A little bit ago I posted that I was going to start giving Oden one single hand-fed treat as when I catch him in the pasture. I said I knew that might come back to haunt me. Oden is very food aggressive; and every time I try food treats, I regret it. Well, I regretted trying it this time too. Within a couple of days, he was nipping me all the time. I stopped the hand-fed treats, but he kept nipping, no doubt hoping that he could somehow compel me to feed him a treat. So, to try to rectify things, I started sticking my finger in his mouth (in the spot where the bit lies where there are no teeth) and hanging on until he returned his head to the front and held his mouth still. You may wonder how that went. It went OK. He clearly understood the cause and effect. He would turn his head to the front and stand quietly, and I would let go. Then hed turn right around and nip me again. Rinse and repeat. I kept this up for a couple of days, thinking the nipping might decrease. It really didnt. Yesterday when he nipped me, I popped him on the butt (NOT in the face!) with a short hunter crop (the kind with a fat leather popper on the end). I am quite certain that there was more noise than pain. And this was one single pop. None of that three second rule crap. Did that work? Yes it did. He had a whole new quiet mouth today. Sigh. I say sigh because I want to be able to do horses without hitting them. And I know a lot of other ladies do too. But I also know that some of us get into trouble by being too patient and too tolerant; and the next thing we know, we have a horse who shoves us around and cant be handled safely. And that isnt good for anyone. Anyway, today I was able to rub all the itchy spots on his head without being nipped, and thats a good thing. Im still cleaning out the tack room and still reading the introductory materials for Straightness Training. :)
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 21:29:41 +0000
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