I stand my ground when my mini comes toward me (unless invited), I make him go back. This was the#1 thing I started working on at the start of training. I felt that getting him to back out of my space instead of likewise, was like me taking dominance. He does back well. I went from a lot of pressure to a little pressure and now that I have a rope halter, it is even less pressure. At times, he's afraid of the whip because I believe this was one the tools utilized to abuse him, typically the head area, so I'm hesitant to wave it too much around his head. He's used to the whip rubbing on his rump, but won't move off of any taps on his body, legs or neck.
I watched the movie "Buck" recently, and this conjures up a couple of scenes in my mind. In one, he's talking about a client's horse in one of his colt starting classes "You see that? That is a disrespectful horse. It's kinda like a teenager taking out the trash when you tell him to, but he gives you the finger as he walks out the door . . . " Next cut, he's working with that horse himself. "That's asking nice (the horse is still standing in place). . . .
That is not being so nice. . . . .That's better" (as the horse moves off). The point is, you use as much pressure as is necessary to get the horse to do what you want. Of course, you then want to back down on the pressure and still get the result, but it sounds like all your backing down has achieved is Eli thinking that you don't really mean it, so he doesn't have to do it.:/
Freaking out and running around you in wild, crazy circles with the nose tipped to the outside isn't respect, or fear, or anything even remotely desirable - it's the horse
avoiding the pressure by going out of control. It's a way of the horse asserting a sort of control itself by refusing to let you control it. If an animal has so much pent up energy that it has to run around and act like an idiot before it's ready to settle down and listen, you may have to wait through some of that, but it doesn't count as lesson time (though if it's got that much energy, at least you are out of range when it acts out by bucking and kicking!). The reason that I suggested yielding exercises is it gives the horse no excuse for not listening; you are right there, up close and personal, able to fine-tune the pressure, any refusal on his part is very pointed and obvious. You can hold the whip with the lash gathered up in your hand, so that's not waving about and causing excitement; you can use the butt end to bump with. The point isn't to create pain or fear, you are just trying to make
not doing what you want physically and psychological uncomfortable enough that the horse will seek release by doing what you are asking it to do.
Pulling the horse's head toward you throws him a little off-balance, he will naturally seek to restore that balance by moving his hind end in the opposite direction. Looking at his backside and stepping toward it focuses your energy and creates mental pressure in that area. Using a voice command like move over, step over, whatever will tell him that just standing there isn't what you want him to do. Using the butt of the whip to bump focuses the energy even more, and makes the pressure tangibly physical, if the mental pressure didn't get the job done. If he's still so intransigent about not moving, you can poke him with the butt of the whip - it's really uncomfortable, you can't just lean into that kind of pressure. When he steps away (as surely he will at some point in this escalation), you say "good boy" and release the pressure,
immediately. Drop the whip hand to your side, relax your shoulders, pivot on the foot closest to him so that your body is facing the same direction as his body and don't even look at him.
That's release, and a lot of people don't give it quickly enough to really reward the horse. Eli can't possibly be so thick as to not "get it" if you do it right.
After a minute, ask him again, and escalate to whatever level it takes to get that step away. Release. Eli's a smart boy - by the 3rd or 4th repetition, you may only
look at his butt and he steps away. Obviously, the goal is to get the response with just a small amount of pressure, and you won't have to give that extreme level of release every time, either, but you are exaggerating things to make it very clear to you both. When you get Eli moving away from pressure at the hind end, you can progress to getting him to move forward rather than just sideways (raise the whip hand behind him, extend your hand with the lead in it to your side and a little behind you, and use the voice command, "walk"). Dropping the pressure behind, changing the lead (and whip, if you are still using one) from one hand to the other and extending the whip hand in front of him puts the pressure in front, he should yield to the pressure and whoa or turn back and head the other direction, whichever you want him to do. It may take a few sessions, but you can have him "lunging" at a walk on the end of a lead rope, with just your hands and voice.
we cancelled our Netflix subscription, so I can't watch that movie on here, but I'll see if it is at the library. Im sure it is.
