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  Discussion on Tosses head when sees the gate
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Posted on Thursday, Mar 22, 2001 - 11:14 pm:

MMy new mare is tossing her head wehnever she sees or thinks about the gate. She is not used to being in an indoor arena (she thinks it is a horse trap I think). So it is pretty obvious WHY she is doing it. But being a new rider, I don't know how to correct it, assuming it will not go away on its own. She has had lots of trail training, but I don't think she has spent much time indoors. Still too icy here for outdoor riding (Wisconsin - Brrrr). Any suggestions?

Posted on Friday, Mar 23, 2001 - 7:53 am:

Hi Diane,
This behavior probably will go away if you just ignore it, but if you're more comfortable being pro-active, there are a couple of things you can do. In any case, it's important to make being in the indoor arena a pleasant experience for her. Some horses, for reasons I'm unsure about, are really rattled in an indoor ring and will hunt the gate since it's (obviously) the way out. If she's generally tense about being in there, then making the arena a pleasant environment (ie feed her there or do something else nice) will help you more than simply making things unpleasant for her every time she expresses her desire to be elsewhere. In fact, the "right thing easy, wrong thing difficult" approach can backfire depending upon how worried the horse is, because it simply proves to her that she's correct in perceiving the arena as unpleasant or threatening. You might try carrying her meals to the arena and feeding her there some, or parking her at the far end with a haynet. I'd always dismount at the far end and lead her out when you *do* finish riding, rather than ride her out the gate. Also, be cognizant while riding of what *your* body is doing when you approach the gate---that you're not, in expectation of trouble, tensing your body somewhat and therefore "cuing" her for more energy, which when contained could result in the head-tossing. There *are* some things you can do to discourage the behavior if it comes to that, but with horses you'll find much greater longterm benefits in trying to address the causes rather than the symptoms.
Hope this helps,
~Amy

Posted on Saturday, Mar 24, 2001 - 5:03 pm:

Thanks Amy. Good advice. Not very often a problem gets fixed by leaving it alone, but apparently that is just what happened. We just rode it out and she didn't toss her head once. Plus I had another horse in there with her, which helped her get over the "horse trap" thing I think. She is trained to be a trail horse and putting her in that big building without other horses really confused her. She had to think rather than just follow the other horses around. So we are good to go!
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