Autumn – the grumpy horse !
Nov 6th, 2008 by Carolyn Resnick Method
Hi. Today I would like to share with you an email I received from our regular contributor Margaret, who has been having some telephone coaching with me. Her horse Autumn had been causing her a few problems by demanding treats in a somewhat grumpy fashion.
Now as you read Margaret’s story, think about how you can take the advice I gave to Margaret, adapt it and use it with your horse if he is presenting you with problems. A lot of horse training is about using your imagination and coming up with solutions that are fun for both of you.
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so which excercises would you suggest to do Carolyn to bring up the energy before doing the companion excersises
br stina
Dear Carolyn
thank you so much for the remark about the exercise.
I used to exercise him first because oherwise his motivation just wasnt there, but I thought that it was wrong so I stopped…
But now I’ll continue letting him have a run and waking him up before our interaction. Nice.
Caroline,
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Caroline from Sweden
For those people who have not started giving a horse a treat, I think that they can prevent this response in their horses by not handing it a treat at the first sign of the ears going back. Instead they should hand a treat at that point they ask their horse to go trot instead. Work the horse long enough to get the endorphins going so the horse gets energy and perky ears. None of my horses have ear problems and if I found that the treats are the cause I would stop the treats. My rule of thumb is I never carry treats on my person and keep them in a bucket on the opposite side of the fence from the horse.
Another suggestion is to bring up the energy of your horse at liberty with plenty of exercise before you start with companion interactions. This would help Doolie.
Carolyn
Dear Carolyn,
Thank you so much for posting this story from Margaret and Autumn.
Suddenly I found my self having the same problem. Like my horse said ‘OK I will do what you ask’ with his ears being not pinned but like ‘listening to something behind him’ instead of ‘Oh, what a good idea !’ with ears forward. He is always very hungry (but absolutely not thin…) but never pushy. Also he started to (when I feed hay outside) place himself with his behind in my direction, raised head and listening backwards-ears (not pinned) then as I approach, he will move so he is vertical to me. I have no idea why ? If he starts to paw I will stop and wait until he stops, this seems to work. Still he’s never pushy, but he is trying to tell me someting…
So Thank you Margaret for sharing and same to you Carol for telling your story with the different approach. This gives inspiration to alter the situation for me.
Tonnya
Dear Margaret,
You’re singing in my choir! My horse Doolie has the most irritating flat ears I’ve ever seen, and they are constantly back–unless I’m in the process of giving him a treat. Since he’s a very dominant horse and had been mistreated before I owned him, I figured it would take quite awhile for me to win him over and get him past this annoying habit, but unfortunately I’ve been working on it with him for over four years, and it’s still an issue.
I started telling Doolie that he needed to give me two eyes and two ears before he would get a treat from me about eight months ago when I began working with Carolyn. Well he’s a clever little guy, and figured out right away that if he so much as flicked his ears forward for just a second, the treats would come rolling in. The only problem is that his ears don’t stay there. I tried to encourage Doolie’s “nice” ears by asking him to hold his ears forward a little bit longer before I gave him a treat, but that only caused him to paw impatiently and we backslid immensely.
I also tried Carolyn’s trick of walking him to a treat–only moving forward if his ears were forward, but eventually he grew bored of that too and the ears remained glued backwards. I thought I was going to grow old and die waiting to take even one step forward… I’ve had some success reversing the game though. I’ll tell him to wait while I’m a fair distance away, then I’ll walk slowly to him with a treat, stopping whenever his ears go flat. That’s the most effective game we’ve played so far, and I also use it when I bring hay to his stall. Doolie’s very motivated by food, but he’s also very impatient which puts him in a foul mood much of the time.
Doolie’s the first animal of any kind that I’ve ever had trouble connecting with, and the flat ear thing just sort of punctuates that for me. It’s interesting that he’s the best, most well-behaved, bomb-proof horse you’d ever want to ride, but judging from his ears, it would appear he behaves because he feels he has to–not because he’s bonded with me and wants to. That’s just a shame and it’s something I’m desperate to correct. That’s why I began working with Carolyn in the first place. If nothing else, Doolie certainly is teaching me patience!
From one grumpy horse owner to another, GOOD LUCK!!!! Thanks for making me feel as though I’m not the only one out there with this problem. And Carolyn, if you’ve got any other de-grumpifying tricks up your sleeve, I’d be more than willing to try them! Thanks!!
Waw, I should try that with my horse. He is also that pushy and also puts his ears back when we run together.
What I do not quite understand is where you put the treats? ARe they still in your pockets and do you walk with him and when he puts his ears up, you give him that treat?
Or, do you hide them in the arena at diffrent places and stand next to them and call your horse and when he is pollite, you give him that treat.
Or are they in a bucket and you walk around with him and when he is pollite, you go together to the bucket and give him a treat?
Greatings,
Thank you so much for posting this Carolyn!. This is one of the things that has been bothering me about my new horse and her bossiness for treats, she also pins her ears back when we are starting to trot together. We’ll see what she does now…
thank you again for sharing!