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Old 02-14-2010,
 
 
 
Lady B
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Ground Broke
Lady B is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: MA
Posts: 37
 
 
Default Just a little insight

John Lyons has a good article on this one called "Perfect Ground Manners". I had some of the same issues with Chance when he was younger (and this article helped a lot). A lot of what this baby is presenting is fear/disrespect for humans. Out of curiosity, how long have you had her?

I used to leave a halter on Chance all the time (The barn owner where I used to board couldn't catch him - and he was abused before I got him at 11 months old.) But what I had to do with him was earn his trust and show different body language. If they can sense or see fear displayed they can act like a bully - which then you're not conditioning the horse - they're conditioning you to leave their space. A lot of time and a stick and/or the back side of the manure fork to push against his butt and tell him "over" worked well with him. Chance's worst time used to be at feeding time. So we made a game out of it. He had to face me and give me space (yielding and standing next to the wall while I put grain in his bucket) before he recieved the reward (his dinner)

Unfortunately I have limited time to work with my horses but I make every minute count. Even if I only have 5 minutes I make it a small lesson. Those smaller lessons do add up. Be careful and good luck.

p.s. I can only speak of what worked for me and my horses. I am by no means a professional trainer - I only train my own horses.
 
 
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