From: Linda
Hi Jessica, First I want to thank you for all informative information you pass on to all of us. I actually have a few questions for you, but they all pretty much relate to my yearling's attitude. Just to give you some back ground info, he was born April 1999 and was gelded May 2000. Before he was gelded he started exhibiting aggressive behavior, rearing while being lead and nipping. About a month after he was gelded he started to calm down and was acting much better at the end of summer. He has a 12X12 stall with a 30X30 paddock off it, with free access 24/7. However, I was still having trouble walking him outside of his paddock. I was trying to hand walk him and let him graze in hand everyday since we don't have our pasture fencing finished. He was usually okay until I tried to make him move to another spot or put him up. He would rear, come into my space and turn and run away from me, pulling the lead rope out of my hands. If I was able to hold him and turn him, he would charge directly at me and hit the end of the rope hard in the other direction. I started using a chain over his nose to keep him from getting away from me and I was able to control. Now in the last couple of months he has become very difficult to even halter, he nips, will rear, push his shoulder into me and pull away, running away. Could he possibly have earmites, or ear canker? The other day I noticed some gray waxy stuff on the hair at the base of the inside of his ear. Once I get him haltered leading him is a fight, rearing and running away. Once I get through the fight he acts okay. I have been after my husband to get his pasture finished so he can get out and kick up his heels. Do you think this will help his attitude or could he just be one of those horses who will always try to bully you into giving in? He will stands tied with no problem and seems to enjoy being groomed and the attention. This is not the first baby I have raised, however, it is the first colt. I have always had mares or fillys and they were all very cooperative. He is a registered Paint. I really like him and don\'t want to give up on him yet. Any advise you can give will be greatly appreciated. Thanks Linda
Before I continue, I'll mention two other possible factors: Overfeeding, and lack of companionship. It's very easy to overfeed a young horse - good hay, water, and salt (and possibly a single vitamin-mineral supplement, if your vet recommends one) will meet his needs. If he's getting grain - especially if he's getting grain because you feel sorry for him - then he has another perfectly valid reason for bouncing off the walls. You can't afford to allow him to do that, as you know, but if he's getting too much feed or too high-octane feed, it's going to be just about impossible to keep him from bouncing off the walls - or bouncing off YOU.
Companionship is another key factor. The best way to keep a young horse in line is to turn him out with a group of horses. Your gelding should be out with a group of geldings, preferably of varying age and experience, so that he can learn how to function as a member of horse society. Once a horse learns that, it's very easy to teach it how to function around humans - if a horse does NOT learn that, because it is deprived of equine companionship early on, then it won't be a fully functional horse around other horses or around humans. I understand that you don't have a fenced pasture - I suggest that you find somewhere else where he can be pasture-boarded with a group of geldings, and bring him home only when your field is fenced and when you have a companion for him.
Assuming that you HAVE to keep him at home until your fence is ready, though...
In principle, hand-grazing any horse is a lovely, peaceful thing to do, and can help you build a good relationship with the horse. But it's no substitute for free movement, and the kind of free movement that your youngster needs to do is not something he can be allowed to do with a human on the other end of a lead line. He appreciates the petting and grooming and attention, of course - he probably likes you very much. But he is a young, energetic animal that desperately needs to run and jump and buck and rear and PLAY in an open space with others of his kind. Being groomed and handwalked, even by the most loving and considerate of owners, simply isn't enough, and can't be enough.
Under these circumstances, it's also dangerous for you, and for your relationship with the horse. Because he is an exercise-deprived youngster, with all of his energy surging and all of his "play" instincts in place, he's going to want to try to play with whatever is available, and that's YOU. Sadly, you can't allow this. Even the sweetest and most gentle youngster can rear and/or kick out incredibly quickly, and humans are remarkably breakable.
The real solution would be for you to put him into a large field with a group of other geldings - he'd be able to get the exercise and socialization he needs, and the other horses would soon put him in his place when he annoyed them too much. I strongly advise that you get that pasture fenced as soon as you possibly can - and that anyone else reading this take note! If you're planning to raise a young horse at home, please get the facilities ready BEFORE the horse arrives and needs them. Think of it as preparing the nursery before you have the baby, rather than coming home from the hospital, looking around, and wondering "Well, now that we've got a kid, where on earth is it going to sleep, and where can we put its STUFF?" It pays to plan ahead. ;-)
In the meantime, though, I would stop handgrazing this youngster until such time as the two of you have reached a firm understanding about which one of you outranks the other. If you get hit in the face with a hoof, or have a knee broken from a kick, it really won't matter whether the horse was trying to charge, trying to get away, or was just so full of energy that he "had to" explode. You'll still be hurt, and that's what you need to avoid. There's another problem, too. Instead of a quiet, friendly relationship with a leadrope between the calm person and the calm, grazing horse, you've got a series of bounces and challenges on his end of the leadrope, and a series of reprimands and punishments on yours. That's not going to build any sort of a useful relationship. I suggest that you take a completely different tack.
Instead of putting yourself and the horse into a position where you spend most of your time feeling frightened or threatened and jerking the rope (or the chain!) and saying "NO! STOP! BAD BOY!", try something else for a change. There are two things that could help you very much. One is round-pen work, but a 30 x 30 pen is not large enough for this, and I'm going to guess that you probably don't have accesss to a round pen! The other will probably be more practical for you. Your horse, in this situation, is an ideal candidate for clicker training. It will be fun for both of you, will help him learn to listen to you, will put him in the habit of obeying your signals, and will also help him to learn that obeying doesn't mean doing what you say because you are yelling or jerking a chain on his nose, it means answering a polite request ("Stand still, please, now step back, please" with equally polite cooperation.
If you have children, you're probably familiar with the game "Candyland". Most people who aren't little children find this game to be boring and silly, but for little children it's really very useful. It teaches them two concepts that they will have to learn in order to become functional adults - SHARING and TAKING TURNS. It's much easier to teach these concepts through a game than through punishment. Similarly, your youngster needs to learn some basic concepts that will enable him to become a functional adult horse, and obedience to the handler is probably the most important one of those concepts. Like a human child, he's far more likely to learn well if you make the teaching pleasant and fun - a game, if you will. Clicker training can be much, much more than this, of course, but even the most basic beginner clicker training will serve as the equivalent of "Candyland" and let your young horse use his brain and body in a positive way that will get him rewards and praise.
Alexandra Kurland has a website, www.crisny.org/users/kurlanda/, where you can learn much more about clicker training. She also has a very useful book, "Clicker Training for Your Horse", and at least one videotape on the same subject. Try it - I think you'll like it, and I think your horse will, too.
Oh, and one last thing - you should have your vet take a look at your youngster's ears. The growth you've described may be nothing serious - aural plaque is unsightly, but not actually a threat to health - but it's just possible that it might be something else that could be dangerous, or a cause of pain, or both. If you have the vet check your horse's ears, you'll be able to do something about the problem if it IS a problem, and you'll be able to relax and stop worrying if it ISN'T a problem. Also, your vet can help you out by giving you some back-up on your request to your husband to get that fence up ASAP! I'm sure that your husband has plenty of other things to do, but this really need to be a priority.
Jessica
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