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About Rick Gore (www.thinklikeahorse.org)
Expertise
Visit Rick Gore's Horse Site: --- www.thinklikeahorse.org
--Rick is a student of the horse. He 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, hard to catch, using a bosal or hackamore, soft hands and direct reining verses neck reining. If you expect him to tell you feel good advice, you will be disappointed. 95% of all his answers will include "the problem is you and not your horse." About 95% 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. I am like Gordon Ramsey (Hell's Kitchen) and Simon Cowell (Idol), you may not like what I say or how I say it, but it will be pretty true and accurate, in my opinion, judging from my experience.
Experience
Rick is an experienced horseman with over 35 years of riding and handling horses. Rick grew up in Texas around horses and horse people. He has started colts, ridden many horses with behavior issues and worked with problem horses. (He believes that most horse problems are really people problems)
He believes in and practices natural horsemanship and continues to read and study books by great horsemen. He routinely attends clinics, talks with and discuss horse issues with other clinicians and trainers. He has never met a horse that could not be fixed. Rick believes it is never the horse's fault and with proper handling, all problems can be worked out.
Education/Credentials
Rick has over 35 years 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.
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You are here: Experts > Recreation/Outdoors > Horses > Horses - Behavior Issues, Breaking and Training > Change in behavior: www.thinklikeahorse.org
Expert: Rick Gore (www.thinklikeahorse.org) - 11/2/2009
Question
Around a year ago I bought a four year old warmblood paint. She loves to jump and occasionally runs to them or bucks through her lead changes, which is understandable due to her age and how green she is. My trainers and I have been working on it and have already seen drastic improvement. Her ground manners were always excellent and she was a loving, sweet mare. Since she was very young my trainers and I have been working on the on both the flat work and jumping. Recently I got into an accident at a show and was stepped on due to improper stalling at the stable. I wasn't riding her however she managed to jump out of the stall when I happened to be walking by and she broke my femur bone. I couldn't ride for about 4 months and when I came back, I could only walk and trot. I just started coming out to the barn 5 days a week and I can now canter. My trainers have been riding her 5 days a week up until now. I have just noticed that she constantly pins her ears back and tries to nip me. Today she started kicking out when i tightened the girth. I have noticed that this behavior is not present when she's with my trainers. I do not want to punish her if it's my fault and I'm also not nervous or afraid when I'm with her. Today she took off with me bucking and around the fifth buck, I fell off. When I walked her to the mounting to get back on, she started biting me and wouldn't stand at the mounting block. I don't know what to do because I feel as though personally it is my fault since she's not like this with my trainers however I just returned and I am doing everything the same as I did last year when her ground manners were top notch. I just want to make her happier around me so that we could be back to how we were before my accident. Please help me, I am aware that you don't answer many questions because people complain about answers but I really would like any adivce that you could give so that I could better understand my mare. Thank you so much!
Answer
I hear an awful lot of excuses and then you say "if it is your fault". If the horse does not do this to your "trainers" and only does it to you, how can it not be you? You say the horse jumped on you from improper stalling? I am not a mathematician but the odds of your horse, just happening to jump out of a stall, just when you happen to be walking by and just happened to land on you and break you up, seems a bit high.
It may sound rough but I think you are in denial. Everything you are telling me says this horse does not respect you, it does not trust you, it does not feel safe with you, it treats you like a lower, probably because you act like a lower horse and this horse knows it can get away with what it does.
You say this mare is so sweet and then say it bites you, kicks you and bucks with you..... Can you describe an "Un-sweet" mare? You want to "make her happy" and "don't want to punish her". Your explanation sounds like an abusive relation and you are in a cycle and can't get out.
You say the horse bucked and on the fifth buck "you fell off". You may be very nice and see the world through rose colored glasses, but I assure you this horse sees the world, you and your relationship very differently. This horse threw you off and she knows it.
This horse sees you as weak, sees you as a poor leader, sees you as a lower horse and will hurt you or kill you. With that said this horse is NOT being mean and is NOT meaning to hurt you or kill you. That will not change a thing if you end up dead. Intentions means nothing to horses. They will kick another horse and if it lands right it will break a leg and the horse will have to be put down. No horse every intends to kill another horse when it kicks, it is what horses do. Horses bite other horses, they take skin and hair and leave large bruises when they do it, they are not trying to kill and trying to take fur, they are being a horse doing horse things. You want to see this horse as your friend and think this horses loves you and would never hurt you, you are being very unwise. This horse will kill you and it will be your fault and someone will want to put the horse down for being dangerous and mean. It is not so. This horse is just being a horse, it is doing what it is allowed to do, you are teaching it dangerous lesson by being NICE, by NOT wanting to be mean, you want to worry about the love and relationship and by doing so you sacrifice safety and you make the horse dangerous. With horses you MUST be willing to sacrifice the relationship for safety!
I would rather a horse not love me and not kill me then have a horse love me and kill me, pretty easy choice for me.
This is all about you and I see this all the time. If I rode this horse it would not do this to me, it does not do this to your trainers, why? Because your trainers are not worried about being loved by this horse, I would not be worried about being loved by this horse, I would be worried about being safe. This does not mean I do not love horses, it means I know they have to respect you before they love you. If a rattlesnake bit you would say it was sweet and you don't know why it bit you? Of course not, that is what rattlesnakes do, they bite if you get too close.
So when someone tells me a horse kicks, bites and bucks I say: "That is what horses do", the difference is you can stop a horse from doing this by dominating it, pushing it, treating it like a herd animal and treating it like a lower horse so it will not do this. Watch a lead horse or top horse, no horse runs over him, no horse pushes him, no horse kicks at him, tail swishes him or pins their ears at the high horse. That is what horses do when they respect leaders and higher horses and they push and disrespect lower and weaker horses. You are either higher or lower. If you have not figured it out yet, you are lower, this horse sees you as lower and treats you as lower. My guess is you act lower, you allow this behavior, you do not correct or discipline this behavior so the horse thinks it is OK and acceptable. I agree with the horse. You get treated they way you allow a horse to treat you.
You have a few decisions. Keeping being nice and loving, get hurt again and keep teaching this horse dangerous lessons (not my choice). You can give up horses since no matter what horse you get the result will be the same, if you keep doing the same thing you will get the same result. Or you can change, you can become a "moody alpha mare" and treat this horse like a lower horse, push it, make it not want to bite you, not want to kick you and not want to disrespect you. You have all the choices, this horse has none, it can only do what you allow it to do and what you teach it, it is stuck with you and you are doing it a disservice by being NICE and seeing all this dangerous behavior has sweet. I think all horses are sweet, all horses are dangerous, all horses can be nice, all can kill you -- it all depends on what you allow and what you do --
Like I always say, a horse pays for our mistakes and our bad choices. A bad horse is not born they are made. They are made by loving and caring people who don't understand horses.
If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got.
You need to watch the "horse kick" video I have on my site and see how fast, hard and accurate a horse can kick. This horse that kicked that guy was NOT being mean, it was being a horse, but I assure you the guy that got kicked did not care if the horse was being sweet, mean, nice or loving, all he knew is the horse taught him to fly very painfully.
When you horse jumped on you, it did not mean to hurt you, but it still hurt. Had it landed on your head or neck, it would not have meant to kill you, but you would still be dead. I blame you for, you being nice, you not teaching this horse manners, caused this and you want to blame the stall???? better than blaming the horse, but the horse will still pay when it kills you or someone else, the only difference is you had choices and this horse has none. I hope you get the message.
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