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On Leadership Necessity

© Gwenyth Browning Jones Santagate

Question: Christy is almost one. I've only had her for a few months. She is very big for one year old (14 hh) and very strong. She's not had much training and I am finding that she is fine some days, walking beside me like an angel and on others not so good. Some days she backs up, looks straight at me and rears, shaking her head violently. She always looks for me every morning, though and runs to greet me. She will follow me anyshere like as long as it is in familiar area. Just recently, she tore my bicep muscles up because I would not let go of her. She is kept in a 120 X 90 run with a 20 X 20 covered area and allowed turnout to a larger pasture for 8 - 10 hours weekly with my 2 year old. I have to use a chain over her nose for 'control' but it frightens her when it tightens. I need to know what to do to train her.

Answer:

I think I'd go back and take this little girl into a round pen or small paddock (60 X 60), treating her just as if she were a wild horse off the range. She's too young to do any sort of connecting work with her BUT - you can do other 'stuff' to firm up the trust foundation with her. Watch her closely when you work with her, noting when you 'feel' she is getting into the frightened mode, and when you do notice, back off a bit to a more comfortable, safe spot with her. Let her know that she'll never have to go over the "line" (between sanity and flee/fight) and that you are there for her safety. Horses NEED to be able to move when they feel scared. This is something that is built into them and something that has kept them alive as a species for centuries and centuries and centuries - their ability to run for safety. There is no reason to have to try to force her to do anything. That will only set her mind even stronger into flight thinking. What is the other half of the equation of the flee/fight? -- If the horse cannot flee, it's going to then fight. A scared horse that is bucking, rearing, striking, charging, biting is doing only what a horse is wired to do when it cannot flee. No human can even begin to equal the strength of a horse that is either 'sane' or insane. The strength in a