My gelding is a spoiled dominant teenager!

by Emily
(Melbourne, Australia)

I purchased a 5.5 yr old Quarter Horse Paint gelding in Dec 2010. His previous owners unfortunately didn't tell me the whole truth.. and the first time I knew I had problems was when he started to put in pigroots when I asked for canter in the arena, and finally when we had our first canter on grass, when he put in a bronc and I fell off.
He was also really unresponsive to the leg and would do as little as he could possibly get away with. I got a professional dressage rider to start schooling his twice a week and to begin with, once he knew he had someone on his back who wasn't going to let him get away with being lazy or pigrooting, he fought with her and had little tantrums, nothing horrendous but pigrooting and just being a pain. He started fighting with her less over a few weeks, but started fighting with me on the ground instead! Whereas he had been fine to handle, he started being bossy and badly mannered, even rearing on the end of the lead rein and jumping around.
All of this was knocking my confidence badly and it was becoming really unpleasant to even go and handle him, let alone think about getting back in the saddle!

So I found out more about his history.. He was broken in as a 2 yr old and ridden for 6 months in Western Pleasure style. The people I bought him from bought him as a 2.5 yr old, sight unseen, shipping him over 1500kms, for their very young teenage daughter as her second pony!! Unsurprisingly this didn't go well, and the girl has now admitted to me that he basically started off as a nice horse, but over time, just started trying things on... pigrooting etc... and she said it "got worse each time".

So I now realize that what I have is a spoilt teenage boy, who is a very confident dominant little horse, not just with me but he climbs through fences to get in with other horses, and then dominates them. Not in an aggressive way, but he just is dominant. He doesn't like me telling him what to do and although I am being assertive with him, what I get back most of the time is attitude.
I have got help with him to go back to basics and do groundwork and manners, but he is still grumpy about being told what to do and I'm slightly worried this might never change.
He is 100 times better than he was and I am not scared of him, and he is back to being good to handle.

But the other day he threatened a kick at me in his field because I had a bit of carrot and asked him to move, which is the worse thing he has ever done. I grabbed my lead rope and swung it in circles which made a noise, moving after him so he ran around me in circles, putting in kicks (none of which were close enough to actually hit me) and eventually calmed down until I turned away to ask him to follow me and he did. This was the worst. Normally now he will do what I ask him (although I haven't started riding him properly again yet!) but it is very reluctant and more often than not he will pull faces, with his ears back.

So my questions are: Should I be telling him off (somehow?) for pulling faces? Does the fact he's pulling faces mean he is actually not seeing me as an assertive leader? Do you think he will ever change and become a nice horse I can have a good relationship with?!



Hi Emily,

What I am hearing from this horse are all the holes in a forceful, quick, short cut, negative reinforcement, do it or else training methods which have creating him to become very defensive and resentful! And he is brave (dominant) enough to fight back rather than choosing to flee (likely because he can’t go anywhere anyway).

Let’s go back to the beginning and look at this from this horse’s perspective.

Six months of training a two year old equates to nothing so we shouldn't expect much from that to begin with. And then there is the "how" it was done. It is clear that it was quick (6 months) and likely forceful to get him sold. What other form of training happened to him between 2.5 – 5.5 years? Notice from the previous owners comment that the horse "got worse each time", this indicates poorer training on top of the original. When things get worse instead of better, we just cannot blame the horse! I would also question what the dressage rider was doing since your horse also came back from this experience different than before, your quote: "but started fighting with me on the ground instead! Whereas he had been fine to handle, he started being bossy and badly mannered, even rearing on the end of the lead rein and jumping around."


Tons of human expectations are being assumed and placed upon him. Examples, "He should be good, he should know how to yield to leg pressure, he should know not to buck, he should not pin his ears, he should have good manners, he should not be a pain for me" etc. But who is responsible for this? Yip, it's us humans that hold the responsibility to teach them what is acceptable and what is not. How does a horse become "spoilt"? (Past tense of the word spoiled) The definition of this is: to impair, damage, or harm the character or nature by unwise treatment, excessive indulgence, etc.: to spoil a child by pampering him. This is actually a human condition; horses are not able to decide on being spoiled, they can only demonstrate (through behaviors) what they think about the requests being placed upon them from us (excessive indulgence can create unwanted behaviors). No horse (or human!) likes being "told" what to do, but they don’t mind being "asked".

There is a huge lack of understanding coming from the horse and he is telling us that through all of his behaviors and reactions. Horses don't behave badly unless they feel the need to defend their own personal safety (survival instinct) and/or don't understand. He is an incredibly smart horse! Just look at all the strategies he has learned from human contact: kicking, bucking, tantrums, pinned ears, aggressiveness, bossy, badly mannered, rearing. They are not born this way! They are born with confidence or lack of and a few other innate abilities like flight or flight (and he chooses fight!), high energy or low energy but in the end the majority of behaviours is learnt through interaction from us. And then it is up to us to learn and adjust to each individual horse's disposition.

The horse does not have an attitude problem, he has an understanding problem. "Attitude adjustments" need to come from all the people who will interact with this horse going forward.

"So my questions are: Should I be telling him off (somehow?) for pulling faces?"

Absolutely not. Instead look at this gesture as his way of telling you he finds the request disagreeable or doesn’t understand. Then change the way you ask. He is offering you valuable information but don’t take it personally. In fact, giggle at the face and say thank you for letting me know how you feel!

"Does the fact he's pulling faces mean he is actually not seeing me as an assertive leader?"

In many circumstances I would say yes, but in this case not really. It's more about this horse not having any reason to respect humans because of all his past experiences. He has become very resentful towards people. He feels bullied into a corner most times thus the fight reaction.

Defining what makes up a good leader is essential also. Assertiveness comes in varying degrees and is often overly misused, but a calm, cool headed, confident person who can be very consistent in the decision making process is always welcomed.

"Do you think he will ever change and become a nice horse I can have a good relationship with?!"

Absolutely Yes. All horses given the opportunity can change but only if we change first! Your learning curve is to utilize positive reinforcement and leave negative reinforcement behind this will build the trust and respect this horse is seeking and will respond to in kind. Spend more time on the ground and start over assume he knows nothing that will help you see more clearly how he interprets information and blame him less for his actions.

There are many pages throughout our website to guide you also.

Elaine Polny

P.S. I am not familiar with the term "pigroot". It must be a Australian term? I could make a good assumption regarding it but would rather hear it straight from the horse's mouth so to speak!:0)

P.P.S.S. To me a horse at 5 years is still a youngster closer to a child than a teenager. I consider horses to be teenagers more at around 8 to 15 years old (always depending upon their experiences). Then from 15 to 28 mature and from there, old and wise!