How do you deal with bargey-ness?

*GroovyGallop*

*GroovyGallop*

Member
Aug 12, 2006
1,087
10
38
Derbyshire
My pony 8/10 times is fairly good on the ground, and isnt bargey to the extent where a firm 'no' and push back, wont sort out.
Tonight, i went to feed him (hes living out atm) and stupidly *smacks wrist* i left his feed outside the gate behind the bush, where he could apparently see it. I went in the gate and was just about to slip his headcollar on, when he barged straight through me and the gate and cantered to his food.
I was totally gobsmacked and didn't know how to deal with this.. Should i have shouted at him? Should i have made him get back in the field and doit again or what? :confused: I find it difficult to deal with bargey-ness as horses are so difficult to push around?

What would you have done?
 
I have a new forest who was incredibly bargy as a youngster and often just took off, taking fences, posts, people, anything really with her. Like you I was not really sure what to do and did not want to get too forceful with her. I resorted to taking her back to were she too off and making her walk nicely. Often took hours of patience but now she is as good as gold as she knows we WILL just keep going back until she does it properly. Hope this helps.:)
 
agree with rrh, id have taken him back in, left the gate open and asked him to stand for however long then asked him to walk patiently to his feed, iv had to do this with archie as he used to barge and hover over me at feed time, so now he has to always back up and stand for 5 seconds before i let him eat.
 
If it were me, I would have (calmly) gone and got him and made him back up all the way back to the gate, told him he was a good boy, then led him back to his feed.

What did you do? :)
 
I would have put him back where he started off with, and made sure I did some training on the ground about listening to me, probably with a bucket of food!
 
Barging

Poor you, it is horrible when you feel that they are walking all over you. I agree totally with the other posts, as have a NF who is as strong as an ox when he wants to be.

Lots of ground work from now on, am not a parelli expert by any means but the porcupine game (I think) where you teach them to back away from pressure working up to another game (cant remember) where you just use hand movements to make them back up.

When I bring my ponies tea in or put it where-ever, he has to back up until I put it down, no backing and respect no food. Can be a stand off!

Good luck, in a funny way our horses teach us what we need to teach them, we just need great forums like this to get our lessons.
 
I have found from experience that once a horse barges out of the gate, it is not wise to make them upset as they'll only leave your presence (and the gate entrance) faster. Better to go an calmly catch them however you can (food bribery works), learn from the situation and next time keep the gate closed while you put the pony's headcollar on so he can't run out the gate before his headcollar is on.
 
Agree, there's no point allowing situations to develop that are going to cause a problem if they can easily be avoided. A horse ignoring you and running through you suggests there's a lack of basic manners in place, sounds like it would also be worth doing some work on leading, personal space and making sure you're consistent in your expectations of him.
 
newrider.com
Top Bottom
Back