Horse Talk

[ChickenLover200]

Aw. You hear lots of accidents with horses. It sometimes makes me fearful of them :/

 

[abigalerose]

I was feeling really confident till I read those! They're sad though. When I fell off when I was little nothing bad happened but it still really shook my confidence.
Also, update on Phoenix, my grandpa fixed the fence that goes around the pond, so I turned him and June out in there, it's maybe a few acres with a big pond and I can see all of it from the house, and things are going well!

 

[ChickenLover200]

Accidents happen sometimes, but the calmer you are, the calmer your horse can be. They look to you as a leader. If the herd leader is frightened (I get that way sometimes), the horse will naturally react the same way.
I've begun desensitizing my mini. Round pen is almost done. Tried a water bottle, crinkling it. He was alright, but he doesn't like water near him, sosort of freaked out.

 

[abigalerose]

I think that's why things always go so well with June, I'm always 100% calm around her because I have such a good bond with her

I've only trotted on a horse once since I fell off when I was little, and I was a nervous wreck and hated it, but when I decided to try it today, although I was a bit scared at first, I was also excited, and I still can't believe how awesome it felt. I'm even finding that I'm excited about the thought of loping, but she still needs work on turning before that! I'm just so in love with this horse. I daydream about taking her out on trails and to the creek and out in the fields all the time, I can't wait till it actually happens.

 

[ChickenLover200]

I think that's why things always go so well with June, I'm always 100% calm around her because I have such a good bond with her

I've only trotted on a horse once since I fell off when I was little, and I was a nervous wreck and hated it, but when I decided to try it today, although I was a bit scared at first, I was also excited, and I still can't believe how awesome it felt. I'm even finding that I'm excited about the thought of loping, but she still needs work on turning before that! I'm just so in love with this horse. I daydream about taking her out on trails and to the creek and out in the fields all the time, I can't wait till it actually happens.

I was actually afraid of the height of my 14.2 hand mare when I first started, so I was afraid to do anything but walk. Now we can do a lope sometimes. It doesn't help though that I don't get to ride often. For a great cure for anyone scared of heights, head on over to West Glacier, Montana. If you do t know what it is, look it up. Our car's wheel bearing went out at the highest point of te drive, so we were stuck on the mountain for 6+ hours, plus spent ha?f the night there waiting for a tow truck

Eli, even though he is small, sometimes scares me some. They say not to let a horse move your feet, but it's hard with him because he bites too. *sigh* he's at least gettingetting better though.

 

[I Love Layers]

I was actually afraid of the height of my 14.2 hand mare when I first started, so I was afraid to do anything but walk. Now we can do a lope sometimes. It doesn't help though that I don't get to ride often. For a great cure for anyone scared of heights, head on over to West Glacier, Montana. If you do t know what it is, look it up. Our car's wheel bearing went out at the highest point of te drive, so we were stuck on the mountain for 6+ hours, plus spent ha?f the night there waiting for a tow truck

Eli, even though he is small, sometimes scares me some. They say not to let a horse move your feet, but it's hard with him because he bites too. *sigh* he's at least gettingetting better though.

I'm not scared of big horses since the first horse I got to ride other then a pony is 17-18 hands.
She's the nicest horse ever

 

[ChickenLover200]

I was actually afraid of the height of my 14.2 hand mare when I first started, so I was afraid to do anything but walk. Now we can do a lope sometimes. It doesn't help though that I don't get to ride often. For a great cure for anyone scared of heights, head on over to West Glacier, Montana. If you do t know what it is, look it up. Our car's wheel bearing went out at the highest point of te drive, so we were stuck on the mountain for 6+ hours, plus spent ha?f the night there waiting for a tow truck

Eli, even though he is small, sometimes scares me some. They say not to let a horse move your feet, but it's hard with him because he bites too. *sigh* he's at least gettingetting better though.

I'm not scared of big horses since the first horse I got to ride other then a pony is 17-18 hands.
She's the nicest horse ever

Big horses can be intimidaing for me, but most seem to be gentle giants.e

 

[Bunnylady]

When I was a kid, my family had a scary experience at Walt Disney World. We were riding in the cable car that went over the park. There was a turn in the course, and the car was supposed to release from one cable and hook onto another at this turn. For some reason, our car didn't make the hookup, and we were stuck at the turn until the next car came along and hit us. They stopped the ride, and we sat there for what felt like forever while the crew sorted things out and determined that we were safe to continue the ride. Don't remember that I had a problem with heights before then, but I sure do now!

The thing about not letting a horse move you is relative, of course. I mean, you aren't supposed to just stand there and take two feet in the face; dominant horses dodge that sort of thing, too.The point is that you aren't letting the horse push you around. You may move to dodge, or block, or whatever keeps you safe, but you don't retreat. That's the difference.

Behaviorists use the term extinction when they talk about trying to get rid of a certain behavior. Whether the subject is human or animal, they do what they do because in some way, they get a reward for doing it. "I do this, and this other thing that I like happens." The trick is to short-circuit that behavior-reward cycle.

Latte used to take shots at me with her face while I was leading her - deliberately smacking my face with hers. Knocking me around was her way of showing that she was higher in the pecking order than me. I learned to watch for the move, and get my hand up to block (so she'd hit my knobby knuckles - ouch for her!) or give a sharp jerk on the halter (also ouch) before she could get to my face. The reward (making me move) wasn't happening, instead, something she didn't like happened. When I picked out her feet, she'd do these little experimental kicks or almost -touch-me nips ( "testing, testing . . . .1 . . .2 . . .3 . . . 4.") I couldn't ignore any of that mess; I learned to watch for it and head it off while she was still in the "thinking about being bad" stage. The problem with getting rid of bad behavior, is that you can't ever let the reward happen, or you go back to square one. Also, in the early stages of extinction, the bad behavior usually escalates - it's like pushing the button again and again, trying to get the positive thing to happen, before it finally sinks in that it isn't going to happen, so there's no reward anymore.

Eli bites - why? What does he get out of it? Is he just expressing frustration, is he trying to get you out of his space, is this play for him; what reward does he get for this? He's way, way, wa-a-a-y more than old enough to know better than to bite people; I'm betting that at some point he did know better, but has returned to this behavior because he gets something out of it. Obviously, he can't bite you if he can't reach you, so stopping the biting involves making sure he only comes into your space at your invitation, and controlling him when he's in that space. You need to be aware enough of what he's doing that you can block any bite attempts before they happen, and that means reading his body language well enough to know when he's thinking about it and being prepared to block/redirect before he tries. If he's acting antsy and dominant, you move him. He only comes into your space when he is acting appropriately. If he slips past your guard and manages to score a hit, you need to get on his case immediately - yell, smack him, back him up, whatever; he needs to understand that that kind of thing gets him stuff he doesn't like now. Minis are smart; he won't keep pushing a button that has a negative reward (though he might experiment in that direction every once in a while to find out if the rules are still the rules - horses do that).

 

[abigalerose]

June liked to bite when I first got her home, not hard but she'd still do it, I'm thinking its becuase for her whole life, the only human interaction she had was getting treats, so when I'd come out to work with her she's sniff me and nudge me and when she realized that wasn't getting her a treat she'd bite me, I remember the first time it happened, I was standing still doing something (not looking at her) and she started sniffing my leg and then just bit me right above the knee I was like ??? What the heck?
Needless to say, after a few times of her trying to bite and then me bopping her on the nose, that doesn't happen anymore.
And when I was teaching her to round pen she kept wanting to come into my space and pretty much push right on over me, and when I asked her to trot she wouldn't do it and shed pin her ears and throw her head into my space, I'm not sure if she was trying to turn into me or trying to bite, I never found out becuase as soon as she did that kind of stuff I brought the whip down on the ground beside her head/neck/shoulder, and just kept doing it until she moved back out to where she was suppose to be, and if she decided to test it and keep coming towards me I'd just keep whipping in the same spot and if she walked into it and it hit her somewhere, well that was her fault and she learned not to come towards me again while lunging. Now as soon as I pick up the lunge whip she goes right were she's suppose to, even does it for my sister. I don't have any problems keeping her out of my space anymore. I do have a problem keeping her in my space, when I lead her, instead of staying at my shoulder she stays way behind me, she's not pulling against the rope, but she's pretty far back there, and if I speed up she won't, she'll just keep walking the same pace. Not sure what to do about that. But everything else is great! I've been getting her to trot under saddle with a riding whip, it just takes a little tickle or light tap, so I need to work on transitioning that to leg pressure instead

 

[ChickenLover200]

When I was a kid, my family had a scary experience at Walt Disney World. We were riding in the cable car that went over the park. There was a turn in the course, and the car was supposed to release from one cable and hook onto another at this turn. For some reason, our car didn't make the hookup, and we were stuck at the turn until the next car came along and hit us. They stopped the ride, and we sat there for what felt like forever while the crew sorted things out and determined that we were safe to continue the ride. Don't remember that I had a problem with heights before then, but I sure do now!

The thing about not letting a horse move you is relative, of course. I mean, you aren't supposed to just stand there and take two feet in the face; dominant horses dodge that sort of thing, too.The point is that you aren't letting the horse push you around. You may move to dodge, or block, or whatever keeps you safe, but you don't retreat. That's the difference.

Behaviorists use the term extinction when they talk about trying to get rid of a certain behavior. Whether the subject is human or animal, they do what they do because in some way, they get a reward for doing it. "I do this, and this other thing that I like happens." The trick is to short-circuit that behavior-reward cycle. 

Latte used to take shots at me with her face while I was leading her - deliberately smacking my face with hers. Knocking me around was her way of showing that she was higher in the pecking order than me. I learned to watch for the move, and get my hand up to block (so she'd hit my knobby knuckles - ouch for her!) or give a sharp jerk on the halter (also ouch) before she could get to my face. The reward (making me move) wasn't happening, instead, something she didn't like happened. When I picked out her feet, she'd do these little experimental kicks or almost -touch-me nips ( "testing, testing . . . .1 . . .2  . . .3 . . . 4.") I couldn't ignore any of that mess; I learned to watch for it and head it off while she was still in the "thinking about being bad" stage. The problem with getting rid of bad behavior, is that you can't ever let the reward happen, or you go back to square one. Also, in the early stages of extinction, the bad behavior usually escalates - it's like pushing the button again and again, trying to get the positive thing to happen, before it finally sinks in that it isn't going to happen, so there's no reward anymore. 

Eli bites - why? What does he get out of it? Is he just expressing frustration, is he trying to get you out of his space, is this play for him; what reward does he get for this? He's way, way, wa-a-a-y more than old enough to know better than to bite people; I'm betting that at some point he did know better, but has returned to this behavior because he gets something out of it. Obviously, he can't bite you if he can't reach you, so stopping the biting involves making sure he only comes into your space at your invitation, and controlling him when he's in that space. You need to be aware enough of what he's doing that you can block any bite attempts before they happen, and that means reading his body language well enough to know when he's thinking about it and being prepared to block/redirect before he tries. If he's acting antsy and dominant, you move him. He only comes into your space when he is acting appropriately. If he slips past your guard and manages to score a hit, you need to get on his case immediately - yell, smack him, back him up, whatever; he needs to understand that that kind of thing gets him stuff he doesn't like now. Minis are smart; he won't keep pushing a button that has a negative reward (though he might experiment in that direction every once in a while to find out if the rules are still the rules - horses do that).

June liked to bite when I first got her home, not hard but she'd still do it, I'm thinking its becuase for her whole life, the only human interaction she had was getting treats, so when I'd come out to work with her she's sniff me and nudge me and when she realized that wasn't getting her a treat she'd bite me, I remember the first time it happened, I was standing still doing something (not looking at her) and she started sniffing my leg and then just bit me right above the knee I was like ??? What the heck?
Needless to say, after a few times of her trying to bite and then me bopping her on the nose, that doesn't happen anymore.
And when I was teaching her to round pen she kept wanting to come into my space and pretty much push right on over me, and when I asked her to trot she wouldn't do it and shed pin her ears and throw her head into my space, I'm not sure if she was trying to turn into me or trying to bite, I never found out becuase as soon as she did that kind of stuff I brought the whip down on the ground beside her head/neck/shoulder, and just kept doing it until she moved back out to where she was suppose to be, and if she decided to test it and keep coming towards me I'd just keep whipping in the same spot and if she walked into it and it hit her somewhere, well that was her fault and she learned not to come towards me again while lunging. Now as soon as I pick up the lunge whip she goes right were she's suppose to, even does it for my sister. I don't have any problems keeping her out of my space anymore. I do have a problem keeping her in my space, when I lead her, instead of staying at my shoulder she stays way behind me, she's not pulling against the rope, but she's pretty far back there, and if I speed up she won't, she'll just keep walking the same pace. Not sure what to do about that. But everything else is great! I've been getting her to trot under saddle with a riding whip, it just takes a little tickle or light tap, so I need to work on transitioning that to leg pressure instead

Eli bites for basically the same reason as June. Pampered with treats by one previous owner, abused by another, so the biting I think is partial self defense also. You put a hand above his head, watch out, otherwise he's pretty good.