Perky Horses

Perky Horses and what to do About Them

Written By: Bonnie Marlewski-Probert

Melody wrote to me on the Internet recently with a problem that I know many of you have, or will be facing in the months to come ? especially this spring!

"Dear Miss Bonnie,

I'm new to computers and the Net, but I was on the web the other night and found one of your web sites. I read the article that you had written and enjoyed it very much. I bought my first horse about a year and a half ago.

I'm a forty-one (soon to be forty-two) year old women who loves horses and always wanted one but never lived where I could. At any rate I bought a beautiful appendix bread quarter horse. He stands around 15.2 hands tall, now 12 years old and his very first owners had him for about 4 or 5 years, after them he had four other owners before he came to me. I have taken riding lessons on him and have a wonderful instructor who thinks that I did a great job in picking out such a pretty horse. Now looks aside Max (as he is called) does well most of the time. When I bought him he was a little bull-headed and very spooky. You couldn't get a rope anywhere near him, and he didn't seem to like men very well. I work him in a round pen and I now have him to where he will walk, trot, and canter on cue, whether I am on his back or not.

I've taken him on all kinds of trail rides. The trails are just across open pastures, some wooded areas, there are some on hard footing, steep hills, rocky cliffs, downed timber and other obstacles. Most of the time he does fine. Doing everything that I ask him to do. But lately he seems to be testing me a lot. While in the round pen he will cut across in the middle, as if to crowd my space. Sometimes he stops and turns to face me and snorts, rears and even bucks. I can get him back under control but it is scary for me. I always end the session with me being in control.

The other day I tacked him up and went for a short ride down the road. Now this is a place where I ride him often but he acted frightened the whole time. When we got back to our driveway I turned him towards the house and he started jumping around and bucked half way up the drive. I tell you if I wanted to do that I would ride Broncos at the rodeo. I knew that I couldn't put him away right then so I marched his fanny back down the drive and made him walk home like he should. He did prance around a bit but he didn't buck and about thirty or forty yards before we got to the barn I made him stand and wait calmly. We then continued to the barn and he was fine.

I feel so stupid. I want so badly to do well but I have to tell you I feel that when I take two steps forward, I fall ten steps back. I wish I could have had lessons and been around horses when I was younger. My instructor says that I am doing great and starting over with a new horse would be starting over at square one. Sometimes I get really discouraged and think I should just sell and go back to raising dogs. I wish I knew if I am doing something wrong. I have a friend that I ride with and she always wants to do things to Max like tie logs to him and let him drag them around all day or tie his head to a tree and leave him for a couple of days or even sore his mouth.

I know you think that I'm a crazy lady that has no business owning a horse. But if you knew how much enjoyment that I get from riding or just grooming. I know that I can be in the worst mood ever and go out and ride Max, and if he does well I'm on top of the world!!! Most of the time he is wonderful it's just the other times ..... I feel like I need to be on guard all the time. If you can give me any advice I would appreciate it so much. Thank you for your time. From a horse lover, who keeps trying,

Melody Coffman"

Dear Melody,

First, I don?t think you are a "crazy lady" and you absolutely belong in the horse world. You do have great taste in horses and it sounds like your riding instructor is right on the money. It also sounds like you are head and shoulders ahead of most adults who are returning to, or entering riding for the first time. SO, so far, you are doing everything right on the money. THEN, why is your horse acting up???

I'm going to offer you several suggestions that will explain this behavior and from there, we can solve it. First, sometimes it is easiest to solve a problem by asking yourself, if I wanted to CAUSE this problem, what could I do to cause my horse to be spooky and too fresh and a bit pushy?

EASY, I would increase the protein level in his grain (like feeding a child candy bars all day), or, I would increase the overall amount of good quality feed I am feeding him. The trick here is to increase the amount of good feed so that I am sure it exceeds what he needs in terms of energy for his daily workload. By doing this, I create a horse that will bounce off the walls, spook at everything and will buck out of sheer delight at the worst possible times. If this describes the horse you own, this may be the problem and the solution.

Another thing I could do to achieve the same result without increasing the feed levels would be to DECREASE his workload. By working him less and less (common as most people head into winter) and NOT decreasing his diet, again, I have created an imbalance between what his engine needs to run and the amount of fuel I am pouring into it.

In these cases, the solution is two-fold. First, if your horse's workload has decreased, cut back on the grain accordingly. Secondly, if you don't want to cut back on the grain, you might consider half leasing the horse with someone else so that between the two of you, he is getting the amount of work that he really needs and that is good for you, good for him and good for the other rider (this is also a great way to cut your expenses in half while solving a problem in the process).

Another thing to consider is that the QH/TB cross (my personal favorite cross of all times for jumping) has a tendency to get "hot headed" and bored quickly. The trick is to keep their minds occupied. In other words, if you are going to warm up your horse before a trail ride (I highly recommend this practice) if you are riding a QH, you can walk, trot and canter in circles until you tire him out a bit and then head out for the trails. BUT, if you have TB blood in the horse, they are not going to tire out as easily and if they get mentally bored, they are going to start acting up like a child with A.D.D.. So, when you are warming up a TB cross, you have to mix things up (serpentines, walk/halt, halt/trot, circles, zigzags, starting, stopping, etc) to get their mind focused on you. Incidentally, this also holds true for Arabian horses.

As for your horse testing your authority, I would suggest that part of that may be in your feeding/workout program. Like kids, if they are hot wired because of too much sugar or goodies in the diet, no one is going to be able to get their attention and to scream or beat them up isn't going to solve the base problem. Address the feeding problem first and then start encouraging your horse to focus on you. You mentioned that in the round pen you can get him to walk, trot, and canter on verbal commands. That is great, but remember that he is part TB and TB's will get bored very quickly, so avoid the temptation to repeat exercises too often. The rule I use is this (in extreme cases), never cross the same path in the arena twice in a row. That becomes a big challenge when working in a round pen, but it can be done if you are willing to mix it up.

Also, with a TB cross, you can't REACT to them, you have to set the tone yourself. In other words, don't figure it is all right to have him going in circles endlessly in a round pen UNTIL he rears and comes at you. The trick is to understand that he is going to be bored out of his mind if you let him circle around you more than a few times without doing something else, SO, rather than wait for him to do something and then REACT to him, it is up to you to DO SOMETHING that will cause him to REACT to you. Taking this stand establishes who is boss and removes any reason for him to be testing your authority. In other words, you can't doze off at the wheel with a QH/TB because they are really smart and that is a good thing - but it can be a challenging thing if you get into the trap of relying heavily on the round pen.

I believe that your friend's suggestions about tying him to a post or whatever are pretty extreme and I wouldn't recommend following up on those. Instead, I would review your feeding program, make sure your horse is getting a lot of work (to test this out, double your work load on him for one week and see what your horse is like after the week, but be sure you are working him hard, not just walking around in circles). I think you are going to find that your old horse will return if you increase his daily work load, but be sure to make it interesting work, not just boring walking in a circle or not just walking on the trails. If you are looking for things to do, try putting down some jumping poles on the ground and using them as trotting pole exercises or set up obstacle courses in the ring and work him through them. These will engage his mind, give him a good workout and build trust between the two of you.

Update letter

Dear Miss Bonnie,

Hey, Thanks so very much for the e-mail answer, I was so surprised and excited. I've ridden Max several times since you wrote and so far he has done much better. I took him out into his pasture area to work him instead of the round pen. We ran circles starting with very large ones then went down to small ones. We did some backing exercises and side passes. After that we went into the round pen and just had fun. Today I trailed him over to the ranch where my instructor is. We worked in the round pen first which was a challenge because the farmer there has six hogs pinned up right next to the horse working area. Max HATES hogs. But he actually did fairly well, I decided to take him on up into the open arena. There are tires and cones to work the horses around. Usually when trotting, Max always wants to stop when I try to turn him in any direction besides a circle. Today he did figure eight?s in a full trot and I must say he did them beautifully!! I was so excited that I took him up to the next track where there are poles to go over and around, all at different heights. He did so well. I had never trotted or loped him there because I was afraid he would take off in a dead run, because it's all-open to a huge pasture. I tell you what, today I thought my horse was worth a million bucks. We then went on a wonderful but short trail ride alone and even went through some scary obstacles, but he still did wonderful, doing everything that I ask him to do. I have cut back on his feeding just a tad. But he usually gets alfalfa cubes as a treat and I have switched to carrots or apples. I love riding so much, and on days like today well there are just no words.

Thanks again for all your wonderful help.

Still learning more,

Melody Coffman"