#horses - #Barn owner letting horse rush gate and rear on lead rope

Barn owner letting horse rush gate and rear on lead rope

I have a question as to how others would handle this. I have boarded my gelding at a barn since August of last year. I was clear when I moved him there that they need to be firm with him and treat him like a stallion, not a gelding. He has a lot of (bad) stallion traits and behaviors that seem to be ingrained from his previous owner (I've owned him 3 years and he still constantly pushes boundaries) and needs an advanced handler. They were ok with this and said they would handle him correctly (they have a lot of experience with horses and stallions).

Over the past few months I've noticed my horse starting to rear on the lead rope and rush when going through gates. I figured he was testing and have corrected the behaviors when I'm working with him. I noticed it wasn't helping though and he kept at it (usually the behaviors will reduce but not usually stop entirely with work). I wondered about this until I saw the barn owner lead several horses out (one at a time) today. Two horses rushed the gate and took off as soon as they were through the gate, with the lead ropes still on. The barn owner didn't do anything, just went after the horses and took off the lead ropes. The third horse rushed through the gate, spun very fast and danced around, got the lead rope away from the barn owner (I didn't see how), and then tried to take off as the barn owner grabbed the rope. The barn owner was on the phone for all of this (she's often on the phone). I also heard that they let a young teen (not sure of her age) lead my horse in every day and apparently my horse started rearing at her when she got him out of the turn out on the lead rope to bring him in and everyday she would call the other barn owner to come take in my horse after he reared. The other barn owner then walks him in on a long loose lead rope with my horse "dancing in circles around her at the end of the rope, but as long as he doesn't trample me it's ok".

I feel like there's only so much I can do to correct the behaviors when others, who walk him more, are letting him get away with it.

I've had an issue with them being defensive before so I'm not sure how to bring up, or if I should. I can't really move him because all other barns under $900 month are over an hour from me and not practical.

Submitted April 11, 2018 at 02:59PM by VintageFloral
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/Horses/comments/8bkjwv/barn_owner_letting_horse_rush_gate_and_rear_on/?utm_source=ifttt