screaming mare

horsemum · Yearling

screaming mare

Marlene · Advanced

Could she be calling for a buddy from which she's separated during rides?

horsemum · Yearling

It's possible. She doesn't normally call for her buddy if she's in her stall or if she's outside and the buddy goes in. She likes her buddy but isn't real friendly with her either. (ie. doesn't let buddy in her space, doesn't share food, etc.) It's hard to figure out because she doesn't do this every time. ie. she didn't do it to me on Fri. when I took her in to work with her, but she did it on Sat. to the trainer.

Yakkittyyak · Yearling

I would be interested to know if she Usually does it with the trainer, and doesn't Usually do it with you.

Also, is she being worked at the same time of day? Are there other horses in the arena when she hollers? What else is happening, or Has just happened when she doesn't holler? What breed and age is she?

Chances are, she will settle out of it with consistent work. This may help...try to keep her routine consistent, and you may find you have the horse in a better frame of mind overall if you skip the 'free lunging', and warm her up quietly on a line instead. Try for a walk only, if she will do it, or at least try to stop her only when she comes back to a walk. Then only work up to faster gaits (in the same session). In other words, treat your sessions as 'this is work time' and when the mare focuses on the task at hand, she is given a reward by stopping, settling, getting a pat, then back to work in the other direction. You may find if you change her attitude from 'burning off some steam' to 'let's go thru our exercises with a goal in mind' (which is focus on the handler), it may give your mare a little more confidence, and decrease her anxious (or obnoxious, who knows at the point) attitude.

Hope this helps. Just a thought.

horsemum · Yearling

Ok, thanks for the ideas and I'll try to answer your questions as best as possible. This is something that she does with both the trainer and ourselves but not everyday. (intermittent) She is usually worked at the same time each day. Most of the time she is the only horse in the arena when she does this. The times that she doesn't behave this way are the same as the other days. We try to stick with the same routines. She is 7yrs. old and is an Appaloosa. We usually do a quiet lunge on the line but when she's in one of these moods, there is no holding onto the line! She will start out at a quiet walk in both directions, after a few minutes we'll ask for a jog(trot)-sometimes we get a controlled jog/sometimes she just speeds up until she's racing. We'll stop her and start at a walk again. Sometimes she'll be fine even into a lope or she may start with the screaming and running. She will do this when left alone in the arena sometimes too. These times we figure it's because she's all alone. Does this help?

Yakkittyyak · Yearling

Lonely is the obvious answer...with maybe a dash of disrespect thrown in for good measure.
If you actually cannot hold on to the mare on a lunge line when she starts this, I, personally, would put a chain on her, from the outside cheek ring on the halter, under the jaw, thru the inside cheek ring. If you are not familiar with the use of the chain, ask your trainer for assistance. If the mare wants to 'run off' with the chain on, give her a pull and release repeatedly Until she is going around the circle on a more or less loose line (as in Not running off). Remain very calm, and do not say "Whoa" unless you actually want the horse to stop. Pick a different word for your calming word, and try to reward the horse by not interferring with her when she is doing (or close to doing) what you want. There is probably not a lot of point in trying to stop her, just to 'reward her' if she is running around having a tizzy-fit...just give her an avenue to exhaust herself, somewhat, on a more or less controlled circle. When you actually think you can get a Whoa, then ask her. If she ignores You, ignore the fact that she hasn't listened, because you can't do a lot about it anyways, then insist she do at let a few more circles, to let her burn herself out for a bit before you ask her again. Make sure you wear gloves, and watch that you don't get tangled in the line (I know I am stating the obvious, but considering how dangerous, or possibly life threatening this could be, I hope you will forgive that).

You mentioned the mare is 7 years old. What is she like under saddle? How much actual work is she getting in a day? Horses that 'go to work everyday, and work hard' do not often have these problems...any chance you could ride for an extra hour? Even if you can just sit on the mare after you are technically finished, maybe while others are working their horses, can help a lot. You need to turn this horses attitude around, just from what I am gleaning from your message.
Wishing you the best of luck, Yak. :)
If you feel at all unsure of this, it might help if you print this off and take it with you. Get your trainers opinion. I don't want to tread on any toes! Yikes!! ;)

horsemum · Yearling

yakkittyyak-Thank you for responding. When lunging on a line, we do use the chain and the trainer was the one that showed us how to do this correctly. I too, think this is her being lonely with some disrespect thrown in because she will do this with people in the arena with her. There have been a couple of times that she's done this (on lunge line) with another horse in with us. It is very difficult to hold her even with the chain on.

Under saddle she's good! We almost always give her the chance to get this silliness out of her system before riding. Wed. night, hubby and daughter went on their own for the daughter's lesson. Our horse was in the arena with her buddy, they brought them both in and tacked up ours for the lesson. No lunging and she was real good even with the crazy wind blowing and the power flicking off-plunging the arena into darkness! She gets worked by the trainer 3 times per week, anything from 1 to 3 hours a day. We work/ride her 2-3 times per week as well.

She is slowly getting better. She used to take a long time to settle down and listen but now it's much shorter time. I was hoping someone might have other ideas that may help eliminate this all together. Something I forgot to mention, this girl wasn't broke until she was 4 yrs. old. (so she's only been under saddle for 3 years, if that makes a difference.)

Yakkittyyak · Yearling

The rather late start in her under saddle training will make a difference. The more miles, the better the horse (providing things are done properly).
If your family can ride more often, the mare will likely improve at an excellerated rate. You might want to pop in at the time the trainer is supposed to work her, as well. You may pick-up some valuable info by watching. Hope all goes well for you! Yak.

Lori · Yearling

4 is a good age to start a horse. Many warmbloods aren't started until at least that age because they take so long to mature. I agree your mare is just not looking to you as the leader. I would do some round-pen work with her and just some general work on the ground making her pay attention to you. There are so many natural horsemanship methods out there that would all be great but are difficult to explain in a quick reply. The best one I find is to get the horse turning when you ask while they're free in the round pen but you can also do it with a lead rope or lunge line. You don't let them ever turn their bums towards you and body language is very important in these exercises. Basically you drive the horse's hip when you want them to go forward and point with your hand or whip in the direction you want the horse to go. When you move toward the hip, the horse should go forward, when you go toward the horse's shoulder, it should slow down. When you walk backwards towards the hindquarters when the horse is trotting around you on a circle, it should draw the head towards you. This is how you get them to change directions. probably better if you watch some videos--Buck Branaman, Pat Parelli etc. to see what I mean.

When you're in the tack though, I wouldn't get after her for screaming, it might just make it worse and make you mad at the same time. Just try to keep her mind and her feet busy. Since she's a mare, she's probably smart. 3 hours is a long time to ride a young horse. I don't know if that's out on the trail, but in an arena, that's a long time.

horsemum · Yearling

Thanks Lori, good advice for sure! Yes, we have done round pen work too. She usually is very responsive and good about all those things when working in the roundpen or on the line, but during one of these episodes she is zoned right out for a few minutes. I'm not sure it's a leader type issue, she does respect us and look to us to keep her safe from the scary things. (she doesn't run us over or try to kick out at us at these times, she remembers to stay out of our space) Sorry I wasn't very clear on the 1-3 hour work, she isn't necessarily being ridden for the whole time, but some days it takes longer to get her to settle down before riding. She is 7 yrs. old right now, just to be clear on her age too.

We've never gotten upset with her when she is being that silly. We wait it out and then work her as usual when she has calmed down enough to listen. She is very smart! The trainer says that about her too, not just us. lol The trainer says when she's trying to teach her something new, our mare is thinking of 10 ways of how not to do it! lol We do take lessons with the trainer and watch when the trainer is working with our girl.

I guess some horses just have funny quirks and this is hers! Thanks for all the kind advice and words everyone.

Brandon · Yearling

I think she is still too little to tell you what scared her. Just continue to soothe her and she will be okay.

barnfrog · Advanced

I would worry that the trainer doesn't understand why a mare calls. EVERY mare I have ever worked in hand when first starting piaffe does this, even if they never do it. Imho it is always that they think they need herd support. The solution is putting the horse on the aids and keeping their focus, pulsing aids, getting the mind. It is not however about getting strong with the horse, and certainly NOT riding them lower or deeper as is often seen. Round pen work is fairly ineffective unless it is done in a calculated manner (i.e. changing directions, bringing them in, etc). A young horse should have max of about 30 minutes (unless its merely hacking out at a walk) of clear work, after that the learning tends to stop for youngsters (although I guess she is 7 if I am reading correctly??) And as far as behavior on the lunge, NO running...ever; if you have a caveson on it can stop in about two steps.