With dogs you can “top dress” their own feces and/or feed them things that make it unpleasant to discourage coprograpy (however feces-eating is spelled!) and it is usually just a puppy thing. Is my 3 year old just still “a pup” and the behavior will stop eventually? Ideas/suggestions?

Noeline. xx

Its so wonderful to hear your story. YES, we do have horses that are our soul mates. You found yours, I had mine three times, and now I own someone else’s. I am not sure how many human / horse soul mates there are out there, but I hope to find another one to spend some more of the rest of my life with.

I have read Jphn Lyons book and attended his training back in the day. I agree.

Horses like puppies need to learn not to hurt their owners. Sometimes a smack with the flat of our hand is the only thing that gains their attention or respect. Sort of like the rule, the only time to spank your child is when they run into the street. They go to learn, quick.

We are not talking abuse here. AND I am not advocating hitting them repeatedly on the head over and over for mugging treats and thereby making them head shy.

Twice I have smacked horsed for biting, neither of them did it again. Once was an old farm / plow horse that my riding student boarded out for awhile. She was trying to feed him carrots, he took her thumb between his teeth and held on. Good thing she had thick winter gloves on. I looked at her and asked, are you going to punch him or am I? She was so shocked that he had her thumb between his teeth she could only nod. I gave him a good punch, in the side of his mouth, and he let go. Believe me when I say, I didn’t hurt this guy. He had the constitution of a tank.

The other time, I already explained in the previous thread. My mare was frustrated with the “no treat” rule at the county fair and took ahold of my cheek. I smacked her with the flat of my hand. Just to let her know, HEY that HURT!

Both of these situations were people mistakes. Unfortunately, horses are BIG and need to know they can HURT us. To fully respect us, horses need reminding once in awhile of that. Watching alphas establish dominance will display that there is a lot of physicality in that. The human challenge is to find a way to combind the establishment of pack leader with trust, loyalty, and mutual respect.

The “Buck” movie demonstrates that all horses CAN NOT be rescued. Some are so damaged they can not be safe. The choice has to be made by the person, when safety is paramount to saving a horse. I had this happen once with one horse in 48 years. The horse was terribly spoiled, brat. No boundaries had ever been established from her birth. She was allowed to do whatever she wanted, including coming to the porch door and demanding treats. Cute when they are 4 weeks old, NOT cute when they are a 4 year old bitchy mare. At 4 she was sold as a child’s mount, for a riding student of mine. I was asked to train the horse and the rider. She attacked me every time I went into the pasture to collect other mounts. Even when I didn’t approach her she would run across the open are if she saw anyone come into the pasture. She attacked other people trying to get their horses. I took to carrying an axe handle out in the pasture.

So, I refused to work with her. She wasn’t safe for the child and I wasn’t being paid enough to risk injury. There is always a cost / benefit that must be taken into consideration when keeping / working with horses. Cost sometimes is the risk of injury. Some horses are worth it in the long run, some are not.