Ridecamp: Re: [RC] Food aggression

Stephanie, this is nothing more than a "herd leader" problem. Try this. 
I GUARANTEE it will fix this problem if you do it properly and not just
at feed time. 

Round up a dressage whip and a sturdy halter. Stroke the horse all over
with the dressage whip.  The whip is an just an extension of your hand.

Start by standing in front of the horse facing him. Walk briskly AT him,
"kiss" rapidly, and start rapping him across the cannon bones just above
his feet. Strike him hard enough that he HAS to pick up his feet. He
will drop his head and start backing up. Your "body english" should show
aggression. After a few feet, stop, walk up to him and stroke him all
over with the whip and your hand and praise him. Repeat this until he
will start backing up ENTHUSIASTICALLY as you walk at him WITHOUT
rapping him. You want him doing it with alacrity...quickly and with lots
of energy.  If he doesn't, rap him sharply until he gets the message. 
He's a big guy..you're not gonna hurt him...but you want his respect.
You want him to get out of your "space" and understand that he doesn't
have a "space" if you want it. Make him back STRAIGHT back, not off to
the side...correct by tapping him on the side with the whip if
necessary.

Once he will do this consistently, then:

Stand in front of the horse with him on your right shoulder, the lead
line across the front of your body and in your LEFT hand. Have the
dressage whip in your RIGHT hand. His head should be even with your
shoulder. Walk off in a straight line. Stop, rotate your right shoulder
toward the horse, "kiss",  and rap him on the cannon bones as you back
up three steps. Again he should drop his head and RAPIDLY back off your
shoulder. If not, speed him up with the whip. Stroke him all over with
the whip, and praise him. Repeat until he's anticipating you stopping,
and starts backing up as soon as your shoulder comes back. BE
AGGRESSIVE! 

If you do this frequently and often, when you walk out in the pasture
with or without his feed, you won't need the whip. Just the aggression
in your voice and manner will back him off of you...AND the feed bucket.
Make him stand over there politely several feet away until you "kiss"
(or whatever cue you choose) before he's allowed to eat.

I usually feed in my stalls twice a day. If my guys are in their stalls,
they are required to stand quietly while I hang their buckets. If I
bring them in from the pasture and their feed buckets are already in the
stall, they are required to ground tie in the hallway for 30 seconds or
so, wait quietly AFTER I take the halters off for a "kiss" before going
to their feed buckets. I can actually make them LEAVE their feed buckets
and come to me. It's all a matter of discipline, respect, consistency,
consistency, and many, many lessons very, very frequently. 

Remember, you don't have to beat the crap out of horse or abuse him to
get respect...it's mostly your body english. Horses generally avoid an
actual fight...unless someone has taught them they can intimidate
humans. Fix this...NOW...he will only get worse...and you can get hurt.

Jim, Sun of Dimanche, and Mahada Magic



Stephanie_D_Adair@xxxxxxx wrote:
> 
> I have a problem that I've never had to deal with and not sure what to do,
> I apologize it's not endurance related.  Been around horses all my life,
> and experience tells me to go out with a bucket of feed and a crop.  (and a
> helmet <bg>).  Any advice is appreciated, this is the problem.  My gelding
> is now 2 1/2 and officially horse sized (funny this all started after he
> was gelded).  He pins his ears at me at feeding time, I dump his feed over
> the fence into his bucket and growl at him to back off if he's manhandling
> me over the fence as he sometimes does.  After he has the first bite he'll
> put his head back over the fence for a scratch.  Last weekend I put up some
> hot fence out back so he could eat down some of the grass and left him out
> for several hours.  Dinnertime, still plenty of daylight, "I'll just feed
> him out here and then put him up when the sun sets".  Luckily he had a
> halter on, after 2 swats and shoves from me as I'm heading over to his
> other feed bucket, he literally acted like he was about to run over me/kick
> me/do whatever he had to do to GET THAT FEED!  I saw a cow kick coming, so
> I jumped forward, grabbed his halter, stick my elbow into the base of his
> neck, wrap his neck around my arm so we're face to face and l start shoving
> him to his bucket where I happily dump the feed and let him go.  This is a
> very intelligent sweet natured whatever makes you happy type of horse.  I
> don't have a round pen and we have so many trees there's not even space to
> put a horse on a longe line.  Do I just start carrying a crop and whap him
> when he invades my space?  Any advice from someone who's dealt with this
> would be greatly appreciated!
> 
> Stephanie (Where's my cattle prod?)
> Remington (I'm bigger than yoooou arrree!)
>


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
 Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
 Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=