Ridecamp: Re: [RC] Food aggression

I also have an aggressive colt, gelding.  He's three and I've had him since
he was four months old.  I treated him like a little baby for the longest
time, and then he got big.  His name is Nipper, for obvious reasons.  I have
since taught him not to nip, but he will occasionally sneak a bite in and
run.

He is also aggressive about his food, so I whack him and don't let him eat
until he has backed off and offered me the respect his indentured servant
deserves (oh, the wardrobe I could have without horses).  He's learning, but
like all things, it takes repetition and not letting him be the boss ever.
Don't get me wrong, I am hardly a control freak, I just make him respect my
space and not run me down.

I would carry a short crop with me if I were you and give him a quick smack,
just one, every time he gets aggressive.  Horses learn by consequences, not
reasoning.  I have a brother in law who reasoned with his first demon seed,
the second one he paddled, the first one is still a whiney brat, the second
one is a joy to be around.  I'm saying spank, not beat.  I spank my little
horsey boy when he gets out of hand, on the chest or butt, never the head.

Good Luck

C. and Nippur (I'm a brat), Corky (I'm a higher life form, my kind will be
coming to take me home soon), Buck (All I want is to be left alone), and
Pete (Where am I? ).
----- Original Message -----
From: <Stephanie_D_Adair@xxxxxxx>
To: <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, August 15, 2002 12:09 PM
Subject: [RC] Food aggression


> 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
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 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
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=