[gypsy84]

I have just started working with a 6/7/8? year old appy mare, she's been handled in the past and knows how to lead, and I was told she had been led around with someone on her bareback. That was a couple years ago, and since then she's basically been put out to pasture with a herd of 7 other horses. She is EXTREMELY herd-bound. I brought her to the outdoor arena (no indoor) and tied her beside my sister's horse, as she was going riding too. Brushing is no problem. She wasn't afraid of the saddle or pad, and had no issue with the girth.

Picking her feet is a whole other issue; she had a bad farrier experience and now is terrified of giving her feet... She flipped out (pulled back and tried rearing but couldn't because she was tied) when I tried asking for her front foot. Settled down relatively quickly, but definitely has trust issues. She's nowhere near ready for me to trust her enough to go near her back end, unless I want a kick in the face. We'll work on that slowly.

Anyways, I had the saddle on and untied her and was leading her around a bit to get her used to the movement, and she was just completely ignoring me and my space the whole time. She was staring at the herd, and couldn't care less if she bulldozed right over me. So finally I got her standing still facing away, (but she wouldn't stop pawing), and I decided to let her loose in the arena with the saddle on so she could move around freely. For the entire 20 mins we were in there, she trotted up and down the fence line and stopped at the gate, then kept going. She wasn't unapproachable or anything, and I caught her a few times and led her away from the fence by her halter (got stepped on a couple times though) and each time I released her, she galloped right back to the fence line and kept pacing it. (She does one heck of a flying change though )

Leading her back to the pasture, she was calm, respectful, and seemed like a completely different horse.

Anyways, I guess my question is this. How can I get her respect and want ME to be her "herd"? Obviously as with anything to do with training horses, it's going to take time, but what can I do to get her to follow me instead of trampling me, and ignore the fact that she's away from her "friends" and just focus on what we're doing?

Thanks in advance

[Banat]

Oh my.

I think you are going to need more help than you are going to get from any forum.

I would suggest enlisting the help of a trainer. Get some lessons with the horse or some lessons for you without the horse.

In the meantime you can do some searches on this forum for "leading" and "picking up feet" and I'm guessing you will be able to find a lot of information to wade through

You can also google some of the popular trainers to find information from their sites regarding the issues you have.

The biggest problem I see (or in other words, the priority *I* would first focus on) you are having isn't really that your horse is herd-bound as much as it is that your horse doesn't lead well enough to remember it's training in a stressful situation (being away from it's herd) Once your horse is leading well enough to give you the performance you are thrilled with even in stressful situations you will find the herd bound problems will have improved a great deal all on their own. If you are still having problems with her being herd bound there are more things you can do.

Good luck, I'm sure you will get more answers that are helpful.

Seriously, consider getting some hands-on help. It will be an investment in your education well-spent.

Welcome to the board.

[gypsy84]

Just to clarify, this is not my horse. She is owned by the woman that I got my filly from, and where I'm keeping her. I agreed to train some horses for her, as I have years of riding experience. I've trained horses before, however they have always been young and not "set in their ways" as this mare seems to be. I was sort of just looking for suggestions of exercises I could work on that would get her more focused on me, and not wanting to just be with her buddies. I will try searching on the internet tomorrow, I just thought that I'd post this now and see if I got any suggestions from here! It was only the first time in years she's been actually worked with so I think I'll give it some more time before admitting defeat Thanks for the quick reply!

[Banat]

What I personally would do is put a full cheek snaffle on her or a D or O ring with a curb strap so the bit doesn't pull through her mouth as easily and use a stiff, lightweight dressage whip to teach her a solid "go forward" cue on the top of her hip. Then I would teach her to disengage her hip (cross her inside hind in front of the outside hind and stop the front inside leg -pivot) and when I had a lovely, snappy & light disengagment solid with her giving her nose to the side easily and starting to break at the poll I would switch to asking her to give her nose to just above the point of her shoulder (where the base of the neck ties in) this will make her start elevating that shoulder and leaning away from you - this is when I release. Soon I can ask the horse to walk forward, disengage the hip and not let go of the rein until the shoulder leans away as well. This progresses pretty quickly to the horse understanding to move the shoulders away from you while softening it's jaw, poll, neck and shoulder. Now you can keep the nose near you and move just the shoulder away - no more getting run over. Then you can play around and move the shoulder in every direction, if you get enough control over the feet you can make them think so hard about what you are having them do (dancing, really) that they don't have the capacity to worry about the other horses until they are no longer occupied.

I get a lot of leading and groundwork referalls, it's kind of my specialty - but it's hard to thoroughly explain in a post this was just a very brief outline.

[gypsy84]

Thank you very much for that detailed reply Banat, it makes perfect sense and was exactly what I was looking for I will bridle her next time and just work on leading.