Stubborn Horse!!!?

Question

my horse is majorly stubborn. we take her out of the paddock, then we have to literally push her back inot the paddock. it takes half an hour to get 10 metres. when we try to walk her forward, she goes backwards, and then refuses to go anywhere. she is old, like 23, but she has gotten more and more stubborn over the years. anyone please help!!!

even when we coax her in with her favourite food, she still doesn't go where we want her to go.

if we pull her, she resists, and pulls away, and if we put a blindfold on her she would go crazy & nutso and would freak out!!!

Answer 1

I wouldnt suggest a blindfold, only because the horse needs to walk forward when you ask it to when its told.

When you pull, she will pull, try this....
Walk back with her when she pulls, when she trys to eat, yug the lead when she rips the grass, as this is when they are chewing rather than pullling the feed.

Use the end of the lead to hit the horse, it should hit anywhere on the horse, and if she doesnt move, try a dressage whip to lightly tap and earge the horse on, some horses need more of a sharp hit than others, try gradually harder each time she resists. Until she walks, but dont go to hard, leaving welts.

If you talk gruff, she will understand the tone of the comand, but yelling makes them stop listening.

Being 23, she may have sore feet, try shoes and keeping her mobile, as she may have arthritis. Try a feed which helps the body, and that contains all the correct trace minerals etc, equilibrium or a pre mixed feed.

It may seem useless at somepoints, but keep it up and persevier!

If things dont go as planned, try to chase her, or have her follow another horse.

Answer 2

Are you riding her or leading? How long has she lived/ been in the paddock? Is she by herself? When you say "paddock" does this mean where she stays after your through with her? Are you taking her away from company? Has she ever been traummatized in the paddock? Usually horses are happy to be home and tend to become "barn spoiled"
Make sure the paddock is safe #1. Make sure she has plenty of food and clean water.Make the paddock pleasant to go back to. Grain, apples. (careful with the treats though, you dont want to make her swing in the other direction and become barn spoiled)Don't leave her immediately, take her in and groom her. Be consistent. At first ,dont fight her. If you can work with her alone do so. Let her take all the time in the world the first few times. If it is an inch at a time,great. Stop her before she stops. incourage her, but never force. It will take time to earn her trust, be patient. Really though, I can't give you accurate help, there is to much information not given. I can only guess. Good luck.

Answer 3

First of all, try to remember that your horse might not be refusing to listen because she is trying to be stubborn, or to displease you, but that she might be refusing and acting still for other reasons. First of all, check out the tack that you are using. Check everything. Check to see if the saddle you are using fits her properly, make sure that your cinch isn't too small, and that it isn't pinching her, and make sure that the bridle you are using isn't rubbing anywhere. Also, another good thing to check would be her bit. If she is an older horse, then using a regular old snaffle bit might not be the best idea. She may need a stricter bit such as a tomb thumb snaffle (the kind that you can put a strap or chain under), or a curb bit which you can also put a strap or chain under. However, if you do decide to switch bits, remember that both the tomb thumb bit and the curb bit are shank bits. This means that they work more on your horse's pressure points behind the ears than they do on their mouth, and the only way for them to work properly is if they are used either with a curb strap or a curb chain. Small things like that can be big factors in how your horse behaves. Also, how much grain is she getting every day if any? There is no point in giving her a ton of grain every single day, because first off, if she is in an area where she can go out to pasture, and she gets plenty of hay, then all that grain is doing is giving her excess energy which can come out as bad behaviour when you ride her. If you have to grain her daily, just a small soup can full once a day is plenty for her. Next, check out the area that you are riding in. If it is an arena, are there other horses near it that might be distracting her or upsetting her? Stallions and geldings are especially good to look for, since your mare will try to impress them by prancing around and acting silly. Check out certain things like weather or not its located near a road, what kinds of things go on around the arena when you ride, since these things can make big differences in the way your horse behaves, especially if the things that go on seem to frighten her. Above all, make sure to be very very patient with her. Don't use harsh corrections like slapping when she does something wrong, and if you start to feel frustraited or angery, then it is probably time to call it a day and let both of you have a break. When she does something wrong, gently correct her. If you are working on the outside of the arena when she misbehaves, move her towards the center, but when you do so, make her pick up the pace and work her in a figure eight pattern a few times before returning to the outside, and then let her relax and move back down to a walk. If she gets it in her head that when you move her towards the inside of the ring, it means she'll have to do work, she will soon make the connection between that and her behaviour, and she will look at being on the outside as a reward. Also, look at how she has been trained. If she has been pressure trained, and taught to move according to signles from your legs and seat, then she might get confused and upset if you try to use techniques like direct reigning or neck reigning, because she has never been taught those things.

Answer 4

Without knowing any details, it will be hard to answer this one. How long is she allowed to stay out of the paddock? If for very short periods, she might just not be ready to go back in for fear of not getting out again for awhile. Hard to say..
Try this: One person get a coiled rope {something she can see fairly easy} and swing it up and behind her as the other person leads her into the paddock. {you might even have to bump her in the rear with a gentle tap of the rope while she is in foreward motion} If she stops, make her walk in a circle and then aim her directly back to the paddock followed by the swinging of the rope..might take several attempts.

She is basically saying she is the boss, and you cant let her get away with it...I figure that is how she has gotten more and more stubborn over time ;)

Hope that helps, if not I can answer with something else later :)

Answer 5

This is a leading problem. She has to learn to come off the pressure. Monty Roberts' "Dually Halter" will definately help with this. It gets smaller and smaller the more pressure they put on, and releases as soon as they move forward. I also feel this may be a "respect thing" in which Monty Roberts can help again with "join up".

It's important that you can get her walking forward and backwards in other situations first. Once you have this sorted, take her to the paddock, and the second she pauses to resist- back her up. Three steps is enough. Walk her forward, when she stops, back her up. This is telling her "ok, you don't want to do that, I'll make you work backwards". Eventually, she'll work out that not going into her paddock= more work, and she'll stop. The most important thing is not to give up until you have your message across. Don't give until she does, otherwise you are rewarding her going backwards by releasing the pressure on the poll.

For more info, I suggest you look up Monty Roberts. I was blown away by his ability to connect and communicate with horses, and he explains it in a way that is practical and allows you to do the same with your horse to get the results you want.

Good Luck with her :)

Answer 6

My horse use to be that way, now I can place my hand on his neck and he'll back up without any pressure, he knows the rein commands and isn't even broke, picks up his feet and loves to cuddle, I trained him along with help from my mom, so if you want results like these, read on. . .
What we did first was spend more time with him when he is inside. Stroke him all over not just on his head and neck. Love him and show him attention.
Then we walking and the horse will not go foward pull sharpy down on the lead rope and couple times, be ready for the horse to pull back. But then see if the horse will come forward, repeat this when needed.

TLC!!! LOTS OF TLC!

Answer 7

I wouldn't force her with ropes or hit her or anything like that. I would lead her as normal, but (for example if you are on her left side and leading her) I would hold a dressage whip in my left hand and everytime you feel her start to apply resistance tap her with the end of the whip. I wouldn't coax her with treats or grain at all because that will teach her to charge, nip and you will have a whole lot of other problems on you hand. I might suggest the blindfolding thing, but the again, I wouldn't because if you horse is head- shy, you will only make the problem worse by applying something to her face. If she is headshy, then you need to work on that, like in her stall or in a confined area before you try leading her with a blindfold. The horses in Black Beauty were trained to accept the cloth being thrown over their faces. No horse would allow you to just come up to them and throw something at them. A disadvantage of blindfoling your horse would be that it will increses her flight response. If something scares her then she will be more likly to over react at the thing that scared her. Horse naturally rely on sight and smell in the wild.

Answer 8

It actually helps to blindfold a horse. We used this trick many times to get a horse into a trailer or into a stable it didn't want to go into. Did you ever watch black beauty? They blindfold the horses to get them out of the burning stables. Once you cover the horse's eyes, they will generally follow them wherever you lead them. Make sure you do it gently and slowly though and use something soft like a fleecy scarf. Good luck!

Answer 9

Get a long lead (maybe a lunge line?) and attach it to your horse's halter. Bring it around her hindquarters on the off side and back up to her chest on the near side. Pulling the rope puts pressure on her butt, and you can try to lead her. You'll be pulling from the front and encouraging the back end to come as well. It's how we teach foals to lead, it's gentle, and I guess it'd work for an older horse

Answer 10

i agree, try blindfolding her, it might help. is there something in the paddock that maybe she doesn't like, and over the years has grown more cautious about?
shes probably just a stubborn old mare, but maybe try coaxing her in with a treat, and just be nice to her, and encourage her to go in.
good luck.