Ground manners on spoiled/bossy or spirited horses?

Question

When handling these type of horses, what method/approach do you use? I have heard of a few and I am curious.

E.g are you calm and unemotional, and "punsih" them by making the back up if being silly while leading, are you neutral and if the horse plays up give him a few warnings and then a loud(with a firm whack of the crop) telling off so the point is taken?
Do you ignore what they are doing, act like its normal and basically drag them along? Or anything else?

Please tell me which you use and why you think it is best. Probably not as much spirited, but spoiled and bossy(not vicious)

Answer 1

I think you have answered your own question: immediately calmly and firmly establish your space and what is allowed. Don't ignore what they are doing, as you may not be the only one to have to handle the horse and he should have ground manners for everyone. At a stable I worked for there was a three year old stallion in cutting training- leading him anywhere was like flying a kite. One of the hands would pretty much let him do whatever he wanted and the rest of us made him behave (with the calm/firm methods you mentioned.) I think the one girl thought it looked cool to have him bouncing around all over the place when she handled him, but he drove the rest of us crazy. It did not take long before it started looking like she was the kite instead, as she was drug all over by him. Finally one especially brisk day, he was bouncing all around and reared up and struck out at her. After she got her stitches (thankfully nothing worse) she would never handle him again. He was never vicious, just trying his limits. We rarely ever had to smack him, as long as we corrected him quickly by refocusing his attention. He later went on to win a lot in the show pen and now is a very easy to handle breeding stud.

Answer 2

Well, "whacking" a horse can be from a light bump on a shoulder to hauling off and hitting him... the hauling off and hitting I would not do or ever encourage a person to do. I don't use crops on a horse, I just don't need one. If I need an extension of my arm in a certain situation I will use a buggy whip but never hit a horse with it. I find that becoming the "boss" or alpha as its being referred too, is the best way. Always use firmness but give and release, always reward the slightest effort. Things like this take time, patience and repetition. Timing is key, commands need to be the same everytime and you just have to keep on until the horse understands. Which methods you go about, whether, standing calmly and using a soft voice and just keep asking and repremanding/rewarding or if its the type of horse that needs to work a little to understand what your asking. They find out when you put them to work you mean work, use harsher tones and bolder body language to show him that the calm polite way is much easier. Or anything in between. All horses need your ability to understand what he/she needs. Some horses just push and push those limits and others respect your requests within a short session or a day or two... depending on the particular horse and the severity of the issues. There are so many ways to make things clear to a horse and 100% more ways to confuse them.

Never ignore these habits, work on correcting them but don't fight with the horse. Sometimes you need to walk away and take moment if you feel you are getting no where rather than "whacking" him and starting a fight..... some horses defy a human when the know they can push your buttons and dget away with walking all over you, it becomes a game to them 'cause they know they can and will win. My feeling on a horse that plays these games have gotten to a point that they totally feel misunderstood and confused on everything they do and the fight is always the first option, its the only option they have to see "clarity" in what they are doing. You have to "understand" your horse and find what works, never should it be a whip or a fight with them though... the only way that will come to a resolution is that YOU "WIN" the battle and most people would need to call that "breaking a spirit" in other words, this just not being a "bucking them out" situation.

Answer 3

I have had lots of experiences with spolied, bossy, poor ground mannered horses. Some of them were mine, some of them weren't.

The one unanimous thing I have found, though, in my 15 years of dealing with absolute jerks to perfect angels, is that no matter what method you use -- all it takes is TIME. Time cures everything, and I seem to have found that it takes a year.

You buy a horse that is a jerk - won't tie, knocks you down,bulls you over, whatever, and all of a sudden, a year passes by and you look at your horse standing still on the crossties, waiting at your shoulder when you lead, and standing all day tied to the trailer and go "where'd you come from?"

If a horse pushes its limits with me, I am going to push back - I do not tolerate a horse knocking me down or striking or biting at me. I don't usually use a whip or crop, just my hand or the knot at the end of the lead.

Most of the time, I just prefer to constantly correct the horse - if it pushes in to me, I push it that much further away from me. If it moves all over on the cross ties, I hold its head still with my hand, or pick up a leg until it settles.

Practice and time are the best training methods--- and patience.

However, I have a mini horse that I have had now for over a year, and I doubt Pat Parelli, Monty Roberts, John Lyons and Clinton Anderson TOGETHER could put basic manners on her. She's a little damned monster. <<>> oh well.

Answer 4

When dealing with young horses, I go for calm and unemotional. If he begins to misbehave, I make him stop and stand quietly while I count (slowly) to five. Then we can move on. If he moves while I'm counting, I start over. If I feel like my control over the horse is bordering on nonexistent, I put a chain over his nose. That usually works for me on young horses with a lot of energy.

When a horse is just plain bossy, I have no compunction about bossing him right back. Get in his face if necessary. If he's dragging you around, it's probably because he finds it entertaining, and that has to stop. I'd still go the chain-over-his-nose route before trying a crop, though. If a horse thinks he can best you on the ground, he's going to start acting up under saddle, and that can get dangerous.

Answer 5

I bought a new horse last year that was friendly and loveable, but pushy and rude when it came to ground manners. She had been trained for riding by a professional, but her ground manners consisted of being caught, led straight to the barn, saddled and rode. She did not lead politely - her biggest vice was she walked fast and often was even or even past me when I first bought her. This could become dangerous as she would step on your toes, or even bump you with her shoulder or hip as she pushed past you. Having her circle around me, taps with the rope, small jerks and stopping her for a minute, none of those things helped until I really decided I meant business.
I had to get surprisingly stern with her. I had to use a rope halter, as she totally ignored the nylon web halter. When I led I had to jerk REALLY hard and really firmly when her shoulder got besides or slightly past me. I had to jerk hard enough that it hurt, and then back her a few steps quickly and then make her stop for a moment to think. Then we'd start off again. It took a few days, but now she leads very politely, she will walk just slightly behind me with her head even, she occasionally brings her shoulder close to me but doesn't even think of pushing past. When I had first got her I wouldn't have trusted a child or inexperienced adult to lead her, now she is fine. So I would continue with this for her. Some young horses wouldn't require such a stern lesson, so I would change my method for my horse's age and attitude, a young horse would simply be bumped back by the rope and kept comfortable when they were leading in the correct position, while an older, rude one would be treated very firmly so they weren't always being bugged, but firmly corrected when they were wrong.
Good luck.

Answer 6

I use a rope halter when training for ground manners.

So when I have one that is spirited and tries to leave me, I have more leverage to bring them back around.

Typically if I have one that is totally ignoring me and I'm not in its world, I do things to make it notice me. Such as, as for disengaging of the hips, backing up, make a noise etc.

I have expectations of my mules and one of those is that they will walk with me and stop immediately if I say whoa. I will not tolerate pulling and pushing on me. There are times I am leading 2 mules and a donkey at a show to their stalls and they better be well behaved.

So first I always establish a whoa in hand, both verbal and body language.

If I am walking a mule and they push past me and try to run off, I typically have enough leverage with my rope halter to bring them around. If they are walking faster than me, same thing. If I am standing there and they pull on me, I do back them up at a high rate of speed.

My mules also know the 'look' and if I give them one of those, they typically straighten right up.

When you have 1000lb+ animals, ground work and manners go alongggggg way.

Answer 7

I use horse language... if you stand by a pasture long enough and watch horses use body language you will see what I mean. When I lead my horse I have them far away behind me... if they come up beside me that means they dont respect me and my space. So I lterally "swish my tail" at them. I basically lift my hands to shoulder height and move my whole body like a horse tail. That's a warning in horse language. And if they dont get back I kick them in the chest (donkey kick).It's been working for about the 22 horses I have dealt with... good luck

Answer 8

Good question! I had a TWH that boarded at my barn that in his haste to get to feed in the morning would take me skiing from the pasture right down the barn aisle.

We spent the next month stopping and backing up till he assumed the proper leading position and THEN he got to eat breakfast.

Calm and rational but firm - may need exaggerated body language (like stiffening your shoulders up like a board as you cue him to stop) to get the message across.

I halted and backed him up a lot to gain control. At first I had to use more force than I am accustomed to but I scaled my force to his rudeness. Also he was rude about taking halter off - tried to take my arm with him - so he had to learn to drop head, hold still for unhaltering (without resistance), and wait for my cue before moving off.

Did not get perfect all at once - incremental improvements occurred - but his clue was if we did it MY way he got to eat a lot sooner. He was the slowest learner I've ever had but he DID learn.

Good luck this kind of training is well worth it.

Answer 9

I would give the horse one warning, and than a firm correction. Sometimes it depends on the horse.

Answer 10

I gave hhqh01 thumbs up... but I just wanted to reiterate how strongly I agree with that answer. Way to go!