Horse Behavior Problems

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I can't speak for every time a horse starts pawing like that, but I can tell you that each time I've seen it, it's been done by a horse that has decided it's the boss - and you're not. If that's what's happening, it can be fixed by you learning to take control of the horse with a zero-tolerance policy for any shenanigans, including while you're leading, feeding, bathing, putting a saddle on, etc. But, obviously it's not something I can cover in an email. Here are a few suggestions: Go to this page on my site:http://www.horsemanship101.com/Horse-Training-Tools/index1001.html. It lists over 200 training topics. Simply find a topic related to your situation and the link will bring you to a list of relevant books, video, audio tapes. It will also link you to free articles, when they're available. Note that some topics (like "biting") haven't been addressed yet. They someday will be - but right not most of our articles mirror our riding clinics. You might also look for a John Lyons trainer in your area. A list of trainers can be found here:http://horsemanship101.com/John-Lyons-Trainer-Links/John-Lyons-Trainers-US.html. You can find a list of our upcoming clinics here on my site:http://horsemanship101.com/John-Lyons-Trainer-Clinics/Where-and-When.html. Good luck and let me know how it goes. Keith

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Thanks for your reply Keith, Yes, Skye needs more ground work and I've gotten lazy. I have all kinds of videos and books and have participated in some Parelli clinics and even hired a Parelli student to work with me on Skye's mother (who I finally gave up on and sold). Skye is easy to work with and is perfect with my 6' husband, but at 16.2 she has learned to play games with me like putting her head high when I try to bridle her (she puts her head down and opens her mouth for Don!), tends to get too far ahead when I lead her (but is a well trained obedience heeling dog with Don!) etc. It is me, not the horse. She is amazingly wonderful to work with, learns fast but is almost too smart and delights in outsmarting me. I've always had high strung horses in the past and am delighted to finally have one that doesn't spook or panic (I'm now 68 and my reaction time has slowed down considerably and Skye is still big and powerful even when she is being good). Luckily I do have complete authority on her back and feel safe on her. I have found out the hard way with other horses I've owned in the past that each person has to establish his own head position with a horse and no trainer can do it for him because no matter how good the horse is with the trainer, unless the owner himself follows through with the established program, the training is wasted. I believe in the programs you and the other high profile trainers have laid out for the unenlightened and inexperienced horse owner. Keep up the good work I've already reestablished limits with Skye in her lame condition and made it clear we do it my way and not hers. I need to get a stall for her and not just the pipe corral but am going to cover the pipes with fencing so she can't get her foot stuck or hit. I've had as many as 6 horses in the past and have raised a number of foals and I have never had this problem of horses getting injured in even small pipe corral enclosures (hers is 24 x48) but I have heard of a horse tearing its leg off in one! It seems that horses can get hurt on anything no matter how careful you are. I put rubber mats down across the covered section of my corrals and Skye and her uncle Legend ate the mats. I had to take them out before they coliced on them. Right now we are looking for safe stalls, safe stall flooring and safe fencing but can't afford to do anything at present. Sincerely, Dori B

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Hi Keith,
Skye seemed to recover then was suddenly lame again and we presumed she had hit her ankle on the pipe corral even tho she wasn't doing it in front of us. I even stood in front of her with a whip and wouldn't feed her when she tried to paw with her sore foot (she is left-footed obviously). Then I made her wait to eat until I had hosed her leg. I'd been doing that 2 times a day. We had originally checked her foot to make sure it wasn't an abcess, but she didn't react to pressure and there was heat only in the ankle. She's been getting progressively lamer and I just left her out in pasture so she wouldn't injure the foot anymore. When the blacksmith came out today I had him test her with his hoof tester just to make sure it wasn't an abcess after all. He agreed that he was pretty sure it was in the ankle but when he pulled the shoe fluid came out of one of the nail holes and when we looked closely at her coronet we noticed a small sore where the infection had broken through. She instantly was better with the pressure eased. I feel so stupid to have missed this since I have nursed foot abcesses previously, but we all missed it. The blacksmith thought it might have been a puncture wound that finally worked its way up and said that horses get them more often than we are aware of because the horse wouldn't be obviously lame. I remember a mare we had that was "off" and none of the vets could figure out what was wrong with her. We got a chiropractor to work on her and at the end of his work he said the horse had been out a bit anyway but that she should have shown more instant results to his adjustments and suggested that the vet look again for an abcess. Indeed that was the problem. At least now I can do the correct treatments and get my horse back.

I'm still paranoid about the danger of pipe corrals though after this experience and know that in the future a horse could be injured by them by getting their legs caught when they rolled, so maybe this experience was the instigator to redo my corrals and build an actual stall that is "horseproof" if there is such a thing. Skye is a big horse and definitely needs something larger than the standard 12'x12' variety so she'd have room to roll safely, and something strong enough she could break through and get injured, and definitely something besides wood that she wouldn't chew on. I've looked at all the "systems" and haven't been satisfied that anyone has come up with a really good stall design. Northcoast Barns seemed to have a possible one, but the artifical wood unit they use can be broken and could injure a horse and most of the others use only a 3/4" plywood panel covered with various materials. I've had horses that have kicked through 2x4 dividers! I'm a building designer and have submitted custom designs for pricing to the various barn manufacturers, but their prices are outrageous for anything other than their standards so I'll probably just have something stick built if I can find suitable materials. I originally had wanted large stalls with huge covered runs since it is so rainy here and I wanted a run large enough for horses to be able to exercise without pulling something in mud. (An indoor ring would be ideal, but out of my budget.)

Sincerely, Dori B