At 09:01:34 on 11.09.09, Flicka wrote:
I've always known that it's important to take a horse that's difficult or new to hacking, out with a steady influence. However I've found it more and more interesting how these dynamics work. For instance, my mare who has always been difficult to hack has just come back into work, and after a period of groundwork I took her out for the first time with our gelding Farlow. She went in front and stayed really relaxed and listening to me the whole way round. Two days later I took her out with her field mate Fran who I'd noticed recently had been bullying her a bit. She was very different on this hack although he was really laid back-really didn't want to go in front of him and was often tense and spooky. Has anyone else had any experiences like this out hacking or in other situations such as x-country training?

At 08:35:09 on 23.09.09, plodalong wrote:
hi Flicka,do you think this may have something to do with the olfactory sense that prey animals have? the quiet horse is giving off the scent that alls well and the youngster is picking it up and therefore feeling reassured and calm.I have a friend who has an ex racehorse and for a time used a substance called paxoil.its a coaxing fluid,and when rubbed on the handler or rider of the horse gave off the alls well scent and this in turn helped her horse to settle and be calmer.this apparantky is used on racehorses as they pick up a lot of adrenalin from handlers,jockeys and excited betting folk .horses pick up the adrenalin and think its caused with fear rather than excitment.what do you think.

At 08:54:30 on 23.09.09, Flicka wrote:
Thanks plodalong you mentioned that oil before -funnily enough I have been using aromatics with my horses recently and the one my mare who can be quite uptight chose is a grounding oil!!! You're so right about how sensitive they are to smell as you can affect them physically and mentally by just inhaling an essential oil! Anyway I also think a lot of it is probably due to physical signals he is giving her that I probably miss which say that she is lower down in the pecking order and so shouldn't be taking liberties and going in front of him? What do you think?

At 22:36:49 on 23.09.09, plodalong wrote:
good point,body language is the way horse communicate and if we arnt looking for the signs they are easily missed.tell me more about aromatic oils for horses it sounds interesting.

At 08:18:40 on 15.10.09, Flicka wrote:
Yes it's really interesting. I learnt about it as part of the "Horse Listening" Diploma course I'm on. Basically animal aromatics respects the innate intelligence of the horse to self medicate as it would in the wild. So we offer them oils and herbs and allow them to choose what they want. Very interesting. At the same time as I'd done this part of the course my mare had incurred a nasty injury and had suffered with shock. I bought back some aromatic oils which the teacher thought might be right for her, and just a sniff of each and she yawned and yawned and yawned! She then became much more chilled out on box rest. With the oils and herbs I'm sure she's getting over her trauma, mentally and physically, much more quickly. If you're interested then look up one of the members Horse Listening to find out more.

At 18:11:26 on 15.01.10, Deps wrote:
hi Flicka, just reading through some of the posts here and saw yours. My mare is an unwilling lead horse (both in company and on our own ... although time, patience and trust have made her much better). I think pecking order has a lot to do with it. When she used to hack out with her "boyfriend" she would never go in front however much I tried to push her ... but then who could blame her, everytime she got close to being side by side her boyfriend would give her a look and pin his ears slightly, she backed off immediately. It made no difference that when we were on our own she'd listen to me ... in this situation her boyfriend was clearly the leader and not me! This never changed with him regardless. Now she goes out with all different horses and sometimes she'll go side by side, sometimes in front for a bit and sometimes will stay firmly behind ... it all depends on who's "saying" what to her! Now, if you "force" her she will go in front of all of them but why "force" her when she is getting 2 different signals - me saying go in front and the lead horse say "no you don't". A hurried note but I hope it makes sense! BTW I tried lots of different supplements to help get my mare calmer and less spooky ... then I changed her saddle and she's a different horse. Ok, so she's still not the most confident out on a hack but she won't run backwards when she spooks any more and is more likely to take a little look rather than create a big thing out of something she's not sure of. I knew her saddle no longer fitted her and it took an eternity to find one that was right (in the end I had to have made to measure for her) but the difference its made is remarkable!