at my house i have 20 acres. i like to ride my primary horse around the place however the more i keep her in a paddock with another mare the more buddy sour she is. when i kept her in the back she was fine. i know horses are herd animals but what a difference when she is housed with the other mare. she will make a line for the closed fence to see her buddy. when alone she comes right up to me to be saddled. when with her buddy she walks off and i have to walk to her. its a real hassle and makes me want to stick to my idea of just one horse. comments.
buddy sour cure?
- Thread starter jvicars
- Start date
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Miss Daisy
Well-known member
your mare likes he buddy more than she likes you. change that
i am working on it but i am not sure exactly how. when i had her in the back by herself she was fine. now she is with her buddy she is buddy sour. i moved her to the back and plan to get rid of the other mare.
jvicars":3a3rxvyy said:
1st thing is to keep them in seperate pens/corrals/paddocks/pastures - preferably with no common fence. When under saddle, make her trot away from her friend and don't let her trot/run back - make her walk. When she gets within 20 feet or so of the corrals, turn her around and do it again. Keep varying the distance you ride away - sometimes short, sometimes long. She will probably fight you, but keep doing it until she figures out who is calling the shots. You don't have to get nasty with her, just be patient and she will likely figure it out. Incidently, riding away at a trot, walking back and turning around to repeat at varying distances works real well for barn sour horses, too.
ArrowHBrand
Well-known member
What msscamp wrote has worked for us in the past, but what we've started doing is to tie the other horse to the fence. Halter your primary sour horse and walk her away from her buddy. Do it on the ground first because things may get interesting. When she starts having a fit, walk her towards her buddy and when you get about 20 feet away longe her right into a trot. Longe her for a few minutes and then lead her away. Repeat as long as necessary. A few days later do it under saddle again. This will teach your mare that wanting to be with her buddy is going to make her work hard. Horses are lazy and will only put forth minimal effort unless their rider motivates them. Good luck!
msscamp has some good ideas, and ArrowH makes a good point about starting out doing this stuff on the ground, i don't know if this horse is a real bucker, but you can't be too careful in my opinion.
this isn't an easy problem to cure, you've gotten some good suggestions already, but there's no ONE thing you can do to fix the problem, it will be a process. if you can't completely seperate the horses like msscamp suggested (no common fenceline) one thing you can try is you can tie this horse up someplace where she can't get away (like a tree) and force her to be seperated, this isn't the cure-all, but it's one step you can take - just make sure you know how to tie her and make sure you don't lose your nerve and try to go rescue/untie her if she starts thrashing around, you can get very hurt (so can the horse, just consider that while considering this advice). also, you can try to make the horse walk home and not let her trot, but something i'd say would be more effective is when you do get home, sometimes just tie her up and leave her for 10-15 minutes while you do whatever - the point being, she doesn't get it in her head that as soon as she's home she gets to stop working. maybe even tie her up awhile and then ride her off again, things like that can make a big difference. just try to make sure that you end the ride on a positive note where you called the shot - or at least make the horse think you called the shot, even if you have to cut things very short. i have the theory that the beginning of your next ride is a continuation from the end of your last ride.
we had a terribly buddy sour mare that we eventually cured, it took time. pm me if you'd like me to ramble about what we did, if not, there's lots of very informed horse people on here, i'm sure you'll get good advice
this isn't an easy problem to cure, you've gotten some good suggestions already, but there's no ONE thing you can do to fix the problem, it will be a process. if you can't completely seperate the horses like msscamp suggested (no common fenceline) one thing you can try is you can tie this horse up someplace where she can't get away (like a tree) and force her to be seperated, this isn't the cure-all, but it's one step you can take - just make sure you know how to tie her and make sure you don't lose your nerve and try to go rescue/untie her if she starts thrashing around, you can get very hurt (so can the horse, just consider that while considering this advice). also, you can try to make the horse walk home and not let her trot, but something i'd say would be more effective is when you do get home, sometimes just tie her up and leave her for 10-15 minutes while you do whatever - the point being, she doesn't get it in her head that as soon as she's home she gets to stop working. maybe even tie her up awhile and then ride her off again, things like that can make a big difference. just try to make sure that you end the ride on a positive note where you called the shot - or at least make the horse think you called the shot, even if you have to cut things very short. i have the theory that the beginning of your next ride is a continuation from the end of your last ride.
we had a terribly buddy sour mare that we eventually cured, it took time. pm me if you'd like me to ramble about what we did, if not, there's lots of very informed horse people on here, i'm sure you'll get good advice
