From: Tammy
Jessica,
I have a training question. A girlfriend recently bought a well-broke 7 year old mare that had been shown as a yearling at halter but has since been used for moving cattle and trail riding. The mare is well behaved the majority of the time the exception being when another horse comes up behind her on the trail. She procedes to buck and strike out till the other horse moves away. What may be going through her mind and what can be done to stop this dangerous habit? My horse and I have learned to just keep our distance but my friend is troubled that she may injure someone else that unexpectedly comes riding up upon her mare from behind. Any and all advice is appreciated.
Thank-you,
Tammy
As to what's on the mare's mind, I would say that's pretty clear: she's worried about being attacked or crowded, and she's saying "Back off, NOW!" She may have had a bad experience with a biter, or an aggressive stallion or stallion-like gelding, she may have had the rider behind her hit her with a rope to "make her go forward" -- you can't know what started this behaviour, but it doesn't really matter, because you'll do the same things to try to change it in any case.
She needs to be desensitized to horses coming up behind her, and unfortunately, the only way to do this is to have horses come up behind her!
You'll have to determine whether this is something she does ONLY on trail rides -- what does she do when she's in a group of horses (no riders) in pasture, and it's feeding time? Does she kick at the horse behind her? What does she do when she's tied or crosstied -- can other horses be led past her, or tied behind her?
If she ONLY kicks on the trail, then her owner will need to ride her on the trail with a few friends, for a training session. They'll have to discuss it in advance, and be sure to have quiet horses and good riders, so that nobody will actually get kicked. Have this mare go first, and have each rider in turn come from the back and pass her -- find out EXACTLY what seems to provoke the kicking, and whether she does it when another horse is anywhere behind her, when a horse is one horse-length behind her, when a horse passes her, or comes up alongside her. In other words, figure out whether she is saying "Get away, get back!" or "Don't you even THINK about passing me!" There's a big difference.
If being passed is the problem, there are simple exercises your friend can do (still in a group) to change the behaviour. I just dealt with those in the answer to someone else's question: see this week's "New horse adjustments."
Your friend will have to use her sensitivity and her knowledge of horses to determine whether her mare is AFRAID of having another horse behind her, or whether she is simply ANNOYED at having another horse behind her. If a horse has crashed into the mare and hurt her on a previous occasion, it will take some real work to bring her to the point at which she will stop worrying (just as, if your car had ever been rear-ended, it would take a lot of time to make YOU stop worrying about cars following your car too closely). The kicking, though, must be discouraged! In either case, your friend will have to be very calm and deliberate in her own actions. Set up the situation -- again with the group -- and make it easy for the mare to do the right thing. Your friend should first try to give the mare something to DO when another horse is coming up behind her -- bend or leg-yield, anything that combines forward motion with some lateral movement will make it more difficult for the mare to kick. The rider will need to keep her legs ON, and send the mare FORWARD -- again, that will make kicking more difficult, as the mare will be using her hind legs to step up underneath herself. There is almost always a PAUSE as a horse kicks out, because it has to prop itself on its front legs for an instant. Keeping the forward motion - - not permitting the pause -- will help a great deal.
If the mare is ANNOYED rather than frightened, and if these exercises don't do the trick (give her several sessions over a week's time), the mare can still be taught that her rider finds calm behaviour acceptable and kicking behaviour UNacceptable. Do NOT do this if she is actually frightened, because it will just frighten her more!
Her rider will have to carry a loud "popper" with her and be ready to shout (don't shout "NO" -- it sounds too much like "WHOA!", but make a very loud and unpleasant "WRONG ANSWER, YOU LOSE" game-show buzzer sound instead -- more about this later) and give the mare one very hard, loud SMACK on the behind if she kicks. The rider should be ready for the mare to plunge forward -- holding the reins loose, and holding the saddle horn or the mane so that a sudden jump forward won't cause the rider to yank on the reins! (And there shouldn't be anyone directly in front of that mare -- you don't want to create the same behaviour in ANOTHER horse by crashing into its hindquarters!)
The SECOND the mare becomes calm and moves forward normally, she should be praised, and every time she allows a horse to walk behind her or pass her, she should be praised. But every attempt to kick should result in a loud smack on her behind (nowhere else) with the popper, until she teaches herself that kicking is NOT a profitable activity, because whenever she does it, she hears a horrid noise and gets a hard, loud smack on her bottom. On the other hand, if she DOESN'T kick, nothing happens to her, and her rider says "good girl." Clever horses generally conclude that kicking isn't worthwhile, and if they forget on some later occasion and you feel them begin to pause or bunch up to kick, you can kick forward and make the buzzer noise, and that's usually enough of a reminder.
Good luck -- let me know how it goes!
- Jessica
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