[blazinpistol28]

I have a pushy one year old when he is on the lead. He is either running in circles around me or he plants he feet and wont budge. Sometimes he will run straight at me, stop and check my pockets for treats, then its back to doing circles, or he will even get ahead and pull me along. I've tried to correct him by pulling, talking, and a using a crop. Any suggestions?

[AllAroundRdr]

Do you have a round pen or a small enclosed area you can put him in and WORK him? I'd give him two choices -- do what's asked quietly and with respect, or go work 10xs harder than what was originally asked.

[DixieGirl89]

I have that same problem. I don't have a round pen or anything but what I do is lounge my filly around me for a little bit then stop her and try to walk again. If she keeps stopping I make the lounge longer. And keep doing it until she walks as far as I want her to walk. Then I stop her and praise her.

[Sheza_Angel]

^ Agreed. This is the way to go! Getting them to earn your respect and so forth. I had to do similar exercises with a yearling APHA colt that I used to show in halter. It worked like a charm and he wasn't pushy any longer after being worked with for some time.

[endurgirl]

When she runs around you in circles, pop her on the butt and pull her head to you.

I have done that on a very obnoxious excited Arab at an endurance ride. The pop was so loud that people turned and looked, but when they saw that it worked, they made comments on how well it worked, LOL

[glideride]

He is being very disrespectful, my colt was about the same way and I started with teaching him not to invade my space. You will need to establish an area around you (longer then your arm) that he is not allowed to enter unless he has been invited. A round pen would be ideal but you can use just a longe line and longe whip, everytime he comes closer than what you want send him back away with the whip. I am not saying whack him with it but first try raising it from the ground, and escalate from there as needed by hitting the ground with the whip. He should be able to figure out that you are asking him to move away from you. Only if you really would need to then tap him on the butt with the whip...You also mention that he comes at you to check your pockets for treats? I would suggest that you do not keep treats in your pocket to reward him with, you are setting yourself up for having him continually mug you for treats. I give my horses treats but only after we have completed our training session and they are back in the pasture. While they are working I prefer to have them pay attention to what I am asking with the reward being a release of pressure, pat, loose rein.etc. I agree with the other poster on making the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult. When he does what is asked let him rest and remove the pressure, when he keeps trying to ignore you keep his feet moving and make him work. It can take some time to establish these boundries but each time should get a little easier...

[Cara]

i agree with what was mentioned above. this is very disrespectful, and will only get worse if it's not dealt with NOW. babies are very good at coming up with very... interesting... ways of messing with you that an older horse wouldn't try and you wouldn't even think of!

if she runs off or runs around you, like mentioned before, "pop her hindquarters and bring her head towards you". put your weight into it, really jerk her, you won't hurt her, she needs to get it through her head that that behavior is unacceptable and YOU are boss. If she stops and won't move, don't even bother trying to move her forward - you goal should be to move her FEET. Get her hindquarters moving, walk towards them and tell her to step under herself, when her legs are moving, then turn and ask her to walk forward with you. praise her when she's being a good baby! do NOT let her run straight at you! If she does this, use your rope, a whip, anything really, and smack her. this horse does not respect your space at all, teach her you have a "bubble" she cannot enter under any circumstances, only you can enter her bubble (haha).

[Cara]

another thing for when she runs at you... if a rope or a crop is not working, you mentioned you tried this before... try a plastic bag, like a grocery bag... and wave it like a madwoman, most likely she'll think the noise and the movement is not something she wants to run smack into!

[blazinpistol28]

Thank you for your suggestions. I worked with him for about two hours today. The treat thing comes from previous owners, they always had treats, but I dont. He has figured that out now and is trying to bite at me. I corrected that today with a little slap in the nose everytime he did that. He got the point.

I tried to get him to lunge to no success. He has never done that before. He made me mad by pawing at my son and then turning his butt to him. So, in turn, I gave him a good pop on the rump and tried to get him to lunge. Instead he pulled back like mad, so I, holding the lead close to the halter, backed him up as far as I could.

Does anyone know how to start a yearling to lunge? I've tried whips and a lunge, but all he does is pull backwards and refuses to go forward. Also, does anyone know how to break this one from rearing and pawing at you?

[AllAroundRdr]

I commend you for wanting to break bad habits, but I really have to say I think 2 hours is FAR TOO LONG to work a baby. They don't have the mental ability to focus for that amount of time.

Baby steps. Set goals, little goals and work on it for a bit and then be done. Hapring and drilling into a baby is only going to make your training steps go backwards, not forward. If you set a simple goal such as: walking from the barn/stall/pasture to the arena/roundpen quietly and respecfully and your horse does it right the first time, turn him out in the arena/roundpen, then take him back and be DONE.
I never have a set amount of time I work any horse, young or old. I go out/get on with certain things to work on/fine tune/perfect and when my horse gives in and does it (for babies it doesn't have to and won't be perfect) I'm done -- even if I've only worked that concept for 10 minutes.


As far as rearing and pawing at you, is this typical or could this be caused because the animal has been asked to think and focus way beyond what his mind is capable of? Neither are a good reason for such behavior, but one is complete disrespect and the other is a horse acting out because of handler error.

My now 2 year old reared up and struck out (not at me, but I took it that way) ONCE -- and his front legs met the end of my dressage whip. It only took a one time correction.