Opened A Can Of Whoop-Ass On My Mare Today

This is a tale of how to knock some sense into your horse's head. Now, I don't go about telling folks to beat your horses, although at times....wellllll.....ok, back to the subject!

My semi-adorable Appy mare has a history of being abused and becoming very defensive. But, she's also an Appy and smarter than than the average bear! She KNOWS how to intimidate to get her way, just cuz she wantsta....

That doesn't work with me one bit. At first, I was a little intimidated by her because, well, hell, I'm a middle aged lady who has plenty of bloody-body memories and now, I just don't want to go through the pain!!

I had noticed the last few days that she was a little 'off' from normal. See, this is WHY I say to sit out and watch your hoss so you can KNOW when your baby/brat/idiot horse is not acting right.

So, today I had her tied up to groom her and normally, she's like, Right On!, with it. Today, she turned her butt to me when I put my hand on her hip to move her considerable butt over and backed her ears into serious mode. Let me tell you, I grabbed her lead rope, jerked it off the fence (she ties with only looping it over the rail, it wasn't tied hard and tight) and she got a mega-spanking with some salty words thrown in!!

We went right and left and she had move her butt all over the place, she had to back up, moved her front end, all the move-stuff BUT with lots of my telling her what a rotten horse she was. Actually, it was worse but I'm not repeating it, not even on here...

Okay, now here's the critical part. Once I 'read' her body language that she 'got it' not to turn her butt towards mommy in a threatening way...or any way for that matter, I backed off and walked off, leading her. That's critical to learn to read a horse. She KNEW she did really, really wrong and was 'sorry' she did so but if I had kept on with her, she would have been pushed past her point of no return and start to turn on me. She's 1100 lbs or so and I'm nowhere near that much (not telling either) so it would really be an uneven fight. She could have trounced me and I'd have been in the emergency room or at the undertaker's right now.

But, even though I was royally pissed at her, I had control of myself to still read her and to stop when the stopping was good. Afterward, I tied her right back up and walked around her with fly spray and such and she never moved a peg.

Then I left her tied and sat on the fence for a bit. Now, the problem with having a really smart App is that she knows how to work a knot, she untied herself and where did she go??? She came right over to me with her head down. I petted her poll (between her ears) and then she brought her head up and I loved on her. It was over.

The whole thing lasted less than 25 or so seconds. That's the trick. When a horse does something really BAD, you have to jump on them like a hen on a junebug, not this 'asking' them or trying to work it out. Jump on them and get it over! That's how horses do it in the wild.

You don't need to beat them into submission. If you do, you need to find another horse... Just when they do something bad, get onto them and then, it's forgotten.

I know that my adorable mare will be lots better tonite and for a while...till she tests me again!!

Now, go ride!!