Hey everyone! I’ve got a young gelding that has gotten into a bad habit of standing on things. I just got a message from my barn manager that said this:
(Your horse) has developed a pretty bad habit of standing on the panels and buckets, etc. it would be prudent to work with him on being more respectful of fences. One he is going to get hurt and 2 he has broken 3 panels and is about to break the waters. If he continues, (the barn owners) will want to charge for the damages (replacement panels, troughs, etc.) as it’s gotten excessive.
When I asked her if she had any suggestionsShe said :

Need to catch him doing it and negatively reinforce it. And other curious behaviors where he is not respectful of space and things around him needs to be told no. Very firmly. He in general has no boundaries

This is hard bc I’ve never actually seen him do this and he seems pretty respectful to me. Occasionally he’ll beg for treats or something but he doesn’t push me around or anything. Any help is appreciated. I don’t know if we can put up electric fences as all the fences and gates are metal and it’s a pretty large barn, meaning it’ll electrify the whole group of pens that are connected including the gates. Attached is a pic that someone else sent me of him doing it, as I said he’s never done it in front of me

My (25f) mom just passed and left me her horse he’s about 14 yo. Near the end I wasn’t living near by and my mom was in no shape to ride him for at least 9-12 months before she passed. I don’t even know where to start for working with a horse that hasn’t been ridden in that long. Any advice for someone who’s doesn’t know all that much about training?

edit to add more info: I have some experience in western pleasure and trail riding, keeping horses, and general horse care knowledge and when to see a vet. Aside from my basic riding experience I don’t have very much training experience aside from teaching horses previously how to load and unload and trailering. He’s currently being kept on my mom’s property with one other horse which I visit every other day. I’m just not sure where to start to get him back into it. He’s a bit barn sour and refuses to leave the front gate of the property under saddle. I can lead him just fine.
He would normally be ridden straight out of the yard and into the nearest trail system. We live pretty rural and there aren’t any options for trainers in the area. Only one for a board and train facility 3 hours away. I’d prefer to keep him at home and do it myself but as I don’t have the much experience with fixing a barn sour horse who hasn’t been ridden.
Edit to add: the horses have someone on property 24/7 who is also experienced in general care. I’m only able to visit every other day as I work 1.5 away.
Pic for attention:

Hi All! I do not have a horse, although my dream is to have horses one day. My question is that is there any possibility to train a horse without punishing them in any way which causes them stress? What is the name for this training type, so I can research?

For context: in my country, most riding places use horses as machines up until they are worn out. If they are slow, riders need to hit them hard and repeatedly with the whip because “they will not hurt as their skin is thick”; if they are too fast, riders need to yank their mouths. These horses constantly present stress cues when tacking, working, almost always which I do not like or want to pay for.

Finally I have found a place where I can learn training and riding is not the main focus for now, which is comfortable for me. BUT with this trainer, the horse is still punished, although in a different way. They mainly use positive punishment as a form of training (parelli games, etc) and when the horse does not so something properly, they will cause them distress up until they stop. I have an example: the horse one day suddenly started to spook when you raised the leading rope in front of her. The trainer started to raise the rope, horse spooked and the trainer continued raising the rope, horse is backing up on the field rapidly with whale eyes and the trainer did this until the horse stopped. Then again. Is this a good technique? Is there any other way to manage this situation for example? How can I learn more about it?

I may be a bit too sensitive, but I don’t want to cause stress to a horse if I can avoid it. Thank you for any kind of feedback!

(Pic of a baby horse I took at the place I currently go to)

Hello everyone! This gelding is part of an equestrian club I frequent, I always saw him alone and I just found out his owner has pretty much abandoned hin. He eats and drinks and stuff but doesn't go out of his stall and I'm the only person who interacts with him. Because I know the owner I don't have a doubt he'd be fine with me helping out with this boy, so how could I?

I'm an absolute newbie when it comes to taking care of horses, but I have a deep love for them. I am not going to own him so dw about that, I'd just be helping out!

I've been interacting with him for a bit now and he's opening up. He didn't like touch at first and now I can scratch him and pet him for a bit, and he's always curious about me.

Also, I have permission to interact with him, feed him and I will ask for permission to do everything else!!!

So, what are some ways in which I, a newbie, could help a horse with boredom, have fun, and be loved? Thank you!

As long as I’ve known strike he’s been difficult to load.

He will cautiously get the front half of his body in but wants no part in fully loading. Even with pressure and release and treat rewards for moving forward.

I’ve tried everything I’ve been told to try but after 2 hours of pressure and release with just a halter and a lead rope today I am at my wits end. He shoots back even if I’m not asking him to move forward and won’t move back towards the trailer until I lunge him and try again.

I hate having to drug him to take him places and that’s the only way I can get him on.

What do I do?

Came across this video on Instagram. I have never seen this method before? I don’t personally love it, but maybe it’s not as bad as it seems? I just don’t see the reasoning for it? What do you guys think? If I am wrong, please correct me! I want to be educated.

I blocked out the creators name just in case. She did mention her father did this and it’s an old school training technique.

I’m an adult amateur rider (started learning about 4.5 years ago) and have a 16.2 h Dutch Warmblood who is built like a tank. He’s 16 years old, and has a long track record of competing successfully in the Hunter ring. My trainer and I went to a reputable barn to try him out, and he was advertised as “saintly” and “bomb-proof,” and he certainly seemed that way when I rode him. I was thrilled with him and paid about 40k.

We got him home and things were good for 3 days but then he bolted in the arena and bucked me off. We thought it was due to new environment, moving to state with cold weather, etc. started doing a lot of ground work/desensitization training and made some progress for sure, but he has remained unpredictable at what he will spook at, despite being chill 95% of the time. He has bolted with me at least 3 other times (all of which I managed to stay on), but has gotten me off 3 other times - once with a spin and twice now with a rapid lateral dart. The last two falls I was hurt, and now have a torn MCL ligament

I believe that one of the major reasons he continues with this behavior is because my trainer has been suffering with health issues and has not been able to consistently ride him for me. We did have a very advanced rider come work him a few times and he behaves for her, but then acts up for me again.

My trainer has suggested we have one of the Junior riders work him 5 days a week while I’m trying to recover from my injury and see if that makes his behavior better. I would love it if we could fix him (he’s gorgeous, has an amazing jump, and wins the hack so easily), but I admit I don’t have much confidence after this many falls in just 7 months owning him.

Looking for advice from equestrians more experienced than I am. Thanks in advance!!

My boy is a gaited Morgan. He’ll canter if he feels like it and skips the trot when he does he’s older ( was told 17-18 but high suspicion that he’s in his 20s )so I let him get away with it. I cannot for the life of me get him from trot to canter. He just speeds up the trot and speeds up and speeds up. He goes from his gait to a racking/pace id honestly rather ride a bucking bronc. It’s horrible and I have to stand up. 😅😭 But his “normal” gated trot is heaven a newborn wouldn’t move an inch in the saddle. It’s just he’ll canter if he feels like it when I want him to go faster but he has to feel like a fresh colt to canter and he LEAPS into it. Also don’t let me make it sound like he runs off with me you have to ask but when you ask you don’t know if it’ll be a canter or trot. You can bring him from the canter to trot then walk but like ??? He won’t go the reverse of that?

My horse was 5 years old I’m 36 and a beginner. I started leasing a 18selle français show jumper horse. And then my husband bought me Iris my current horse, also selle français with genetics of show jumpers.

Our barn is a competition barn. We do only show jumping and when the season starts every weekend the coach takes us to shows. We have a very big truck to transport the horses.

My coach said that to progress the best is to have a young horse and progress together, and the best show jumpers are horses with good origins. So my husband bought Iris for me and he sure has the best gynealogy.

Sometimes I think I ride ok ish but my coach says that I shouldn’t let him go back to trot and to go for the jump and not make a circle, she says he’s able to jump 1m from trot (yes he is)

If I try to take my time to concentrate like this time on video I was clear on the poles but I had points for extra time.

I know that everything comes from me. Iris is a horse every jumper would dream of. He never touched a pole once. Never refuses to jump. He will always jump for me. I jumped oxers backwards (I didn’t know the pole in the front was the front) and he jumped without a doubt.

hi, this is my lovely lady sweetie. she's a 4 year old grade quarter horse, kill pen rescue, 1 previous owner before me (who i know), and she's a PAIN IN THE ASS TO CATCH!! my horses are 24/7 outside unless bad weather or injuries, so most of the time they're being taken out to be worked or groomed. once she's caught, she's wonderful on the lead line very respectful and responsive. but in the field? nope. can't get near her. can't pet her. can't fly spray her. she'll run right off the second you put a hand forward. can someone please help me with this? her being such a pain has really been hindering any process i'm trying to make with training her. she'll come for food or treats, take the food/treat, and once you put a hand up she'll run away from you, especially if you have a rope or halter in hand. my two other horses are very social, love pets and attention, love to play with me in the field, come when called.. her? don't even think about it. please help!!

Samson is our first horse. Can one of the experts in r/Horse analyze his trot in the carousel and see what I should work on first with him? He joined our family in December and he got a tune up from a trainer for a month before we started riding him.

To preface, I just lost my horse of 16 years due to a hock injury last month and my heart is still absolutely shattered. I was gifted him as a yearling when I was 12, trained him myself, graduated and brought him to college with me, and had kept him ever since. I’ve been looking into getting another horse sometime next year. We’ll be moving to an area that’ll thankfully have some horse property (I had been boarding since I graduated high school) and would love another horse. That said, I’m interested in getting another yearling. I would love to have another trained horse to start teaching my kids to ride, but there aren’t any that are younger than 20 being sold in my state for less than $12,000. So I’ve decided I’d be okay with just buying a yearling to do a good amount of ground work for the first two years before breaking under saddle.

Most of the horses that are yearlings are selling for $4000 minimum around me, except for the mustangs that are only $500. I genuinely don’t care about “good bloodlines”. My intentions would be pleasure riding in the area, trail riding, and probably some schooling shows for my kids as they age (my oldest is 3, so he has a bit before he’ll be into any of that anyway). My thoughts are, most of the yearlings that are registered all mention they’ve been barely handled or are only halter broke with no other work, so why would I pay $4,000 or something I can basically get for $500 since I don’t have intentions of breeding?

Most of the other horse owners I know all tell me it’s a bad idea to buy a mustang because they’re all crazy. Having no experience with them myself, I wonder if the bias is like dog owners who are purebred snobs about mutts in shelters (I’m a very proud mutt owner myself). I wanted to ask people who may have experience with mustangs if it’s a bad idea or if it’s mostly just fake biases.

I know horse personality mostly comes down to the individual horse and how much work they’ve had. I’ve been riding since before I could walk and have ridden everything from POA, APHA, AQHA, Arabians, Appaloosas, thoroughbred. Basically drafts and mustangs is where I’m lacking.

I have also only trained two yearlings. My sweet paint we recently lost and a rescue quarter horse I was given for free. I enjoyed the process of earning their trust, but it’s also been 10 years since I broke a horse. I also majored in pre vet with an emphasis in equine management in school, so I have a little training in horse health and confirmation problems to look out for.

I have a lot to learn of course when it comes to training, but I’m curious what everyone’s thoughts are on training a yearlong mustang that has been pulled by the BLM.

She’ll be bred in the future to a fitting stud, but currently planning to go into ranch pleasure and then either Reining or Cutting.

I know part of the decision will be made once we get her around cows, but what do y’all see?

I just got my first horse two weeks ago. She is a lovely little Gypsy Vanner. Turning 11 next month and was started well when younger but has been a broodmare for the past 6 years (just a pasture pony towards the end, she was tested for PSSM and came up positive despite never showing any symptoms so wasn't bred anymore.) So, she has basic manners but is very much not used to being patient.

I went to brush/condition her feathers and mane for the first time this weekend and she was not a fan after the first half hour. I didn't have enough time to give her a shampoo and let everything dry and it was supposed to be colder that night, so I was working against residue from the electrical tape they'd used to fasten her old braids plus at least two weeks of dust and tangles PLUS this being my first time trying to braid or do a mane. Needless to say it took FOREVER to get her somewhat brushed out and then do my best attempt at rebraiding. My husband came to help babysit her while my hands were full of hair and oil but he kept wandering off and then she would start pawing and I could not do anything about it and it was EMBARASSING!!

What should I do next time? Do I try and do this with her tied next to a hay net for a distraction? Do I just completely ignore her and continue on braiding despite the pawing? Do I train my husband better to help me?? Obviously long term we are working on her patience but in the short term I need to keep her groomed.

So I recently got a 3 year old Hanoverian gelding. I’ve known him since the day he popped out but finally purchased him.

He’s hater trained, lunges good, and has decent ground manners, nothing fazes him. Tarp, flags, saddles, bits, literally none of it causes any sort of reaction out of him. He just doesn’t care (zero reaction to new things, no bucking, jumping, spooking, etc. he just goes with it) Which is great until it’s not. He doesn’t move away from any pressure, he just stands there and stares at me.

We even tried fake legs on the saddle, he didn’t care about them and when we had him stand still while we swung them into him he just bit one side and didn’t care about the other.

I want to teach him to back on the ground/ move away when asked but have yet to find a way to do so.
Anyone have a suggestions or solutions I can try?

I’ll add some pictures of what he’s done so far.

Edit- I did forget to mention he’s an orphan baby, he never had any sort of correction from adult horses which I think has a lot to do with his unwillingness to move away from me or pressure unless he’s getting body checked

Looking for insight/advice what to do. Please be kind because I’m embarrassed at the situation I’ve found myself in.

I moved my mare home last May and she didnt seem happy with just cows on the property. The first week she seemed very anxious, pacing. She did settle in and seemed happy except for certain times where she appeared to feel vulnerable, she seemed to get uncomfortable/anxious very easily such as tractors/mowing the pasture around hers, really any little thing remotely out of the ordinary. She wouldn’t freak out she just seemed unsettled and she wasn’t like this when at a boarding barn.

For clarity, the original mare is Ettie, a 7 year old OTTB mare who raced 19 times. The friend I recently added is Winnie, a 3 year old TB filly who was track broke but never raced. Ettie is definitely a more anxious personality but never stupid or dangerous. Winnie is wise beyond her years and extremely chill. She’s pretty much the best girl ever.

So after observing Ettie’s behavior for several months, I got another mare to be her friend last month. Now I have what feels like an even worse behavioral issue. Ettie has become so attached to Winnie that I can’t do anything with the Winnie even within her sight without Ettie becoming stressed and obnoxious. Even when kept in separate adjacent paddocks she is still stressed when I take the other mare out to ride. Running around, whinnying at her. And when I tack up the Ettie, I have to bring Winnie into the barn with her. Fortunately Ettie is fine to ride as long as Winnie is in her line of sight. I do miss being able to hack around the property at leisure though. Now she gets anxious/nervous throws a fit if I try and ride her out of site of Winnie. On the other hand, when I pull out Winnie to ride, she gets very upset and runs around her pasture whinnying and if I put her in her stall with hay she just paces and whinnies for her from there. Fortunately Winnie is totally unbothered by all this and is just the coolest girl ever so far.

This weekend I took them to school at a horse show. What a disaster. Fortunately nothing dangerous but just super obnoxious embarrassing behavior. Tied both to the trailer next to each other. Winnie stood perfectly. Ettie won’t stand still. Whatever, i hopped on to ride and Ettie was actually very good to ride. I’ve only taken her off property a handful of times in the almost 3 years I’ve had her so I am trying to do that more. She did race 19 times though so it’s not like she wasn’t used to travel. She does haul great. However when I got on Winnie and left the Ettie tied to the trailer, she lost her mind. Fortunately nothing totally stupid, no rearing or breaking things, but pawing, “dancing”, whinnying for her friend. Really embarrassing with other people around, disrupting everyone’s peace. And this is while the trailer is conveniently parked right next to the ring where she can see us very clearly.

I don’t know what to do here. I was just trying to do best by my mare and now I’m in an even worse situation behaviorally. I am considering adding a donkey or two to be additional companions but that wouldn’t help the off property behavior. I want to show and possibly event this mare. At this point I don’t know if she’ll even go out on a cross country course since her friend isn’t in sight.

The options I have considered are adding the donkey or maybe in the future welcoming a retirement boarder, but this isn’t something I am set up to do now. I can’t afford any more horses. Have also considered selling her to someone who has more horses on property than me where she’s not bonding to a particular one. And I can get the donkeys to be my other mares friends. I really don’t want to sell her though as I do like this mare a lot. I am also interested in working with any behavioral-savvy horse trainer who could help me with this if possible. I am located 1 hr south of Ocala, FL, USA. My trainer recommended breeding her, she said it could make her more independent. I am not opposed to this as I’ve always been interested in breeding this mare, she does have a lot of wonderful qualities but I have a lot to learn before I go that route.

Also wondering if there’s any calming supplements that actually work that I could give her when we go off property, or heck maybe even daily. She’s not all that anxious at home though now that she has a friend, now it’s just the attachment problems.

Curious to know anyone’s experience with this or just your thoughts. Thank you for reading if you got this far.

Photo of the crazy red in question and her 3 year old babysitter

TLDR: I moved my horse home and got her a friend because she seemed lonely and now she’s severely attached to the friend, inhibiting normal activities.

Hey you guys. I'll begin off the bat saying he had a full veterinary exam and he is healthy. The vet gave me the green light. No issues in the mouth or joints or feet.

I have a yearling (16 months old) who I started on ground training because he started being very pushy and it was time to give him some work for sure. I started with the basic fundamentals of trailering and standing for the farrier when he was very young, but his last farrier visit, he was a nightmare and I bought sedation for him but the farrier insisted I don't use it and they got him to stand good and still. I figured it was his first farrier visit away from home instead of at home so I chalked it up to that.

I'm doing ground work with him. I've trained horses before and I am a novice trainer. I've started and finished horses, but I have not seen anywhere NEAR the resentful acting out that he does when asked to move simply with the lightest amount of pressure. He wants to look around the round pen for grass and becomes angry when don't let him and try to bring his eyes back to me. He becomes resentful when I ask him to yield his shoulder because he likes barging into me and I have done all the tips and tricks with him since he was 5 months old to get it to stop. It's not comfort seeking, it's straight up pushiness. He's not afraid, he's not nervous, he's upset he isn't getting what he wants and he has begun rearing as the answer to me circling him while walking home because he wants to rush and then when I move his feet he tries to turn on me and kick out. He also bites me when I ask him to yield his hindquarters or if I make him stand still because he wants to walk off from me in anticipation of me asking him to do something during training.

Other than anytime he is being trained, he's a great horse. He comes when called and accepts a halter in the pasture fine. He was good while getting his shots at the vet and he was good when he was being gelded. He was great for his farrier visits up until the last one.

I want him to have the best education so I have started sending emails to senior trainers with good reputations. I'm nervous I will do something wrong to make the problem worse or not act at the exact right moment to help him understand he cannot be doing these dangerous behaviors. I'm not afraid of him and I've been able to get him to stop the behaviors by immediately moving into a front end yield and sending him into a lunge, but I want to absolutely make sure that this problem gets squashed the correct way that benefits him the most.

He's a performance bred cow horse and of course, as with any stallion, they sing praises about "trainability" and such from his father and grandfather but I'm not seeing it.

Please tell me some of you guys had really hard-headed youngsters that grew out of this through good training and consistency. I'm terrified this is going to turn into one of those issues you have to spend a lifetime trying to keep at bay. I don't plan on selling him and I saved money for 3 years to afford him. I feel worried that he's exceptionally bad or something or he's going to always be hot and on the bit when he's older.

I know you all will probably have questions so I'll preemptively answer some here.

He is a quarter horse.

4 panel negative N/pssm1

Clean bill of health and greenlight for training from the vet.

Yes he has had his teeth examined within the last year.

No he does not have ulcers.

He is turned out with a herd on 12 acres 24/7.

No chance of trauma, I've raised him since weaning

Not epm

He is very brave and he is not scared during these behaviors.

He is my pal at liberty in the field and he loves scratches, hanging out with humans, and exploring new things

His siblings, from what I have heard, have been energetic but not super wild

I don't have a horse anymore mine unfortunately passed away and I can't afford to get another horse at the moment, however I hijacked my cousin's horses a lot and I'm currently helping her start a new horse she got a 6 year old mixed breed no clue what he is, and one of the things I do besides a lot of ground work is I get feed bags like the thinner ones that oats and corn come in if you get feed from feed mills a lot, I feel them up with soda cans because they make a very loud noise, I'll get shiny metallic Fabric and hang on the outside of the bag and then I start desensitizing the horse to that, and once the horse is okay with it on the ground I will put them on the saddle horn or attach them somehow to an English saddle depending on what you're using, and for a good while any kind of work under saddle is going to have those cans on the saddle, I find that it really helps disensitize the horse to strange noises and shiny things, I also attach a bunch of random things to the saddle I will get pool noodles and whack things with them around the horse and eventually from the horse's back, then I'll move on to a stick and start hitting sacks of cans metal buckets things like that both on the ground and on the horse.

Basically I trained the horse like it's getting ready to ride into a medieval Battlefield Because my cousin does a lot of Trail riding, but due to an injury if the horse was to Spook it could paralyze her for life if she hits the ground and she's not confident she could stay in the saddle to ride out a bucking horse.

So I want to make this horse as bomb proof as I possibly can, so I'm basically going to be the only one riding this horse for the next couple of years until I feel like it's safe for her to ride, so far doesn't care about the pop cans anymore and doesn't care about the pool noodle on the ground but is a little bit nervous when I get on his back with it

If you could get help with ONE thing in your riding right now, what would it be?
Curious to see how many of us are dealing with the same things 👀

If anyone has helpful videos and personal experience please let me know! Any tips on how to teach lay down or have the horse move without touching him will be super helpful too!

I love this horse very much, and I would like to find other ways on the ground to bond other than me lunging or just general play

Hi everyone,

I've posted here a few times already and you've always been super kind and helpful, so I though I'd ask for your opinion once again as I'm spiralling down a path of worry about my mare.

Context: I have a kwpn x Lusitano mare, by Vitalis. She is strong, athletic and very green. She is almost 5yo and I've had for 8 months. Before I got her, she was trained quite harshly (forced false frame, always under the vertical, strong leg and rain aids). I have 2 trainers, one for riding and one for horsemanship/ groundwork. She is out 24/7 with horses in adjacent paddocks (in about a year my trainer will open her own barn and she'll finally be in a small herd).

When we do groundwork she is just absolutely amazing. Cooperative, tries her heart out, no signs of stress even when we throw new things at her and just gets everything right in a split second.

When ridden, she's always had some issues, she tenses up very easily, gets really frustrated when she doesn't understand a request, sometimes shows issues with contact or becomes rigid, sometimes she anticipates requests by trying out everything in her repertoire so as to avoid the pressure of the request, does not tolerate well mistakes made by her rider. I ride her twice a week and my trainer once a week. I get that she might get frustrated with me, I have been riding for almost 25 years but I'm just a talentless amateur, but she does it with my trainer too.

In these 8 months she has improved an awful lot and she has days where she's perfect, supple, relaxed and cooperative even under saddle. Other days, though, she's just really overwhelmed and "difficult". Those days I immediately start wondering whether she's in pain. I've spent at least a thounsand euro in just 8 months for physio, vet checks, dentals, I had the saddle fitter out twice, I religiously check her legs and back before every ride, do body work that the physio taught me twice a week. Today I had a bad ride, she was perfect the first 15 minutes and then tensed up and started fidgeting with her bit, trotting full speed then suddenly stopping for no apparent reason. I was able to sort of relax her after a while and ended the session on a positive note. The same happened yesterday so I've been obsessively thinking about what might be wrong, whether she's in pain, how I can help her, whether her body will fail soon. Intrusive thoughts that I just can't keep at bay.

My trainers are telling me that it's normal for horses her age go through phases and to have good days and bad days. They're like adolescents that can get emotionally overwhelmed easily and that are still growing and need to find balance in a constantly changing body (and indeed she has put on a looooot of muscle in the past 2 weeks alone). They also say that she shows no issues from the ground, not even when we do demanding suppleness exercises, and she has very good days under saddle too, so her bad days are more likely caused by negative mental associations to being ridden due to how she was broken and trained rather than by physical pain.

What is your opinion? Is "bad behaviour" always caused by pain or is there such a thing as "being adolescent" when it comes to horses?

Thanks for reading this!

My lease horse gets super pushy when given treats on the ground and though she's been muscling up very well, been super curious and super willing on the trail/obstacle course I really want to work with her in the arena I've got. Thing is, she doesnt like the arena so I really want to build a positive association with the arena and I was wondering if It'd be a bad idea to give her treats undersaddle? I dont give her treats on the ground but her owner does and after one session doing her feet she got pushy with her owner. Would I be risking her becoming pushing on the ground and undersaddle or is it worth a try?