the
crop. She bolted forward, then calmed. At this point she didn't know *why*
she'd been disciplined. After she calmed down for a couple of minutes, the
friend again rode close with her horse...my mare again threatened, and I did
the same 3 things. At this point, she began to see the connection. I let her
calm down, then the friend approached again...this time, it just took a stern
"Quit!" and a strong leg forward, and she behaved, and got praise. It took a
number of rides, but before long my mare was fine with another horse riding
alongside.
Then came another horse following her...which she also found threatening. We
started with the following horse just at her edge of comfort, and she got
disciplined for threatening, and praised for good behavior. The following
rider gradually decreased following distance, till my mare was comfortable with
a horse behind her. Sometimes we'd trot for 5 or 6 miles, with a horse
following her, and she just couldn't maintain the stress of worrying about
it...she finally had to relax and realize that it was ok. She basically had to
learn two things - first, that it was not acceptable to threaten other horses
when working, and second, that other horses under saddle were not a threat to
her.
By the time I started LD on her a year later, I still put a red ribbon on her
tail for the first few rides, but she was fine. Good thing, because at that
first ride another rider's very insecure gelding kept crashing into her rear
end, other horses went flying past on narrow trails, etc. She took it all in
stride. :) She's 10 now and doesn't turn a hair around other horses.
It sounds like you may need to be a little more forceful with your corrections
when she threatens other horses - make a few of them memorable, so to speak,
and make her realize that it is a VERY BAD THING, with VERY BAD CONSEQUENCES to
do that. Just don't let your guard down, and always be ready to provide that
memorable moment for them, to help them remember the proper behavior.
Good luck,
Dawn in East Texas
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