Ears, Heads and Grooming
Aug 31st, 2010 by Carolyn Resnick Method
Hello. As you may know, I have a very close and long-standing relationship with Neda De Mayo, who does wonderful work at her American Wild Horse Sanctuary, Return to Freedom, in Lompoc, California.
Neda has been a long time student of mine and has introduced a number of people to my Method during her workshops. As were putting together today’s blog, we came across a very interesting question from the Insider Circle which I wanted to feature. As you will read, this person was indeed introduced to my work via Neda and Mark told me that he was on the same workshop and that’s how he found out about me too! So I’d like to thank Neda and say that if you ever get chance to visit the sanctuary, I really recommend it. They run a variety of different events and workshops there too and of course it’s a wonderful cause to support too.
In fact, large parts of my Waterhole Reflections DVD were shot at the ranch and it really is beautiful up there, especially in the Spring when all the flowers are out, so go take a visit.
OK, so on to the question, which comes from Stephanie, who writes:
While participating in a clinic at Return To Freedom with Neda De Mayo (2007, I believe) I was introduced to your way of being with horses and have been practicing ever since. HUGE breath of fresh air! I have no words to describe the gratitude I feel.
My questions are:
1. Horse pins ears when walking toward food, with or without me walking with him. What does this mean and how would you shape his behavior, or does it matter?2. Sour expression, pinning ears while companion walking. What does this mean and how would you shape his behavior, or does it matter?
3. Head slinging when sending away quickly. What does this mean and how would you shape his behavior, or does it matter?
4. What are your insights on mutual grooming as a herd behavior? Does it matter who initiates it? Who usually initiates it, lead, dominant or lower in the order? Is this a ritual that can be used to strengthen the bond and shape behavior? How do you use it?
Thanks so much for your reply!
I look forward to coming to CA to study with you in person when the time is right.
And here what I write in reply:
1. Sometimes horses cannot be broken out of habit. What you have described may be the situation here, because she puts her ears back when she is approaching food even when no one is around her. The Kemosabe Arabian line will behave exactly as you have described and you cannot get it out of them. The horse doesn’t necessarily have any ill intentions from the ears being back, it’s just the way they are. They connect and love as well as the next horse.
The other thing to consider is that when horses are in a herd and are traveling together very close, it is natural for them to connect to the horses that get too close by laying their ears back, even when the horse next to them isn’t disturbing them or too close at all. It’s a game they seem to participate in. Having said all that though, I still spend the time it takes to try and train this behavior out if I can. I find that it’s easier to teach them to put their ears forward as a way to ask for a treat.
How you do this is to just wait the horse out; he can’t have the treat until at least one ear goes forward. Eventually, you can suggest a word to the horse, like “pretty ears” or whatever, and the horse learns what he needs to do to get the treat. You should be able to accomplish this in a week’s time but may take a month for the horse to be consistent.
2. On Companion Walking, sometimes it will help to stop and not go forward until the ears go forward. This might take a lot of time. You may just have to accept this from your horse.
3. This same behavior of the head tossing could very well be connected to your horse’s ear behavior. In a way, it could be a genetic reflex. Whether it is or isn’t, I find that when they are tossing their head as they are on a send-away, it will eventually go away. When you send your horse away, you can try to have him go faster and that might help. But, I do not think that a horse that throws their head in a send-away is something to be concerned about. One should be more concerned about a horse that has forgotten how to express himself. The main place to put your focus is on how your horse is advancing. If there is advancement, no matter how slow. You are on the right track.
4. Obviously, a lower-ranking horse would not start grooming a dominant horse because he might get in trouble. It doesn’t matter who starts the grooming. What happens with horses and humans is that the horse gets demanding about being groomed, and the human allows this. I use grooming as a way to train interactive behavior of the horse to be polite and accept when I choose to groom and when I choose to stop. If the horse begs for grooming, I give him a little scratch and then send him on his way. If you groom a horse always when he wants to be groomed, you will take the gas pedal off your horse when it’s most important for it to be there. In my book, Naked Liberty, there is a chapter titled “Boulder Rituals”. It shows how I used only grooming as a way to train a wild horse even to the point of riding her from a bonded trust.
So that has been my experience with the questions Stephanie raised but what about for you? Have you noticed any behaviors in your horse that you can’t explain? Or what about behaviors you managed to train out of your horse, how did you do it? I look forward to reading your comments below.
Carolyn
No related posts.
Hi, I posted – so I thought – another comment which seems to have gotten lost, so apologies if it reappears…
About ears – since we started working with our herd of five, we have seen some radical results in keeping ears forward. On reading about people who work with herds, it came to my attention that in order to even remain safe, it is imperative to drive out any horse that makes an aggressive movement towards any other when one is feeding or otherwise handling them.
Now that our herd has a sense of security with our leadership, we very rarely see ears back. At first they were unruly and new to one another, and I did not realize just how important this was. When we laid down the law, that’s when we got every kind of good result.
I have been unsure of the context was when people observed their horses being picked on by others in the herd, so I can’t speak to any particular person. But for sure, if another horse picks on your horse in your presence, their estimation of you as a leader will be reduced.
I think this is why the ears usually were back on ours. They were watching out for one another’s attack. Then when they found out we would not tolerate that, they relaxed so much that now their ears are almost always forward and they have ceased to scrap among one another when we’re around.
Hi, Carolyn,
Nice blog. Made me think about Snowy (arabian), and Rainey (pony). Both will put their ears back when I put food out for them, but generally not at me. I keep them separated by a pipe coral fence because the pony has been so aggressive/dominant. (Snowy had hoof prints all over him when I left them in together (he’s unshod) at first.) Ususally the ears back are directed toward the other horse. Even if the other horse is out of sight (down at the far end of their paddock), the ears back are directed to an imaginary horse behind them (they look back as if they expect another horse to be coming up for the food.) When I give treats, Rainey, who is thrilled whenever I pay him attention, has his ears forward, but Snowy (no Khemosabi blood) puts his ears back if he is trying to be dominant towards me, although he will put them forward if I wait or say “ears, or pretty ears”. If he is being more connected, he will keep them forward. He has been food aggressive for his hay in the past, and seems to be saying “give me the treat now!” when he has his ears back but he does not try to nip or push and I can move him off readily if I want to. We are working on keeping the ears forward. He companion walks with me part of the time now, but he still tests me and wants to hold back and be boss or be aloof still.
Hello,
I have been following your postings for some time and find them so interesting and useful. The Waterhole Rituals have really helped with both of our horses, especially with our mare who is 18 years old and came to us last November. She is a bit aloof and was slow to trust, but is coming along wonderfully now and enjoys companion walking and just spending time with us. Our gelding is 23 and is a Standardbred who raced in his younger years. After the track, he lived in homes where he was the “only horse” and somewhere along the line, developed the “pinned ears” exactly as described above by Stephanie. He shows no aggression towards humans while doing this, but it is all as she has described – coming towards you with food, companion walking (not always but most times) etc. He is perfectly fine when sent away – doesn’t do it then, and has lovely ground manners – never crowds and backs away when asked, excellent with his feet or any part of him being touched. I thought perhaps it was a habit that he picked up somewhere and perhaps he doesn’t realize he’s even doing it.
I appreciate very much your suggestions on teaching this, he’s quite food orientated and very smart – so I’m going to give your suggestions a try and will let you know how he progresses. He’s a wonderful horse and a good friend.
With Best Wishes and Thanks
Samantha Martel
The “return to freedom” banner (above) is really good… one of the nicest I’ve seen….
I am so glad she asked these questions and your answers were so helpful. I have 2 horses that display these things and its really put a new light on my view of their actions. Thanks so much !
Virginia (San Diego)
Carolyn, Thank you for the Ubbie exercises, that helped us a lot. I LOVE Kerrie’s remark about the ear song and having a little dittie to put the tack on!!
Awesome!
My huge friesian/tb has very sensitive skin from the TB I guess, (there could be a whole new training technique built specifically on communication for the extra sensitive horse, please let me know if there is one!)
Anyhow, he would start a tantrum and throw his front end down & i would look up to the right and drop my shoulders like, sigh that’s so boring. He loves attention so he’d try something else. he was crossing and uncrossing his legs one day so that became a trick. Recently he did a great imitation of a muppet head, cranking his head to the side and lolling his tongue, Then I realized that he will even debase himself in a quest for treats, extremely funny at first but not so good.. like an UN-focusing. I feel bad for rewarding him before thinking more about it, as in ‘ hmm..I’m kinda stupid for encouraging my horse to look…
kinda stupid’…
He mirrors a lot, even with his eyes, it would be interesting to do ‘eye experiments’. Sometimes it feels like we connect with the outer eye and sometimes it feels like an optic nerve to nerve connection, much like a warm handshake with energy is totally different than just a handshake.
Carolyn,
Thank you for another great post and those that have written in, so far thank you for sharing it is all the richer. Carolyn your answers to some of the posts just adds more insight and food for thought.
I always enjoy the novel but so simple approaches to assisting horses to reconsider their , and that Carolyn is why these posts are so helpful.
Yesterday we had an interesting ear and attitude issue. John was sitting with Murphy reading some work related material. True was in the adjoining paddock. She put on a real display of her displeasure about the situation. Repeatly trotting in oblong circles lunging in Murphy’s direction with pinned ears and snake behavior and then putting them forward as she looked and walked toward John’s direction. When I came out to the paddocks I couldn’t at first understand what was going on. Her behavior was really strange and at first I thought she was physically not ok or something. Then I started to see what was happening. She was unhappy that John was with Murphy, really unhappy. This is the first time we have even seen this pattern of behavior, but she was usually not in an adjoining paddock, when he sat with Murphy and might typically be further away eating or out in the wandering the field with one of the other horses. Murphy’s response was also interesting. He just quietly moved around sometimes visiting John or standing nearby. It was almost like he seemed to enjoy the attention even more along with her fussing. He ignored her completely. When side by side they usually get along fine and often mutually groom and interact each other. If their was a question of order between any of the horses who live here however it is between these two and sometimes the rolls are switched. They both seem more content when he is more in charge.
Any thoughts? insights or instructions?
As for pinned ears with the 30 year old Germ. born WB, I have mentioned before that I have taken now over 13 years trying to work on it, around mealtime we have accomplished getting get a nano second forward then he always pins them back and during the long time that we take requesting this, we get tons of salvating, stomping around and a variety of ear positions in different facing directions(or one forward and one back, then reverse that) before the desired one at us. He came that way and as I have mentioned we can use it to check his physical condition. No pinned ears at meal time, he must be ill, call DVM. He would never hurt us, just drama. He will charge other horses at mealtime who share his field and drive them off with the mightly pinned profile. I will note that he never drove off lambs who sometimes choose to eat in his feeder, instead he picked up the feeder at one end and repeatly droped it to discourage them and would look at us directly with both eyes blazing, if they held their position. We then assisted him by giving the lambs another place to eat.
True’s ears towards us flick all over the place faster and faster as she seems to get what we desire and will serve her as well. She is getting pretty good at keeping them forward when taking a reward, not just putting them forward to get the reward. Figuring out how to get that response without teasing with the food has been a small journey. I now say keep them up. If she doesn’t put them forward before feeding or offering a treat even as a reward and messes with me I say bye bye and walk away with the treat. That seems to get action on her part and is less and less needed.
True has also has become very polite at the other stall gate in a different paddock and very quickly stopped kicking the gate or trying to stand on it for attention. I only reward her for being quiet and polite and walked away with vigor with a I “can’t accept that” comment if she was displaying rude behavior to get attention. It worked really fast. Now she stands there and almost smiles quietly and seems quite content even for a word of praise. How long I am around in that part of the barn or how often she is treated is not an issue now. I had to get that undercontrol really quick or the gate might have become dangerously dammaged.
The best lesson I have learned from her four legged horse instructors is to extinguish anything unwanted by some sort of creativity that doesn’t provide her satisfaction of success from the behavior. Their protocol seems to be as follows: First be safe. Leave if it is unsafe. Reapproach, usually after a few minutes of “thought” and use a novel action to change the dynamics of the situation entirely. Set up no gradification to unwanted behavior. When she was little and tried kicking around feed they stayed at her shoulder. When she stood in a corner and kicked they either blasted her out or moved in using the shoulder method. They never allowed contact. She consequently will display attitude but doesn’t attempt contact, just as they don’t. Soooo glad that these are kind and thinking mentors. Her mother when she was over a year finally took action and used a different approach…She backed into her and kept backing. Her other action is to bite her in the rib cage if she doesn’t respond. She is now very respectful of Mom. Murphy seemed to watch that backing approach and also used it later, getting in close and keep plowing. It worked. The only time she gets to take over is when I want a polite request to enter a paddock and she if she is followed to close by another horse. She then will get her point across by display jump and kick out and or followed by running them briefly off with intent, to then return and politely ask for permission to enter. That is happening less and less as her intent is being respected about not being close at the gate. I usually go and reward them after she is in and they waited. She has learned to wait, almost all the time now, if they are to come in rather than her as well.
Ok I wrote too much but I hope to someone it spawned a thought to help with their horse in some creative manner or to watch what herd members choose as solutions to issues.
Take Care,
Thank you again for teaching us to observe and be creative and for soooo many novel solutions to improve the bond, willingly.
Hello Carolyn,
(I accidentally posted this on Aug. 17th post. Should be here.)
I enjoyed this post & others’ responses, especially the grooming stories. After 6 weeks, Falcon (the wild mustang) will let me approach him, but not touch anyplace else except for his head during the bucket exercise. Even this is not entirely inviting. He has sniffed and nuzzled my head while sharing territory, but no definite hellos with approaching from the front have passed. Just ears forward, welcoming me to approach, but not touch.
I am concerned about his needing to be groomed and treated for flies and being prepared for the farrier, vet care, etc. I try to reach fly areas while he is relaxed & eating, first with a piece of straw, then my hand. Yet, I cannot get close enough before he jumps away. (At least he has tried to kick, strike, or bite.)
I have focused on the rituals in working with him and have not attempted “desensitizing” methods or restraints such as ropes, flags, bags, sounds, etc. He had enough of that with a former trainer. Other than more time and patience, what small, non-threatening ways can we deal with unwanted touch? While he has overcome a lot of fear already, I need some new creative, non-force ideas. What might you recommend? I am open to suggestions.
Thank you!
oops, I meant to say “he has NOT tried to kick, strike or bite.” He just jumps away, then comes back to his food.
Good to read.
Thank you.
Looking forward to your next book Carolyn.
I’ll spread it far & wide.
Stuart
Carolyn,
Nice post. Good questions. I must say, since I have been working completely at liberty, many annoying behaviors in my horse have disappeared. No ear pinning (althought it was not a real problem before). Instead his curiosity is shown through his perky ears. A sour face(one of his favorite expressions) has become soft, without a hint of self defense.
I believe my horse was expressing his resentment at being “teathered” to me by a halter and lead rope. Now, he “make his own decisions”. At first he decided he didn’t want to be with me, because he had the freedom to walk away. But then, his curiosity took over and now he chooses to be with me, constantly trying to engage me in play.
Toni
P.S. Candle, I loved your writing and your story about your mule.
this blog sounds familiar to me, maybe since i read it in class?
just checking in
carolyn, did you get the MP3 i emailed you? it was of the song you asked about when reviewing one of my vidoes.
Hello Carolyn,
Interesting blog today. Thank you so much sharing your wisdom about connecting with horses, so they trust and want to be with you. My Arabian gelding has two behaviors that I wish I could abate. The first one is every time I approach with his tub of treats/supplements he mouths, like a foal. I’m thinking this is from his youngster days and the behavior has stayed with him. Presently, I’m telling “ears forward”, as his ears will go back when he mouths. I’d love your thoughts on this behavior. Next, when I grooming him he bobs his head up and down, and gets mouthy. It seems like he doesn’t like the feel the brush, so I have tried many a soft brush to find one that doesn’t irritate him. When he does this I’ll say, “excuse me”, and tap him on the shoulder with my finger. He usually stops the head bobbing, as his attention comes back to me. I’d like our grooming sessions to be enjoyable, especially for him.
If you could help me in anyway on my horse’s behavior with his mouthy and head bobbing behavior, I’d be so very grateful. He is former reiner champanion who was soured with life when I purchased him. And now I’m exposing to the world of trail with assistance of a partnership trainer, and he has come along ways with trail riding, and that I’m very happy with.
Thank you for helping horses have better lives with their human guardians.
Best regards,
Barbara Janesick
birroyal@aol.com
Dear Barbara,
Put him at liberty and groom him. Make sure that he understands that he is in your territory and not the other way around. You do this by putting food down and keeping him way from it so he knows this is your territory. Be sure to groom him normal not lightly if his head bobs ask him to leave nicely. When he returns great him and make a connection with him. Make sure he will allow you to stand close to him first. Start grooming him in the places he likes for a short time then send him away again. If he does not like his grooming more him away from you and out of our territory slowly and respectfully. Do short grooming until he will stand still . Make sure that he does not have any condition that would create pain from touching him. But this is not the case. I have seen this alot in race horses and this approach as working in every case. I have seen this work with horses that have not liked grooming for years and are terrible biters. Slow but not light. Your horse need to learn he will be the one that moves not you.
Let me know if this helps.
I forgot to tell you to groom him on the hay that you have driven him from earlier so he can see it is a privilege to be with you and get groomed. YOur horse is thinking of what you need to do rather that want he needs to do to fit in. He will lean to love and enjoy connection, right now he only knows the world of resistance. LIttle by little thing should improve.
I developed an “ears song” that I’d sing when I wanted to touch their ears. The more I would sing this, the more they took it as a reward, as I’d sing it in advance. Now I can clean even into the deep inner areas of Capricho’s ears (remember he used to lurch backward with alarm when his ears were handled, as someone among his previous owners apparently “bulldogged” him by the ears to catch him). Another thing that really helped was getting his favorite sugary treat when putting on the hackamore. I also have a little ditty I sing when it’s time to put on tack, which right away now brings the ears forward. I used to have to unbuckle the headstall to avoid pulling it over his ears. Now that there’s a treat in the picture, he even puts his nose into the headstall the way he does with his halter. All of this is with cheerful ears forward.
so good to read
Just checking in, interesting read about “Ears, Head and Grooming”.
I would like to add an experience with my 4 yr old gelding DB Marcello after having read the “POny” story and watching the Robin Gates video. When inviting Marcello to come to me he sometimes approaches me in a kind of oblique way and when standing still turns his head sligthly away. I would not pay much attention to this apart from noticing it. And would approach him anyway to say hello. I saw Robin subtly stepping back every time Pony turned his head away from her. Although Marcello does not have a similar issue I decided to step back as soon as my horse moved his head a bit away from me even though he was standing at quite a short distance. As soon as I did one step back he turned his head towards me. He also moved his body in a way that he could look at me with both eyes then. After having done that a couple of times on that occasion and keeping the stepping back in my mind whenever he approaches me but does keep his head turned away a bit I now have the feeling that our connection has improved. At least somehow it feels diffrent. He much more looks at me with both eyes. I figure that perhaps it has to do something with respect?
I would love to hear your comment Carolyn!
Dear Carolyn,
Checking in……
An interesting thing happened a little while ago, about half way through the in-a-box programme. Sun, my young mare was never one for grooming sessions or affection. My interpretation of her facial expressions and energy was that she was saying, “I’m not itchy right now, so what would be the point in doing that”. I didn’t push it and worked more on our bond. When baby popped out and after a few weeks became addicted to my rubs and scratches (my fingers are more nimble and precise, i think, than mummy’s teeth!) Sun decided she wanted to join in and soon realised how much fun scratches can be. She then started asking me for scratches. The mare joins in too now, with me and the foal, and baby often initiates grooming with sun but asks rather than demands. for a few weeks our daily greet was a mutual grooming sessions for four! Sun then got a little rude about demanding scratches from me so now i experiment with allowing not allowing and allowing and then stopping before she is finished. Something so seemingly simple has uncovered more layers to Sun and our relationship.
Joanna
In response to your invitation to recount recent behavioral changes, I’d like to offer a “New Mule” sighting. It relates to ears, very big ears.
Col. Moseby is a teenage 15 hand leopard appaloosa mule. He is inclined by nature and history (bad abuse case) to be the most skeptical member of an inherently skeptical race. I rescued him 5 years ago. On my part, it was love at first sight — he has the coolest, most expressive face I’ve ever seen on an equid. And he was handsome, strong and difficult — just my cup of tea. My affection, however, proved unrequited. Col. Moseby (named after the romantic Virginian civil war hero) has lived on my quiet farm and attended courses at the Parelli Center and, although we long ago reached an accord, ours was not an affectionate or trusting relationship on his part. Until very recently, I thought that was just the way he was. I’ve heard that some badly abused mules never again trust people. I believed, wrongly, that the problem was with him, not me.
About two weeks ago, maybe a bit more, I began ST with him and another horse. I included him, initially, only so the other horse would not fret alone in the small paddock. To my surprise, Moseby was visibly delighted with the opportunity and made the most of it. Within days, he had transformed himself into a New Mule. With no apparent effort on my part (other than my new-found skills from the Waterhole Ritual course I took this summer), Moseby decided he was in love with me.
He is now the first to notice when I arrive and watches me all the time. Even when he is way off in the pasture, I see his big ears point in my direction as I get out of the car. He has begun waiting in ambush at the gate, clearly trying to make it impossible for me to take someone else out first. When I do, he brays like a lost soul. The past few mornings I’ve let him out when I ride another horse and he just follows us around at liberty like a dog, radiating satisfaction. In the barn, he puts his head over the stall door and watches me pass back and forth, inviting me to stroke his face, something he never, ever, did before.
In the past, Moseby usually came when I called him (as I held his eye and backed up), but it has always been with his ears pinned back and a sour expression. Now when I call him, his ears point the way. Until just recently, he never let me touch those ears. You know the little black dangling clots of oily dirt under the ears that some horses get? With Moseby, removing them used to be absolutely off limits. Now, all of a sudden, he thinks having me rub his big ears is bliss. He rests his chin on my lap or shoulder and lets me go at it, eyes half-closed in enjoyment. He even let me clean the inside of his ears with cotton and alcohol the other day, totally at liberty. He loved it. The more I caress and fondle his ears, the more I notice they stay pricked forward when I practice the rituals. He is still uncomfortable when I try to lead from behind, so we are doing just a tiny bit of that interspersed with long periods of companion walking, which he adores.
Thank you, Carolyn, for my new mule.
Candle Hill – that is a lovely story !!
Carolyn wrote: “Obviously, a lower-ranking horse would not start grooming a dominant horse because he might get in trouble.”
I have a different experience with my lowest ranked horse Frosti (in a herd of seven). He is always very compliant to all the other horses’ wishes and never shows any sign of dominance whatsoever. But as for grooming, he is almost always the first to go up to another horse and ask for or start grooming, at the risk of being sent away. But often they don’t and just groom him back very willingly for a while.
I think Frosti always starting the grooming probably has to do with him suffering from ‘sweet itch’ (summer eczema). The itch makes him just bold enough to ask for being groomed by the other, higher ranked horses. And they seem to know that he needs it.
Dear Marja,
How do the other horses in the herd feel about Fosti? A lower ranking horse is a horse that the herd drives away and get little rights unless given them. Your horse not being dominant does not make him a lower ranking horse thought he might be one. A horse that is suffering for some sort of problem can get special compensation and care.
Observation is the key to learning- thank you for sharing.
Thanks for your reply Carolyn. I understand what you are saying about not being dominant not necessarily meaning a horse has a low rank, but in Frosti’s case he really is the lowest in rank. All the other horses can drive him away and most of the time Frosti already moves out of their way before they are even close enough to actually drive him actively. He has very little rights like you describe and he’s completely okay with that. He is now 22 and even all the foals we’ve bred outranked him in the end.
What I find so remarkable about Frosti is that he has never shown any need for the least bit of arguing with other horses whatsoever, nor does he have the wish to ‘climb up the ranking ladder’ in any way. The other horses can all move him around but he totally accepts this; he doesn’t seem to ‘suffer’ from it at all. In fact, to me he seems the most dignified, peaceful horse I have ever known and he also has a very calming and trusting effect on other horses and people, even people who meet him for the first time feel this. The other horses in the herd like him, groom him and play with him (he is very playful at times) but also move him around when they want to, but at the same time he isn’t an outcast. He isn’t afraid of anything, likes very much to be on his own (but also in the herd) and is the type that would survive in any circumstance without complaining.
If Frosti would have had any leading ambitions, I think he would have been the greatest and most trustworthy leader that ever existed, like a kind of ‘Gandhi’ among horses.
If you feel like it, maybe you’d like to watch these three videos, that show his ability to completely be at peace with and ‘meditate’ on the simple things of life:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73uF6hN53ik
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPgZRK1m0OM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAMeqby2cqY
Hi Carolyn – Checking in and to ask a couple of questions if I may?
1. My senior mare is still very aggressive to Fi Fi (ex-racehorse) who joined the herd three months ago and has worked her way up to position 3. She goes at her with ears back, teeth connect sometimes when I enter the field. How can I help her to get over this?
Just writing this I may have the answer!! Every day I take Fi Fi out of the field to feed her as she is quite thin so maybe I should take the senior mare out first and treat her?
2. When I am moving around the paddock with a wheelbarrow should I be expecting the horses to look at me? If I approach them and they have their buts to me, perhaps I should move them away.
I have booked to come out in December for your 10 day clinic and am very much looking forward to meeting you. A dream come true.
Carolyn B
Hello Carolyn and everybody,
My mare Clarence has a background as a racehorse, as I found out in Internet. I found her two years ago, starving, quite abandoned, when I bought her. She’s now 10 years old, and I only found out about her that she had a foal at the age of 5, but I did not find out how she had been treated. She’s has never been afraid of people.
She was very food aggressive first, when I came into her paddock with food, ears back, running around like mad. When eating she was so greedy making nearly “holes” in her bucket, stamping her back feet up and down. Through practising the WHRs, the food issue improved a lot as you’ve seen on one of the videos I sent to the IC.
Still there’s the intimacy issue, that you pointed me at, watching my videos. She thinks she doesn’t like grooming. When you touch her neck her automatic reaction is to draw back. And I needed to do some yoga with her with your first Ueberstreichen exercise to relax her. Then she began to enjoy the grooming.
Now I found some help with her new companion, Coco, who shares the paddock with her. They really love each other. And he adores grooming. So first I start grooming him at liberty while ST with both of them and as we stand very close, Clarence, Coco and me, I pass my grooming on to her then back to him and so on. And she slowly finds out, she likes it, too.
Still, her first reflex is a (now) slight backing, when I touch her neck. Maybe she was beaten on her neck while racing.
It’s a long journey, but so wonderful with daily progression.
Many greetings
Andrea