From: radner@cray.com (Lauren Radner)
Subject: Help! My horse has turned into a Juvenile Delinquent! 
Organization: Cray Research, Inc.
Date: 16 Dec 92 15:35:08 CST

Hi, folks. I am having a problem with one of my horses and am looking
for innovative and insightful ways to correct it. 

First off, I know full well that this is a problem due to ME not 
spending enough time doing proper training (like most manners problems!).
I won't go into why I haven't been around to do the correcting, I'll just
describe the problem (please don't blast me for not making the time, it's 
been unavoidable and I couldn't feel any worse about it).

This sweet-tempered young stallion who is a marshmallow at any other time 
has recently gotten to the point (says the barn manager) where even she is
afraid to lead him down the aisle because he rears and screams and
does all sorts of stallion nonsense at other horses in their stalls. 
Apparently this week she got pinned between him and the stall he was
rearing at. At any other time (in the stall, when turned out, etc.) he's
still a marshmallow.

I find this behaviour problem to be TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE.

I was up at the barn not too long ago and have seen and worked with the
problem myself. He never used to be like this, and it used to be a verbal
reprimand was enough. I finally resorted to a combination of strong voice
tones and whapping him with a riding whip to keep his attention focused on me 
when he started prancing/rearing/screaming while using both tap/whaps and voice 
to say "Hey! Pay attention to me when I'm leading you up and down the aisle! Not 
those other horses!" and effusive praise when he walked like a normal well-bred 
equine instead of a Juvenile Delinquent.  About the third or fifth time walking up 
and down the length of the aisle (40-50 feet or so?), he'd be acceptable with only 
a swiftly-verbally-reprimanded neck-arching and a prance or two. 

I believe the solution is I should do this with him like six times a day for
a month or more. I am not available to do this. I am not even available to do
this *once* a day *every* day. I might be able to do this Monday/Wednesday/Friday
for a block of time and then do several sessions on both Saturday and Sunday (maybe
three or five each day scattered throughout the day), but this doesn't have the 
consistency of experience I would prefer in order to correct the behaviour. I don't 
want a professional trainer involved - I don't know any in the area I trust.

Two other things. 

One: This horse is an *exceptionally* quick learner (eg, learned to 'shake hands' 
after the tenth time I lifted his leg up and said "shake"). He tries to train 
*himself* to please me... sometimes incorrectly second-guessing what I want, but
he tries very hard and my opinon matters to him. I was thinking about this when
the barn manager says that now he gets excited just when she brings the lead in - 
in *anticipation* of Walking Down That Aisle, no doubt. I wonder if a different
lead would help un-set this particular stage for a while ?

Two: His testicles dropped late - like when he was two or two and a half. Once they'd
dropped, I stopped worrying, but maybe I didn't pay close enough attention. One of
the stable-helper folks says that "the other" testicle just dropped about three weeks
ago (the horse is five-ish now!) which coincides with all this bad behaviour. Now maybe
I counted wrong a couple years back or maybe the barn person is mistaken, but if she's
*right*, could a sudden rush of hormones be causing all this? If so, is this going to
die down naturally, or is this what he's going to be like forever now? Last time I
worked him, I noticed him *deliberately* disobeying for the *first* time in his life.
Is he just on Testosterone Overload?

Some other questions:

- This is a new problem for me to encounter. I never let him develop this behaviour
  when he was younger, and now it's full-blown. Would he work it out of his system 
  if (with the barn manager's permission, etc. and assuming a suitably placid horse) 
  he were just allowed to rear and scream and be as stupid as he wanted in front of
  a stalled horse until he just plain got tired of it? Would he be bored with it
  after that? I realize this is a naive question, but I have not worked with this 
  aspect of stallions. I feel like I am asking the net about the birds and the bees!

- What does anybody think of the idea of what some parents do with children - the
  "Time Out" theory, implemented as follows. I go to take him out of his stall. As
  soon as he acts up at all (arched neck, prance, scream) even if I haven't gotten
  the halter on him yet, I turn around and walk out (or put him back in his stall)
  for five minutes and we try again. He *will* pick up quickly that Bad Behaviour =
  Return To Stall. But I'm not sure I want to equate undesirable behaviour with 
  being in his stall.

- I do *not* want it to be the case that (only) for me, he's good, but for everybody
  else he's a nightmare, er nightstallion. I can work him into an acceptable walking   
  behaviour in about ten to twelve minutes, but I can't always be up there, and if I
  can't enforce this regularly myself, it won't 'take'. Suggestions?
  

Thanks for any and all help. 

-Lauren

ps - no, I don't want to geld him. Even if his bad manners are hormone-based, bad 
manners aren't acceptable and it's his psychology I want to correct, not his
anatomy.