Starting again...

[lottii]

This;



is Chezzabee. Or Chez for short.

In the past, I'd say five or six months my life's been extremely hectic. I've moved house, sat GCSE's, had to get a horse fit from scratch, and well I could list excuses forever.

One way or another, Chez hasn't been ridden for over a month and not been in proper work since September time. Her ground work since September has consisted of her being handled enough to come in to the stable, go out to the field and have rugs changed. That's pretty much it. (Okay, shoot me now!)

Chez is a very... temperamental horse as it is. But in the last few days she has started being rather vicious towards me for no obvious reasons. When I go in her stable she will run at me and bite me, if I am moving around her doing her rug she will bite me. She has issues with her back legs anyway from a previous home (you cannot touch them or brush against them), but when I was putting the fillet string under her tail her foot actually connected with my leg and I am pretty positive I did not touch her leg. (If you do touch her leg she kicks out towards you but not trying to contact you unless you touch her leg again, as a general rule).

She's also a pretty bolshy girl, when I was doing ground work with her daily she would lead nice, but now she's starting to pull and charge off in front of you, as well as pushing and shoving.

Basically I am looking for a whole range of advice on how to bring her back into ridden work again, and some new ground work to do with her. As far as the leading work goes, I really just need to get in the habit of walking her out for half an hour every day working on stopping and starting, but any other advice for that gratefully received. Any ideas as to reasons why she is starting to become vicious - my guess just being she is feeling left out, attention seeking almost - and how you would deal with it would be awesome. And any ideas on her back leg issues still useful, though I think I may have tried everything

Thanks,
Lottii

[.Rissa.]

Hi Lottii!

First off, let me start by saying she is so gorgoues! Chesnuts are a dime in a dozen but I really like her coat.

To me, it just sounds like she has forgotten who the leader is. Most big problems like this, had little signs coming. Perhaps at first, she was just a little bit pushy, or a little bit nippy, and that was okay, so she took it up a notch.

Some horses, when they get time off, start to become dominant and want to test you all over again. I know in my case, Bo, is generally a sweet horse, but if not handled for a few days, will be pushy with you, so you have to remind him who is in charge. And really, 3 1/2 months isn't that bad lol. So don't beat yourself up!

I would start by reminding her who is in charge, while staying safe of course. Do you have access to a round pen? A big one? I know when I first got Bo, he was very defiant. He would kick out at me and charge me some, but in a round pen, I could send him away and communicate with him. If you have a round pen, I'll further into detail on that... if you don't, there are other ways to make you in charge.

1. She is not allowed in your space
2. She needs to respect and trust you, but not fear you

I think you need to wait handleing her feet until she repects you and trusts you more. I have a recent horse named Cowgirl, when I first got her, if I even took a step behind her shoulder, she would get uneasy, back-up, and try to run away. With time of gaining her trust, I slowly was able to run my hands all down her back legs and now start to pick up her feet. It takes baby steps. At first, just run your hand along her back until she is comfortable, the next day, go down on her hip a little ways. You don't have to or need to rush. It may seem like a long time, but it's something that will be stuck with her forever.

What do you do when she bites you, or charges you? Does she do this in her paddock? How does she act when you catch her? How much stable time is she getting? Sorry for all the questions

[lottii]

Thank you, I love her coloring too, although she is starting to turn roan :/

I see what you mean about the little signs, I must admit I am rather lax on these, putting it down to her personality.

I'm afraid I don't have access to a round pen, I have done join-up with her in the past quite successfully, but since we moved there's nowhere I could safely do it. Round pens still aren't very common round here.

As for her feet, she has no issues with her front feet, she's trained the same as my other horses to be completely comfortable with hands going down there legs and around them, and picks her foot up when you tap on her fetlock. It's with her back feet you run into problems. I have had her for two years this month, and during that time I spent at least a solid six months (as well as other shorter periods) working daily on that. Til she was comfortable with her back, her hip, her gaskin. The furthest I ever got her happy with was down to her hock, and this took fourish months of daily work. After two more months of trying to get below her hock, I was banned from trying by my family as they were worried I was endangering myself.

When she bites me or charges at me, my normal response is to shout and I kinda throw my hands up. Not so much towards her so she thinks she's gonna get hit, just in an 'oi this is my space back off' way.

In the paddock she is generally good. She comes over nicely to see me when I go into her field, but she will try and bite etc if I climb through or over a fence/gate or stand on a box. She hates me being higher than I should be, and she hates me lifting my feet high off the ground. Someone has suggested to me that a previous owner could have tried to deal with her issues by trying to be bigger than her, and I've heard of people who knee horses in the belly as a reprimand. I suspect this could have happened to her, she reacts very strongly if I move (for some other random reason) in that way.

She loves to be caught, she comes to call normally at speed but stops a sensible distance away from me and shoves her head into her head collar.

She is probably in her stable from about 4pm until 9.30am overnight at the moment, which is the normal winter routine for our horses. She's probably been on this routine since October time, before then she had a couple hours less stable time, coming in at 6pm going out at 8am.

Hope my answers are useful, thank you for your help so far.

[.Rissa.]

You are doing the right thing about shooing her away and making yourself look bigger, and not letting her approach you when she has an attitude, only when she is nice.

How do you ride her then, if she acts like that? Has she always acted so badly to you being taller than her? Does she allow you to swing your leg over? How does she react to pressure on her sides? Some horse don't like it and need to get used to it, especially horses who are being broke to ride, but since she is broke, that is very strange... She seems to be associating some negativity with you being taller than her though. What exactly, I am not sure.

I'm sure someone more horse savvy than me (like Cara lol) will reply to this as well.

This is very strange. She might be reacting out of pain, I had a gelding become aggressive to me for having a leg injury, it's not an excuse, but it's happened. I know I hate when I tell people I'm having problems with my horse and their first responces are always 'take him to the vet!'. Becuase that is expensive and can't be afforded a lot, for people like me, lol. But if she just started this, something isn't right, whether it's physical or mental.