No Respect

I recently got my first horse. She is a 19 yr old Arabian mare. She is really nice under saddle, but her ground manners are not so good. She has become very attached to a pony in her pasture, and I can't take her into the barn without taking the pony too. I tried just taking her into the barn, but she broke loose and ran to the pony. It taked me a while to catch her from the pasture, she will trot away and pin her ears back and try to nip at me. She also won't stand still when I am riding her. If I ask her to stop, she will stop, but prance in place. What should I do?

Switch pastures ... away from the pony ... there really is no reason for her to do that, I mean it's ok for her to have friends but challenging your space is crazy!

For the stoppin bit, I think what you should do is stop her and just sit there.. When she starts prancin and really wants to go, don't let her, just sit there maybe for even 5 10 minutes, she needs to go when YOU want her to go, not when she wants to.

About your horse bein attached to this pony, well I am not to sure about this other than seperatin her by movin to a different pasture.

I wish I could help more but I aint sure...

Yeah I would Def seperate her away from that pony for the other prob what kind of bit are you useing?

For ground manners maybe you could do some Parelli. That's a great way to get the horse to respect your space.

For being herd bound, or actually herd sweet, she doesn't see you as the safe place so she seeks the herd for safety. She's just being a horse and acting on her instinct. But you need to build the relationship and get a good foundation on her so she thinks of you as the safe, fun place.

For standing still under saddle, the worst thing you could do is try to make her stand still. You need to say, "You want to move, great, LET ME HELP YOU!" Go faster than what she wants, do turns, back ups, whatever, take her energy and use it, don't try to supress it because she will just get more and more tense.

Just an extension on what Spirithorse said, if she wants to move, its best not to do this by making her go forward because this could get out of hand. I.e. She could take off and/or buck. I'm not sure if Spirithorse meant to say this or not, but its probably a good idea not to do too much forwards, but mainly channel the energy into backwards and sideways. Or if you do go forwards, use fairly small circles. Then after a little while, try her again and see if she'll stand still. If not, get her moving again. She'll eventually stand still.

Other methods that I have used.
- everytime horse moves, put them right back where they started so they learn moving does no good as they always end up in the same place.
- reward for standing still, I.e. Relax rein contact and allow horse to just stand and rest.
- keep calm yourself! If you get upset yourself, its going to make your horse worse

The above can and should be done on the ground also

I hope this helps you out a bit

My friend used to own a horse which grew very attached to another one and she had the exact same situation as you. She simply seperated them by moving her to another field and in under a week the problem was cured. :) good luck.

I also agree. Seperate them. My horse was inseperable with this gelding when she first came. Not to the point where she couldn't be where he wasn't, but they would always call to each other. Now she's in a seperate paddock, they still "talk" over the fence, but they're fine. Horses DO get used to it!

It might be easier to separate them. If that isn't possible, you just need to train your horse. First, take her away from the pony, and always remember to reward her, when she acts nicely. Don't panic or give up if she want's to go back to the pony, but when she acts nicely, tell her she is a good horse and reward her by letting her WALK back. Never let him rush or hurry back, it might be dangerous. When she is relaxed even when there is little distance between her and the pony, you can little by little made the distance bigger.

When you want her to stand still, make her stop, reward him BEFORE she starts to prance and ask her to walk again before she does it herself. Always are faster than the horse, and reward her when she does something right. And again, when she stands five seconds still, you can stand ten seconds etc. If it starts to prance, stop her again, reward and ask to walk.

Ah, I agree with sempre_cantando :) I forgot to say that in my last post, but yes, too much forward movement is not good. She can just go and go and go and go and go and go on adrenaline and forward is the worst thing to ask her to do. Backwards, sideways, and constant changes of direction are wonderful, and circles too.