AboutRick Gore (www.freewebs.com/horseawareness) Expertise Visit Rick Gore's Horse Site: www.freewebs.com/horseawareness --I am a student of the horse. I can answer questions about sacking out (Desensitizing vs. Sensitizing), dealing with spooky, abused or ex-race horses, rearing, bucking, horses that won’t tie or load into a trailer, working in a round pen/round corral, starting colts, dealing with aggressive or so called "mean" horses, herd behavior, biting, kicking, horses that won’t let you mess with their feet or head, horses that are hard to take a bit and hard to catch. I can also answer questions about using a bosal or hackamore, do's and don'ts, soft hands and direct reining verses neck reining. If you expect me to tell you feel good advice, you will be disappointed. 95% of all my answers will include the problem is you and not your horse. About 90% of most answers that I give out are on my web site, so if you read it you will probably answer your own question and may learn a few other things. If have some good information that you would like me to add to my site, please email me so it can be passed on to others.
Experience I am an experienced horseman with many years of riding and handling horses. I grew up in Texas around horses and horse people. I have started colts, ridden many horses with behavior issues and worked with problem horses. (I believe that most horse problems are normally people problems) I believe in and practices natural horsemanship. I continue to read and study books by great horsemen. I routinely attends clinics, talks with and discuss horse issues with other clinicians and trainers. I have never met a horse that could not be fixed. I believe it is never the horse's fault and with proper handling, all problems can be worked out.
Education/Credentials Rick has life long experience in being around and working with horses. Over the years he has watched good horsemen do the right thing and seen the wrong things done with bad results. Rick has a Bachelor of Science degree in Education.
Question QUESTION: I have three horses, an 18 yr old Quarter Horse, a 3 year old Canadian (rescued) and a 1 year old Canadian.
My first question (I could bend your ears with many) is about the two youngest being very pushy at feeding time. They are all together in a 10 acre pasture and I feed them
alfalfa and a bit of sweet-feed in the evening. The two young ones get in my face and push me as I am trying to get the feed into the bucket. I have tried to scold them, put my hand up etc, but I can't seem to curb this behaviour. The Quarter horse is a real gentleman and has never acted this way. I am 46 years old and have had horses my entire life. I have studied some Parelli, but not much. What am I doing wrong?
ANSWER: I am glad you ask what you are doing and did not blame the horses. :) You are teaching the young ones how to get the food faster.
Since you are having this problem, I would assure that you have not done much sacking out of these guys, so they are still scared of a plastic bag.
Get you a 2 or 3 foot stick (not for hitting) this stick can be an old whip, an old crop, tree branch, just something so you can tie a plastic bag to the end. Get you a grocery store plastic bag (free) and tie it to the end of the stick, you can tie two bags for better effect.
Now walk out to horses with either on bucket of grain or one flake of hay in one hand and the stick with bags in the other hand. Tell the horse horse "back", they will not move or listen, so right after you say back, say it again and shake the stick and bags in their face. The may rear, the may back up, they may swing and run, or they may swing and kick, so be ready, my bet it is they will run away fast. As soon as they move away, put the bag next to your leg and walk out in pasture, carry around the hay or bucket of grain and keep the plastic bag quiet and don't move it much. If they come back in, shake it in their face aggressively and say "back". After you walk around for about two minutes without them approaching, set the hay down and leave.
Do not chase them with bag, do not over use the bag, and don't use the bag for anything else but feeding time.
Later you can just put one in your pocket if you need it.
Later you can make them not scared of it, but that will be easy, so for now you can use it to keep them away.
Read my web site on sacking out, under the horsemanship page, it will explain what you doing in horse talk.
Rick
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QUESTION: Thanks so much. I will give it a try.
While the yearling is quite good with handling, the 3 year old has been very skittish since he arrived. He's very nervous, and I've had to do lots of work just so he'll allow me to brush and handle him. My concern is that I might undo some of this by shaking the plastic bag at them. Is that a possibility, or is curbing this behaviour more important at this point?
Answer I would say the feeding issue is a safety issue and is more important now than the fear issue. He must not be too fearful if he is rushing you for food. Using the bad briefly and not continuously should not undo all your work. The needs to know what your get back face looks like and your come here face looks like. So when you use the bag, make sure you body language, your get back face and you aggressive movement is all very clear, so the horse will know the difference.
