Hello,
I have an 11 year old mare. She is very sensitive and sometimes "spooky".
Since two months I work with the dually halter. She learned to walk correctly by my side (sweet spot- the nose is at my shoulder) and to stand still. I made Join up and Follow up with her. I saw videos in equus online university. It is amazing how positive she changed her behavior.
But I still have a big problem: It just happens in the moment when I want to unsnap the lead line from the halter in the pasture or round pen. Then she tries to pull back, to get loose and flee away. Before I work with dually halter sometimes she pulled so much that she ran away with the leadline. When I want to unsnap the lead line, I don´t look into her eyes. There is no problem when I tie her up in the stable or somewhere else or want to unsnap her in the stable. Just in the moment when she knows that she can run, she acts headless. How can I stop her from doing this? Thank you so much. Sorry for my bad english.
Regards
Nina from germany
Hi Nina - ah I have a wonderful method for this :-)I can't claim it as mine but I can't remember where I got it from! This can either wrok in ten minutes or it may take a few days, they are all different.
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Put TWO headcollars on. One Dually and an easy one e.g. a rope halter. Attach the line to the headcollar that is UNDERNEATH (preferable the Dually) Take the TOP headcollar off and as she pulls away she will find she is still attached. Put the headcollar back on and do it again. After a few goes she will stop doing it as she will think she is still attached.
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Then switch round i.e. put the rope halter on FIRST then the Dually, take the rope halter off from underneath (you will have to thread it through) and again she will still be attached. When she has stopped pulling away you can move to step three.
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At this point you only have the Dually and the line. Start taking the Dually SLOWLY off but ANY sign of movement from her STOP and fasten it back up again. i.e. if her feet move or her head turns away from you stop. She will quickly "train you" that when she stays still she gets to be free - movement from her means she stays attached.
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Let us know how it goes
Hello Vicci,
thank you so much!!!
I will make it and let you know how it goes.
With best wishes
Hi Nina. That's great advice from Vicci. However, should that not work Monty has a backup plan! On the Uni there is a section in the lessons about how to stop horses pulling back when tied up. It involves using a long, eslaticated line, tied to a ring in a high & wide wall with a safe barrier a short distance behind the horse. The horse teaches itself by reversing into the barrier repeatedly & the elasticated rope brings the horse forwards again, using the dually. Vicci's solution is simplier & involves less equipment but the Monty solution means a horse that dangerously rushes backwards is trained without putting the trainer at physical risk. Good luck. Cheers, Jo.
I rarely disagree with Jo but I feel I must today :-) You have said that there is no problem when she is tied up so this is not a "tied up" issue (apologies if I'm reading it wrong!) this is about her wanting to run away when you take the leadline/headcollar off in the paddock. Under no circumstances should elastic lines be used for this issue - only for a tied up issue as you describe Jo where there is a barrier behind.
Hello thogether,
thank you so much for your efforts.
There is no problem when she is tied up. She "only" wants to run away and pull back when I want to take off the leadline from the headcollar in in the pasture or in the indoor riding arena (a place where is much space). It is like a signal for her "oh yes soon I´am free and can run". She is a very sensitive mare. Immediately she notices changes or movements in the environment.
I will try it with the two headcollars and hope that she learn patience :-)
Greatings
I think Vicci's advice is great. here is a "non-Monty" thing we used at a riding camp many years ago (long before I had heard the about "Natural horsemanship") to stop a pony from hurting any of the kids. Still, violent free! ;)
We simply built a small square inside the gate. We took him there, walked him around the fence to show it to him, brought in a bucket of food (carrots, grass, betfor, what have you that he liked and would take some time to chew through, and placed it so that he faced the gate we came in through.
While he ate, we unsnapped the line and went to open the gate at the other end. Usually, when he had finished with the bucket, he started grazing where he was before he realized the gate was open, and then he wandered quietly out through it. We did this for quite some time, incrementally reducing the feed to a single piece of carrot (and, yes, we did feed it from the hand) ;) that he got once he had turned and was quietly facing the first gate. In the end we had a pony that always would turn so you could close the gate and waited for a treat whether he was loose or on a line.
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Mind you, while he quickly learned that he was fenced, we did have setbacks where he left the bucket and took off, but since the line was unclipped by then, no one was in danger of getting hurt. Not saying this would work on any other horse, but it did on this pony.