From: Linda
Hi Jessica...thanx for your wonderful service!
I have a 4-year old Peruvian Paso. She had never been worked with AT ALL (abandoned)) until I got her last March. She now is gentle, loving and has pretty good ground manners. I have a trainer waiting to start her for me, but I want her to be civilized on the ground before we start with any riding. My BIG problem now is getting her to stand tied...quietly...As long as she can see me, or is in her own stall, she is okay, but I cannot tie her anywhere else without her pitcing a Paso tantrum ie. pawing at the ground continuously and VIGOROUSLY. I have been advised to longe her in the round pen before tieing her, but so far no improvement. She will stand fairly quietly for maybe 5 minutes, but then the excavation begins.
My question is: Would it be useful to tie her, walk away out of sight and BEFORE she starts pawing, go get her and reward her by walking and talking with her? Then repeat the procedure over and over. My thinking is that she is practicing how to dig holes while tied and may not understand that standing quietly is what will get her rewaded.
Most of the advice I have received is that she'll just realize that pawing will not work and eventually will quit. In the meantime, however, she is a nervous wreck after each episode (and so am I).
What about hobbles? Any advice will help. Thanx
Linda
My first question is this: Why would you have occasion to be out of sight of your mare for more than five minutes? In fact, why would you be out of her sight for EVEN five minutes, unless someone else is watching her? It's not a good idea to tie a horse and leave it alone; it's too dangerous. I'm assuming that you're only out of sight while you duck into the tack room to get your saddle and bridle, or to put back your grooming kit. If your tack room is very far from the mare's stall, why not leave her IN the stall until you come back with the tack? She clearly feels secure in her stall, and feels secure when you are there. There isn't any way you can tell her that she's just as secure when someone ties her up and leaves her alone... especially since it wouldn't be true. ;-)
However, if you're worried about her digging a pit while you're out of sight, the first thing to do is create an environment in which she can't actually dig. You certainly don't want any holes that will create a problem in the barn aisle or the outdoor grooming area. If you put down rubber mats, such as trailer mats, in that area, you'll feel much better. The ground won't get holes dug in it, the mare won't wear out her feet if the surface is concrete.
Once you've got that part of the situation under control, you can start to work with the mare. You're quite right that you don't want to reward her for pawing. IF she paws while you are present, I would suggest standing back and giving her NO attention of any kind until she stops -- and the second she stops, start talking to her and resume grooming or petting her. If you want to, add a loud "WRONG ANSWER!" buzzer-sound as soon as she paws, but the most important part of the training will be that you pay NO attention to her until that foot is back on the ground. The idea you're going to convey to her is not "I'm really angry when you paw" -- it's "You don't exist for me when you paw." And, better yet, teach her "I'm very pleased with you when you stand square and still." It's terribly difficult to teach a horse to NOT do something; on the other hand, it's not difficult to teach a horse TO do something ELSE. In other words, instead of focusing on "Don't paw -- bad girl!" make your focus "DO stand square and quietly -- GOOD girl!"
Remember that this is a very young mare, and that all of her experience with humans and human attention has come from you. Remember also that she's just at the very beginning of her career as a riding horse, and that she needs to trust you and have confidence in you.
Don't try using hobbles -- this isn't something for you to try on your own. If you want to teach the mare to wear hobbles for other reasons, talk to your trainer, and ask to have the mare hobble-trained. But it's not a cure for pawing; a horse that paws out of fear or nervousness and suddenly finds that its feet are tied together can fall over, and that's NOT something you want to happen.
I hope that your trainer will be working with your horse and with you at the same time -- that's the best kind of training. If not, I hope that you will at least be there to watch what goes on during training. It's a great way to get to know your horse, and it will make your work with her much easier. And it will let you ask all of those "Why does she --?" and "What if she --?" and "What if you want her to --?" questions that are certain to come to mind. ;-)
Jessica
Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE is a free, subscriber-supported electronic Q&A email newsletter which deals with all aspects of horses, their management, riding, and training. For more information, please visit www.horse-sense.org
Please visit Jessica Jahiel: Holistic Horsemanship® [www.jessicajahiel.com] for more information on Jessica Jahiel's clinics, video lessons, phone consultations, books, articles, columns, and expert witness and litigation consultant services.