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Bad behavior.

1K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  BarrelracingArabian 
#1 ·
As some of you may know, I work at my barn one day a week to help pay for my lessons. I basically take care of the horses in the evening: bring in, feed, water, etc. The past couple of weeks I have been having some problems with two of the horses behaving badly when I bring them in. Mostly I'm just wondering how people would handle these problems. Obviously there's not much I can do about these things myself as they aren't my horses, I'm only handling them one day a week, and it's not my job to fix their problems. Not to mention I have no training experience whatsoever and I wouldn't know how to even begin to fix these things. Hence this thread. (Just as a side note: I have left a note for the BM/trainer about these things so she is aware and will, I assume, be working with them).

The first horse is an Arab mare. I believe she is 5 or 6. Her problem is that she has taken to bolting through the gate and rearing when I bring her in. I think she does this because her friend gets to the gate first, so she gets let in first. And so the Arab is upset because her friend is gone so she acts up. I've been able to handle her rearing ok so far, but to be completely honest, it's total luck. I have never dealt with a horse rearing while I'm leading it before and I have no idea how to handle it. I think you are supposed to stay by their shoulder? But she usually yanks to the end of the rope and then rears. I believe that they are attempting to fix this problem by seperating her from her friend. They used to be stalled next to each other but now they are not even in the same building. I suppose this is the reason for the seperation. I assume they are also doing other things to work with her. Anyway my question for this one is: How do you handle a horse that rears while being led?

The second horse is a gelding (I can't remember age or breed at the moment... not that it matters much) who is a relatively new addition to the barn. He issue is that he has taken to kicking at the gate when I'm bringing other horses in. Usually he'll come to the gate when I'm about half way through bringing the geldings in. He'll come up as I'm getting the next horse and will turn and kick at/through the gate at me/the horse I'm bringing in. I really have no idea how to handle this. Usually we are far enough away by the time he decided to kick, so he has hit anyone, but he has done some damage to the gate (sometimes he doesn't get in between the bars). I'm just kind of worried this will get worse to the point where he is kicking earlier when we are closer to the gate. I don't really know if there is anything I can do about it to make things safer for myself while they are working with him on this but if anyone has any ideas do tell! Also I am curious as to how one would handle this from a training prospective.
 
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#2 ·
For the gelding try and bring him in first maybe
and with the mare make her stay behind you when leading her through when she tries to bolt in front pop your rope and let her know that is not okay. If she tries again get more assertive with her let her know you are boss she is most likely doing these things because she doesn't know any better plus with the buddy sourness just be assertive and don't let her get away with it
 
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