Hi! At the moment i have a gorgeous 4 year old loan pony called Freya who i am trying to develop a relationship with. i have tried a few leading stuff and it seemed to be working for a while as i was getting licking and chewing but now she seems to be more interested in grass and has nearly shoved me against a fence a few time while i was leading her! we our trying to find some fences to make a temporary round pen at the moment so im waiting for that to do join up but i would like to do some more leading stuff with her in the meantime. does anyone know of anything i can do which will get her attention? as well when i go to put her in her paddock waiting at the gate is a feisty Shetland and a boisterous new forest gelding who have escaped twice now while ive been putting Freya back. is there a way to get Freya in and keep the other two in as well? it is very annoying and it took three people just to get Freya and the new forest gelding back in then the owner of the stable to get the Shetland ( who was running around bucking)back in! Any suggestions?
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Hi my horse freya!
You describe two problems, I'll try to go into both, they might even be related.
Since you have to wait to do Join-up with your pony, I think establishing leadership is very important. Do you have a Dually halter? This is an essential tool in settling your leadership.
Ponies can be strongminded, so it's even more important. With a Dually you can react immediately, should she get "bossy" or pull towards grass. Without the Dually you can feel quite lost. Once she knows you can direct her feet, it'll be much easier for you to handle her.Your personal space is what she'll have to learn to respect. Backing up as soon as she's not respectful can help a lot. Make sure you react within the first 3 seconds, better 1/3 of a second, so she'll see the connection between her action and your reaction.
Now the gateproblem. Before bringing in Freya, I'd start a routine with the shetland and new forest, to make sure you can send them away. If you do this with both hands free, you can be much more effective, make yourself big, stand your ground until they understand that you're serious about wanting them to move away from that gate. Send them off with much energy and when they do move away let your energy come down , so they'll know their reaction was what you wanted. When that works you can bring in Freya, still eyes on eyes with the other two.
Not a bad idea to have someone as a back-up, so you feel secure they'll not escape again.
Do you see the relation between both items? In both cases it's your energy and leadership that could make the difference. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn how to play with bodylanguage.
Let us know how thing go!
Miriam
Brilliant advice from Miriam there. To add an extra bit of security I teach my horse to go through the gate ahead of me, turn round to face me as soon as he is through and wait till I ask him to move. This means that I can stay, as Miriam suggests, facing the other horses, keep them out of the way and then manage the gate without struggling to get my horse through. To start this teaching, you need to teach your horse to (a) be happy goiing through narrow spaces (so that you don't have to open the gate too wide!) and (b) be happy to go ahead of you through those spaces and turn round to face you when he is through. Start in a safe place first (don't try and teach this where there are other horses or where he can run off).