In September my friend got a new horse, a beautiful four-year old hanoverian/tb cross with great potential to be a fantastic jumper. The only training she had on her was apparently the ground work basics and she had been backed but that was fine, my friend has been riding for upwards of a decade, she's leased a few horses, owned one before, and has trained a few ottbs.
After bringing the horse home we discovered that, unlike what she was told, the horse has very little ground work done on her. She didn't know how to lunge, was terrible at leading, was fidgeting in the cross ties, pawing, kicking, striking and rearing.
The first thing that was tackled was the rearing (both on the ground and under saddle), and my friend has that pretty securely under control. She can also lunge like a pro now and she stands in the cross ties nicely, the striking is also mostly under control. She's also come along well under saddle, and behaves herself at the walk and trot and is starting to canter.
The main issues she's still having is ground manners. And here's the thing, the horse is mostly well behaved when she's around my friend but reverts back to being bad when someone else is working with her. For instance, the other day my friend went into the room where our tack lockers are to grab something and I was left standing beside her horse. She started pawing so I reached out and gave her a smack on the shoulder, and she tried to kick me. She knew I was there, I was talking and I gave her a "quit it" before I smacked her, also I was in her sight lines, so her trying to kick me wasn't a mistake.
The horse comes in at night and is turned out in a paddock all day. One evening I was helping out at the barn and I went to bring her in for the night. When I was leading her she was constantly pushing into my body and not giving me any space to walk. Another horse in the adjoining paddock ran at the fence and that spooked her and she pushed into me, pushing me to the ground. Obviously this is very dangerous. She also pulls when leading and will kind of try to "wrap herself around you", if that makes any sense. (I know these are just my experiences, but other workers at the barn have said that she does all this to them as well).
Finally, when she goes into her stall at night she tries to race past you and when you turn to leave the stall she tries to charge back out. In the mornings she again tries to push out of the stall and push you on the way to her paddock.
Obviously she needs to be disciplined, my friend knows this and is not afraid of or unknowledgeable. The main issue she's having is that her horse rarely does any of this with her. She doesn't try to kick her and doesn't try to push her when she's leading her. It's like her horse thinks that she has to submit to my friend but with other people she's still the "head mare".
If anyone has any good advice or a training plan I could pass along to my friend, we would be immensely grateful. My friend loves her horse but obviously dangerous and rude behaviour has to be dealt with. Also, at this point in time she's not willing to send her to a trainer. Like I said, she has numerous years of experience and she'd really like to sort this out herself. This is just the first horse she's experienced with ground manners this bad. If the situation gets worse than yes, she'll look to hiring a trainer for some help.
Also, what she's tried so far: Carrying a whip to push her away when she's being pushy, leading her with a chain, using loud voices and smacks when she does something dangerous like kicking or pushing, leading her from her stall to the paddock, making her halt several times, walking horses past her and making her stand, making her back up, leading her and only releasing pressure when she's doing it correctly. I'm sure there's a few more I can't think of right now, but these are some of the main ones.
Thanks again for any help, we really appreciate it!
