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266 Posts
My first post... I'll try to keep it short!
I've owned my horse for 3.5 years. I purchased her as a two year old, and she had been in 5 other homes before the age of two, but I don't think she was neglected.
Basically, she's got an attitude, and plenty of it. She is very sweet most of the time, I've started her and she's very responsive and willing under saddle. She's got some weird quirks, but nothing I can't deal with, except feed aggression.
Don't even think about trying to halter her mid-hay pile or grain. She lives outside 24/7, and she's gotten better... when she was stalled she was an absolute terror, made huge messes, would scrape her teeth on the bars, would flip out if the horse next to her was too close to the wall of the stall she was closest to.... bleh. Like I said, now that she lives outside she's much more sane, but she is very protective of her hay pile and will turn her rump to you if you go out there while she's eating. It can/could be dangerous to people that don't know this trait.
I don't really know what to do about it. I've tried being aggressive back, I took the lunge whip out while I brought her hay and laid it down... I stood by the pile and whenever she came in for it, I drove her away. When she moved away and stood, I'd praise her by moving away from the pile and allowed her to eat. I'd let her eat for a bit, drove her away again, and did the same thing. I did this several different days, and she seemed to get it, but I can't walk out to her while she's eating and get near her hay pile at all. The nice guy approach clearly won't work with her.....
Have any of you dealt with this and effectively fixed the issue? I usually have a solution or several ideas to fix a certain problem, but I'm really stumped. She's a very sweet horse in the arena, crossties, on the lunge, under saddle, etc... food though... man.
I appreciate any ideas!
I've owned my horse for 3.5 years. I purchased her as a two year old, and she had been in 5 other homes before the age of two, but I don't think she was neglected.
Basically, she's got an attitude, and plenty of it. She is very sweet most of the time, I've started her and she's very responsive and willing under saddle. She's got some weird quirks, but nothing I can't deal with, except feed aggression.
Don't even think about trying to halter her mid-hay pile or grain. She lives outside 24/7, and she's gotten better... when she was stalled she was an absolute terror, made huge messes, would scrape her teeth on the bars, would flip out if the horse next to her was too close to the wall of the stall she was closest to.... bleh. Like I said, now that she lives outside she's much more sane, but she is very protective of her hay pile and will turn her rump to you if you go out there while she's eating. It can/could be dangerous to people that don't know this trait.
I don't really know what to do about it. I've tried being aggressive back, I took the lunge whip out while I brought her hay and laid it down... I stood by the pile and whenever she came in for it, I drove her away. When she moved away and stood, I'd praise her by moving away from the pile and allowed her to eat. I'd let her eat for a bit, drove her away again, and did the same thing. I did this several different days, and she seemed to get it, but I can't walk out to her while she's eating and get near her hay pile at all. The nice guy approach clearly won't work with her.....
Have any of you dealt with this and effectively fixed the issue? I usually have a solution or several ideas to fix a certain problem, but I'm really stumped. She's a very sweet horse in the arena, crossties, on the lunge, under saddle, etc... food though... man.
I appreciate any ideas!