Mare suddenly won't come out of stall

you have confused her; if you have just given her some hay, then of course she is not wanting to come out of the stable; to her mind you are being unreasonable, and giving a conflicting message... just give her her hay after she has been ridden. horses cant tell the time; she will soon get used to an hours time difference.

OK- got it. No food until all's said and done. I'm going to change her feeding schedule. She's my first horse, so after riding for almost 10 years, owning one makes me feel like I know very little!

It's interesting you feel the need to poke fun and criticize me. Do I take offense? Nope, because your opinions on what I do mean squat to me. You can ridicule me all you want to, go ahead, it just shows everyone who you truly are as a person....so go ahead and make yourselves look ridiculous :)

I never offer advice that I myself have never tried and had success with. But I don't need to explain myself to you, I know it works, I get results with it, end of story...and I've never been kicked ;)

Yet!!!

I won't get kicked....if you go back and read my original post, I said to NOT get in the kick zone ;) If you stay out of the kick zone at all times, you don't get kicked!

I'm utterly confused here - how exactly do you manage to flick a horse with a leadrope in the belly while crouching down and staying out of their kick zone? I'm doing the math in my head, and in order to be in a position where you could not be kicked, you'd basically have to get enough momentum for the rope to whack them hard in the belly.

I respect some of your opinions SpiritHorse, but I'd actually be REALLY curious to see you attempt this with my Arab mare. I'm pretty sure she'd eat you for breakfast. I had a boyfriend almost get double barrelled from trying games like that with her. She will NOT tolerate any movements or annoyances from someone lower then her knees. Blame it on years of being abused by idiot owners and their dogs, but I don't believe for even a second that you could manage to do this without getting severely injured.

I wished I lived near you, I'd gladly come over. Not all horses need this strategy, it certainly depends on the horse and the situation. Now, the tools I use (carrot stick with string attached) gives me the reach needed to flick the horse while being out of the kick zone. I suggested a lead rope, which is usually still long enough, because not everyone has a training stick....and you certainly don't want to use a lunge whip!

I think alot of things concerning horses are trial and error. I took the gist of spirithorses post as "get your horses attention!" since me and frida are both learning, i know what it feels like to feel like i am a million miles away from my horse when i'm within arm's length. the horse world is a very judgemental place, people get wrapped up in who does what better, but i'm pretty sure a majority of people want what's best for their horse and have different ways of going about it. Thanks for EVERYONE's advice!

one of the key things with having a happy relationship with your horse, is knowing how to avoid the issues in the first place. it is simply a matter of giving confusing signals, which i'd say about 85 % of all problems are down too.in this case it is an easy issue to avoid. what is the point of going in heavy handed, when it is a simple thing to sort out kindly. treating a horse in a heavy handed way, only creates more problems, and the only person who benefits from that is the trainer who then gets to earn money sorting it out.

and just need to add, when you say you give her hay, its unclear how much you are giving her; you shouldnt feed your horse before working her, maybe just a handful of hay or chaff to get her in, but to feed before working her is asking for colic. feed after work