Finally got one that has me stumped

[sheila coffman]

I have broke and rode horses for over half my life. I have always said if you get a new horse in and you did not learn something from it you were doing something wrong.  Well I guess I could blame this on old age or alsheimers (spelling is first thing to go I hear) .  Anyway I purchased a TWH mare this summer and rode her by myself up behind the ladies house before I bought her I knew she did not rein the best in the world but thought BIG DEAL. Took her out through the road at my daughters were I was staying this summer and down the trail through some water still little rough but not to awful. Now in the round pen she kept trying to climb out. No I don't mean kinda pawing or just running around I mean literally CLIMBING, CRASHING, REARING UP TRYING TO JUMP / BREAK THE PANELS DOWN. She had been in a field with no other horses when I bought her but dont know how long.  I went to ride her again and not sure what happened combination of too much bit, I was not feeling good to start with, daughter yelled are you going to let her get away with that so I smacked her on the neck, she jumped I pulled on reins instead of holding with my legs. Now you know all this was in a split second while I'm thinking  " ohhhh I shouldn't have done that.  Crawled out of the round pen because my right knee said it was not ready to get up and spent 2 days on crutches.  Knee is better. Horse still little crazy and I hate to admit I can't get up the nerve to get back on. Any advice on  why she may be acting like she does in pen and how to get her reining better.  Now she did not through me. I was coming off in case she started to buck which I think also scared her because I did it so fast she scooted sideways up hill a little and my legs just did not reach the ground. So I must admit she did not buck or rear.

[Adrienne Walsh]

Put a lunge line on her and try to work her in the round pen. That way if she gets to trying to climb out you can pull her away from the fence. Or you could lunge her in a circle outside the round pen, do for a long time with changes in directions, not letting her do anything you didn't tell her to do. When you have really tired her out, then you could put her in the round pen and lunge her some more and see if she tries to climb out. If she tries to climb out then lunge her some more outside the round pen. It sounds like she has had a traumatic experience in the round pen OR she is just really trying you. Either way, some good ol' Clinton Anderson lunging for respect techniques should convince her that she is not in control and nothing is going to hurt her in the round pen.

[Robin Murray]

RUN not walk as far away from this horse as you can.

[ReubenT]

Sounds like you got one of those tricky ones.
Marv Walker. Get his videos, I also listened in to a couple conference calls he did on training technique and picked up some more ideas on hard to handle horses. There are simple ways of handling difficult horses, some horses are just not safe to handle by any normal means.
All horses need to recognize their humans as their herd leader. Once they do everything becomes easy.
Basically there is a certain exercise done in a round pen that pushes a horse into making a decision to accept this human as their herd boss. Most horses will make that decision easily, once in awhile one will put up some resistance first, and very occasionally a horse will really fight before they decide. That can get very dangerous and the trainer needs to know how to recognize the difficult cases and how to handle them safely. I have listened to most of the popular horse training teachers out there and Marv Walker is the only one who takes the actual identical maneuver that horses do in their pecking order battles, does it in the RP and has figured out how to push the issue and help them make the right decision. But a good sense of horse attitudes and emotions is necessary, as well as a sense of how far to push and not cause a blow up. But sometimes a blow up is inevitable, and then we have to know how to stay safe and still be able to win. Most of the NH teachers are doing some version of the same thing but I think Marv's version is the one that really gets the horse thinking on herd social terms and making decisions based on genetic programming.
All the seminars I've gone to and all the teachers I listened to, all the videos I watched, none of them really got to the root of the issue, until I saw Marv's videos. He made them in home made fashion so they're not fancy and some are very long and can be boring, uncut training sessions But consequently he didn't have much invested to make them, he sells them cheap enough so anyone can afford them.

My policy in horse training education was to learn from everyone I could possibly get info from, but after I saw Marv's video's I went back and watched some of the others and I understood and could see what was going on much better.

There are horse trainers who train all their lives and do not understand this stuff, but there is an occasional horse that baffles their skills and they just can't handle. That horse gets thrown away as untrainable when a little knowlege of the right kind could turn that horse into a wonderful animal.

[Grimwood's Horseshoeing]

Sheila,

It sounds like you had a nice easy going horse that tolerated being ridden but did not know much. I assume now she is with other horses and is probably starting out on the bottom rung of the ladder. She may be very sensitized (Picked on) which could explain the change in behavior and the explosive response to your smack on the neck. She is like a bundle of nerves. I would begin by desensitizing the horse. I would get her on a lounge line and start off easy rubbing her all over and then sacking her out with a rope. Throwing it all over her on BOTH sides. Over the back and around the legs and do it in a nice rhythm until the horse relaxes then take it away and pet the horse as a reward. Be quick to reward! If she wants to go all over the pen or pasture move with her and keep sacking her out but you have to keep her eyes facing you (That is the main rule!). Once she relaxes and excepts all of this then you can go to teaching her to move off in four directions. Teach her from the ground to back, step over her haunches, step over at the forehand, and move forward. At the end of each lesson go back to sacking her with the rope, rubbing and grooming. I would also look at her living conditions and see if there is anything you can do to help her stress. Once you get her saying yes then you can move to lateral gives. Work her in a training snaffle. If that horse can gait to begin with then she can in anything you start her in. In fact I wouldn't even worry about the gaiting until you have this horse suppled. It really just sounds like the horse is confused and needs to know where you are coming from. Be consistant. Start small on the ground and build up to bigger things. Once you have her yielding her hindquarters and moving off in both directions on the lounge line, I would then take her back into the round pen. She won't feel so trapped and will understand what you are asking her to do. Go through your exercises and then you can start asking for more round pen work.