Oh boy guys,she wants to play with ME!

[Moniece Dickerson]

Oh boy,she wants to play with ME like I am a horse :shock: !She reared up at me and wanted me to play back and when I pushed her away she went away and bucked and came back twice more to try again!I scratched her neck and explained to her that i'm not a horse and I don't have the body to play with her like that but that I can love on her.I'm sure she didn't understand a word but she settled for the neck scratch LOL.It was hard to push her away but I knew I better or she will think it's ok and hurt me real bad later!!I think she is going to have two real small back socks along with her star.She sure is a bucking jumping rearing little thing :D .Moniece

[Heidi]

It is so nice to hear stories about little Rosalita being so full of LIFE!
Heidi

[appyday]

If she rears to you..knock her to the ground...dont let her do that..

[Terry Wallace]

Monice...she is challenging you for placement in the herd...don't let her do that...curb that behavior right now please... even at this age, if she strikes you, it could break a bone..on YOU...so please "put her in her place" by stopping it asap....

P.S...that is typical foal behavior....she is testing you already!

[Pasogirlz]

If she rears to you..knock her to the ground...dont let her do that..
Ditto. It's scary when they are bigger. :shock:

But yes, it's so fun when they are little and full of life. :D

[Polly Aulton]

That's why everyone has two at a time. So they can play together and leave the humans alone! :lol:
Glad to hear she is so feisty and sooooo normal!
Polly

[Moniece Dickerson]

Well,I have not seen Cola disapline her.What would a mare normally do?Will pushing her away not teach her she can not play with me like that or will that just make her think she needs to try harder or rear taller next time?Moniece

[Terry Wallace]

First...growl her a "warning" (or use your disciplinary word of your choice) then....Smack her ONCE...hard... If you don't, or if you are too meek about it...YES, she will try it again as she is already ascessing her "position" in the herd of the three of you...Cola, Rosalita, & you.

No, Cola will not discipline her, unless Cola is directly involved in the "attack"...likely Rosalita already knows her boundaries with her mother. So far, she only knows you as being the food bringer, the soft voice, the hugger, etc., and not the disciplinarian....rememeber...you are right now establishing that you are the LEADER, and not a "follower" of her.

[CarolU]

Moniece, if she rears against you, bump her hard with your knee so it is not pleasant for her. A sharp NO and scowl on your face. Walk towards her agressively then and if she goes to kick you, swat her good with the lead rope. Don't allow that! (she will still love you - horses love who they respect!)

I would teach her front end and back end yields and make her yield 360 degrees. A horse figures that if you can make them do that, you are definately alpha. It is definately NOT GOOD if Cola isn't disceplining her either. She'll grow up very spoiled.

Clinton Anderson did a very good segment on RFD TV a month or two ago about foals...you ought to see if you can buy it somewhere.

[Moniece Dickerson]

OOOKAY now I see...there's more than just trying to play with me going on here.Well I WILL follow those suggestions and establish my alfa position!My goodness they start YOUNG don't they!Gonna see if I can get Randy to take some pictures of me working with her soon to share.THANKS y'all!!!Your friends,Moniece and Rosalita

Cola is not disaplining her when she bites her but or when she kicks or bucks either.She just walks off when Rosalita messes with her butt and goes running when she kicks and bucks.Maybe i'm just not seeing when she does if she does?

[Terry Wallace]

Some mares are strict discipinarians, and some are not. Cola sounds like she is not. I doubt if Cola will do anything...until it gets rough enough to cause her pain...then...LOOK OUT! Once that filly kicks her mom HARD, or Bites her mom HARD... look for Cola to take action.

If Rosalita is just bucking & jumping around, maybe kicking out...acting like a normal foal... Cola will likely not pay any attention to that. This is still quite normal behavior for mares & foals...

[Polly Aulton]

Cola is NOT a disciplinarian. She will only nip the foal if it's interfering with her eating. The rest is on you Moniece.
We had one mare that was a tough disciplinarian. She used her lower jaw bones to bonk her foals on the head. She hit them so hard you could hear the thunk across the yard! We loved watching her.
We had another that was worse than Cola. She never disciplined her foals for anything. She'd just walk away. Her foals would try to eat you alive when they were babies until you taught them otherwise.
Right now Rosa thinks you are part of her "herd" so you do not have to establish yourself just like you did with Cola. I doubt you'll have a problem after a few corrections. Since this is a cross she should be really smart and catch on quick.
Polly

[CarolU]

BTW Moniece, you CAN play with her...just make sure they are safe games. Get her a big ball to bouce and chase around. We used to blow up a garbage bag and let Baby trounce it. Don't leave the bag there, but they are safe enough when you're there supervising.

http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/23115Baby15mos.jpg

[appyday]

http://forums.somd.com/images/smilies/dead.gif Bag http://forums.somd.com/images/smilies/killingme.gif

[Heidi]

I just bought Q a dog toy...it is a soccer ball with nylon straps around it that have two short cotton ropes attached to each end so the horse (dog) can pick it up and carry it or fling it. Q loves it!
Heidi

[GeorgeGuns]

Just watch out for Cola when you discipline her foal, mares can be a bit touchy about that even if they are not the best disciplinarians themselves, BTDT! When Cascabel was a few weeks old, she planted a hoof in my thigh, and I whacked her, and her ma came at me with no intention of letting me do that again, even though she was sloppy as heck about keeping that filly in line. Teach that filly that you aren't tolerating her antics, but keep one eye out!

And yes it is good to hear that she is so full of life. I may have missed it - what was the outcome after the plasma?

[SQUEAKS]

Moniece

YOU MUST ALWAYS be in command when working with horses no matter what their size. If you permit them to control you then you are headed for the hospital at some later date. Stop any agressive behavior immediately no matter what it takes to end that behavior.

Do not ever permit any horse to rear up to you facing the horse. Sharp commands along with a training whip are in order so that the horse realizes this is not acceptable behavior. Unless you are like some who teach their horses tor rear up for show. But that is another training story that must be done correctly.

JMHO

Bob

[Pam M]

My mare didn't discipline her filly at all either, and I also thought she was playing with me, but after 3 or 4 hoofprints in my thighs (painful!), I got over that! I ended up putting a gelding in with my mare and the baby and he set things straight. Would your other horse do that? If not, you gotta do it. My filly is almost 8 months old now and is very well behaved but it wasn't easy getting her to that point.

[Moniece Dickerson]

Oh Polly i'm so glad you saw that about her too!As alfa as she is I figured she would be one to keep her foal in line but wow,quite the opposite.I thought she must get onto her when i'm not looking but but since you saw her just let everything go I must not be missing anything.Both Randy and I have gotten on to her good enough that we think we've got her stoped from kicking at us.She will still turn her butt sometimes but will think and refrain from kicking and just try to get away instead.I think teaching her to yield her backend will fix that, yes?She tries to run to Cola and hide but Cola just moves so we can catch her...like she's saying hey she finally took my halter off and I DO NOT want it back on so you're on your own little girl.Cola HATES to be caught and is TERRIBLE to catch unless you have food and she already has a halter on.Once you get the halter on she will give in and do what you want but not before.I believe it's not the halter that bothers her...I believe it's that she doesn't like that she has to do what YOU want her to do when she has it on.My idea for fixing this is to start haltering her feeding her a carrot then unhaltering her and leaving.It WILL NOT be easy in the begining but I believe it will get easier and easier till she wants the halter on.It'll be years before I can ever even think of adding another horse as busy as my three girls are keeping and going to continue to keep me but you know,I don't think I could part with a single one of them!Moniece

[Polly Aulton]

Teaching her to yield her butt should fix it. What I usually do with a bad one is to have a carrot stick or just a stick available when I enter the pen. The minute the foal spins I start poking it in the butt until that back end is pointing somewhere other than at me. Every time the back end is in your direction, poke her again. Pretty soon she'll start realizing she has a butt and worry about where it's pointing when you are around. I prefer sticks because getting near a back end is always an iffy proposition. Those little kids have a heck of a kick. Believe me I know first hand. LOL
As for Cola, she obviously needs some round pen work. She can be a bit headstrong sometimes. The halter/feed trick might work because Cola does like her treats.
Polly

[GeorgeGuns]

Yep on the yeilding thing! Start though with making sure she will turn to you when you put pressure on her halter from the side. Stand off to one side several feet, and give a little tug til she turns to you, then immediately put a lot of slack in the rope. (This is also the beginning of teaching to tie, but that comes much later!!)
Then, you can stand at her shoulder and aske her to yield her butt away. Don't wait til she is thinkingabout kicking, just do it. I like to swing the rope end at the butt, and since they don't understand what I want right off, I end up "letting them run into it". After they learn to move when you swing that rope, start asking by pointing at their butt first, then swinging the rope, but now you only want to swing 1-2 times before they "run into it". They soon learn to move that butt away from you when you point or even look at it! Chances are she'll never think about kicking you again.

[CarolU]

Coreen and Polly are right on here. What you do by training them to move their hind quarters is not JUST put the hind quarters away from you and kicking range, it makes them yield to you the second you enter the pen with them. This automatically makes you dominant mare! Be consistent. Much safer.

Besides when they move the kicking end away, the kissing end comes closer. :D

[Heidi]

...when they move the kicking end away, the kissing end comes closer. :D
This comment made me smile. :)
Heidi

[Moniece Dickerson]

Woowee an inch and a half of sleet on the ground today and it's still coming down and will for two days then rain :mad: .Needless to say I did not take a lead rope out with me but after she got her belly ful,it's always after a full belly,she got full of herself but before she could get far enough to actually rear i'd clap my hands and she'd run.She would come back nice and I would be nice till I knew she was going to pull something again then i'd clap and send her away again.When she tried coming my way with ears back and body language trying to intimidate me i'd stomp and not even let her get close to me before I sent her packing.I might be part of the problem though....it's always when i'm scratching her neck fast that she starts wanting to rear sooo I might be "starting it."but then again maybe that is good because maybe this way i'm teaching her I can do what I want to but she can not??Or should I not scratch her fast since I know now that that pushes her buttons?Thanks!Moniece

[GeorgeGuns]

LOL that seems to be a pattern - scratch the baby, then when you stop or they want to escalate, WHAM.

You may be right - think calm stuff when you love on her, slow your energy down, and see how she responds.

[Abejita]

oh yeah mares that let youngsters run roughshod..Cookie did that with her last one..and I put them out with two geldings..and the colt ran them all over (whimps) finally I put Corveta in with them ( God I miss the old girl) and the colt goes charging up to her like he is gonna mount her and she whirls around and does this little 'hump' half kick' warning..He slammed on the brakes and had this look like "WHAT WAS THAT?? no one ever did that to me before" She made that little boy walk the line... :D

[motorgypsy]

Lots of great info. Several things we've done that have worked with the "filly from hell"

Flap big gloves or a big jacket at her like a big bird of prey and yell and advance on her.

Wiggle your fingers with your arms up in the air like a cat attacking and yowl like a big cat

rap the shins with a wooden cane or walking stick when she rears or advances in an agressive manner

If she nips and runs and they like to do this although boys are worse we throw things at them like acorns or small pebbles and drive them backward

Use a cane or walking stick or a three foot piece of pvc 3/4 inch to teach her to yield her butt

push the chest to get her to back off

If she gets mouthy or nippey grab her "camel nose" and hang on for a few seconds. They do hate that.

As soon as she behaves invite her back into your spcae and reward her

Don't give yummies unless she does something to earn them. One yummy like few cheerios for coming to you. Then only if she picks up her foot, steps up, backs, lowers her head etc. does she get any more

Yummies are great tools for teaching and will not create a muuger if they earn each and every one.

For a REAL agressive BITE and only one of ours has ever done this - she ran immediately so we chased her and threw good sized rocks and hit her butt and side. If you aren't sure of your aim throw something light but be sure to hit her and chase her and yell and don't let her hide behind mom. Our mares got out of "the filly from hell's" way when she bit me because they knew she deserved the punishment. But watch mom and be ready to deal with her. Use your judgement on her as to whether she has gotten the point. It was my fault it happened because she had pinned her ears at me and I should have driven her off before she had a chance to bite buy my hands were full of feed buckets. If she ever pins her ears at you - deal with it before you get bitten.

It sounds like you are already doing a good job disciplining her and now that you understand that she's trying to dominate you, you'll be even more careful to discipline her.