Horse Talk

[Bunnylady]

Joe is a good pony, or horse, or whatever you want to call him, and as long as your daughter continues to treat him appropriately, he'll stay that way. Proper handling is the secret to well-behaved equines, not some size-specific label. I have 2 Quarter Horses that were lesson ponies (generic term; while Sunny might be small enough to be considered technically a pony, Latte certainly isn't). They both got aggravated and frustrated with the sorts of things that inexperienced riders do, and learned all sorts of nasty behaviors to get at the students (barn sour, herd sour, ducking out, refusing, kicking, biting, bucking, etc.) They are both rather pushy, dominant-type personalities; what they needed was people who knew how to be firm but fair and not put up with the nonsense. Obviously, newby riders don't usually have that sort of knowledge, and that's how horses or ponies with bad attitudes get that way. My daughter and I have put a lot of work into them, patiently insisting on good behavior, and we are getting much more of it and very little of the 'acting out' that made them such terrors before. We still have to be watchful, because they will test the boundaries, but some of the people who knew them before would be astonished at how they behave now. A few days ago, we rode them out, and BB2K took Sunny down a narrow trail in the woods that was barely more than a deer trail, that they had never been on before. There were leafy branches brushing against both of them, a deep ditch to cross, and a few largish pieces of debris that stupid people had dumped in the woods (grrr!). Sunny calmly took it all in stride, and I couldn't help but remember a comment from someone who had leased her a few years ago - "you'll never make her into a trail horse; if a leaf moves, she spooks." Yep

 

[kajira]

Joe is a good pony, or horse, or whatever you want to call him, and as long as your daughter continues to treat him appropriately, he'll stay that way. Proper handling is the secret to well-behaved equines, not some size-specific label. I have 2 Quarter Horses that were lesson ponies (generic term; while Sunny might be small enough to be considered technically a pony, Latte certainly isn't). They both got aggravated and frustrated with the sorts of things that inexperienced riders do, and learned all sorts of nasty behaviors to get at the students (barn sour, herd sour, ducking out, refusing, kicking, biting, bucking, etc.) They are both rather pushy, dominant-type personalities; what they needed was people who knew how to be firm but fair and not put up with the nonsense. Obviously, newby riders don't usually have that sort of knowledge, and that's how horses or ponies with bad attitudes get that way. My daughter and I have put a lot of work into them, patiently insisting on good behavior, and we are getting much more of it and very little of the 'acting out' that made them such terrors before. We still have to be watchful, because they will test the boundaries, but some of the people who knew them before would be astonished at how they behave now. A few days ago, we rode them out, and BB2K took Sunny down a narrow trail in the woods that was barely more than a deer trail, that they had never been on before. There were leafy branches brushing against both of them, a deep ditch to cross, and a few largish pieces of debris that stupid people had dumped in the woods (grrr!). Sunny calmly took it all in stride, and I couldn't help but remember a comment from someone who had leased her a few years ago - "you'll never make her into a trail horse; if a leaf moves, she spooks." Yep

they use a round pen for his basic day to day stuff. (They, being her dad and her, he supervises.) Joe had a lot of bad habits when we got him, including would bite if you didn't pay attention to him.
He no longer does that. He's lunged daily. She's got him hand signal trained, and he responds well to being ridden both bareback and under saddle now.

When we got Joe - I was there to look at two mini horses they wanted to sell together (mare/stallion) I saw poor joe in a tiny little fenced area, and went over to him and turned my back to him slightly and just waited. He came right over to me and let me touch him. The owner said he'd never been able to touch Joe and I took one look at him and decided "he" was the pony for my daughter. LOL

He's been the best horse for her. She'll out grow him eventually, but we have 3 kids under 5 right now, so after she puts in all the work, they'll get to enjoy him. LOL We aren't done having kids yet, so he's probably got a forever home with us.

The bigger horse she rides, is pushy, and a pain in the ***, she's worked with daily too, to keep her nicer because she gets pushy if you don't lunge her, and she's elderly and doesn't like to "go" unless you make her.

We don't usually have behavioral issues, as long as we don't forget to work with them. we can skip a day here and there, but they do better if handled daily.

I have zero tolerance for being pushed around by a horse. but we aren't mean. My daughter loves watching the Australian horse trainers that have camps in Texas now - and she wants to go to one of their training sessions.

 

[abigalerose]

I think they only reason ponys are "mean" is becuase they're little and cute and people let them get away with it and then they learn bad habbits. Same with when people raise nurse foals, they see how little and cute they are and let them get away with stuff that would be dangerous when a big horse does it, and then when they do get big it's a problem. And your pony/mini horse, whatever you prefer to call him lol, and daughter are super cute! Clearly she's got a way with animals.
Speaking of ponys, my cousin (who's going to be living with me in less than a week

) just bought a pony yesterday (to keep her stud company) that's she's going to be bringing him with her, he's kinda cute for a pony lol. I picked him out.

Also, on Sunday someone is bringing a Paso Fino to me to work with, she already has had all of her groundwork done and you can put a saddle on her, they want me to get her riding. I'm going to go back through all of her ground work and make sure there isn't any holes first. But my question, since I don't know much about gaited horses, is there something you have to do to get them to gait it will they do it naturally?

 

[abigalerose]

Scratch that question I just found a website with good info on it

 

[Bunnylady]

I think they only reason ponys are "mean" is becuase they're little and cute and people let them get away with it and then they learn bad habbits.

Sometimes it's accidental, and sometimes, it's deliberate. I know a teen who taught her mini mare to rear on cue because she thinks it's cute. Like any animal that knows it can get rewarded for a behavior, the mini doesn't wait for a cue, she "volunteers" - a lot. This girl's younger brother won't get anywhere near the mini because the rearing scares him. She has also taught her mini to "follow" (read, "chase") her around in the pasture. This may be fun for the teenager, but the mini is only about 5 years old; how likely is it that this teen will have a place to keep her for the next 20+ years (particularly since she's boarding her now). If this mini gets sold to someone with small children, these "tricks" could turn disastrous - and the pony is the one who will get blamed if some child gets hurt.

 

[kajira]

Sometimes it's accidental, and sometimes, it's deliberate. I know a teen who taught her mini mare to rear on cue because she thinks it's cute. Like any animal that knows it can get rewarded for a behavior, the mini doesn't wait for a cue, she "volunteers" - a lot. This girl's younger brother won't get anywhere near the mini because the rearing scares him. She has also taught her mini to "follow" (read, "chase") her around in the pasture. This may be fun for the teenager, but the mini is only about 5 years old; how likely is it that this teen will have a place to keep her for the next 20+ years (particularly since she's boarding her now). If this mini gets sold to someone with small children, these "tricks" could turn disastrous - and the pony is the one who will get blamed if some child gets hurt.

That really saddens me to hear that. You can train a horse to do tricks on command, but there are so many less dangerous tricks that would be fun for a pony. Like pushing a ball, or jumping over things, or even bowing on command.

Hopefully if she ever gets rid of her, the new owners can break those habits before someone gets hurt. A pony could still hurt a teenager, or an adult if it happens unexpectedly. They might be little, but their feet, and teeth still pack a big punch for the size.

 

[Bunnylady]

Tell me about it! I was petsitting a friend's minis, and their 28" yearling kicked me above the knee while I was feeding him (little brat . . .

). Little critter was scarcely bigger than a Labrador, but you should have seen the bruise - of course, I made an impression on him, too; he only tried it once.

 

[ChickenLover200]

Any tips on lunging? No matter what I try, my mini will not lunge!

 

[kajira]

Any tips on lunging? No matter what I try, my mini will not lunge!

Do you have a horse whip or stick?

If you want me to take a video of us lunging the horses to show you how to use it, I can do that tomorrow morning.

 

[Bunnylady]

What have you tried? Some find a whip too much pressure at first; they may expend huge amounts of energy just trying to get away from it and not pay any real attention to you (reacting rather than thinking). You can take Clinton Anderson's approach of letting them run until they are so tired they are ready to listen, but I'd rather not go there if I don't have to. I prefer to just use a long (8 ft) lead rope. Starting with just "walk" and "whoa" on the lead, I get one walking, then pay out the rope and start pushing them forward by allowing myself to drop back behind the drive line (the shoulder) and flip or spin the end of the rope toward the haunches if they don't keep moving. I do use one of C.A's sticks, but without the lash - I use it to tap when working on things like yielding. I've done it enough, I mostly don't need it; just pointing at the relevant body part is enough pressure to get them to move most of the time.