First Horse, I gotta know some stuff . . . . . .

Question
Hello, My name is Rianna I am 12  and i got my mare on Monday. She was doing great on the first day but what i did not realize is that she was not going into the barn.(My barn is open to her paddock so she can go in and out) Since it is winter and cold and it was starting to get dark i led her in with a couple treats, she came half way in then slipped a tiny bit and bolted out. She is never normally like this. Although I knew she was going to act differently when she came home, but she has never bolted with the last owners. She is very calm and professionally trained and has a temperate or 5/10, and she is 8 y/o.
    She met our neighbours horses on the other side of the fence and every time they leave she runs up and down the fence line!!! is this normal? Every time i halter her she waves her head and is all antsy and keeps moving even if I say whoa, She always stops when I say whoa, it is so weird that she is not stoping, she has been so well trained! She was always good in the halter at the old owners home! But she was inside all the time at her old place and here she is outside and has access to the barn so she might be feeling free??

It would be very helpful if you could give some advice!

Thank-you, Rianna

Answer
If this horse has a 5 out of 10 rating, then I would not have recommended this horse for a beginner to begin with.

And what you are seeing, in the haltering and the nervousness has to do with your handling of her, and your inexperience more than likely.

As for the running up and down fence line, this is very normal.  It will get worse, if horse is not worked much, or is being fed too hot a feed.  Horses can bond very quickly to another horse/s.  I've known of ones that will bond over a 10 minute trailer ride with a horse they have never seen before, and spend the entire show whinnying and acting the fool in the show ring.

And a horse and its level of training is all dependent on what skill level the new rider/owner/handler has, and does not have near as much to do with how well the horse itself is trained.  Horses that are dead broke, (and a 5 out of 10 is not dead broke, nor a kid's horse) and have never given a moments problem will turn into a monster if that handler is not well versed in horses.

You may be babying her too much, or not making your commands count.  Anytime you are working with a horse, even if only feeding it, you are training it.  This is why so many first time horse owners end up in trouble, such as you are experiencing now.

It is not that the horse feels "free" as much as the horse has your number, and is showing you who is the boss here.  And it is not you.

And a horse's behavior with prior owners/riders/handlers has nothing to do with how the horse will act with someone else at all.  Horses react to leaders or a dominant handler.  If the human is not in charge, the horse will be.

Your best bet here, is to get someone that you can take lessons from, and work with, who understands how horses think.  The possibility of you getting seriously hurt trying to work with this mare is very great.  She will continue to run the show and only get worse.

Babying a horse, and letting it push you around, and that can include even letting one rub its head against you, and push you out of the way too, will lead to a horse that becomes a dangerous animal.

For that reason I don't hold with what is known as natural horsemanship, as it leads novices to think that they can "love" a horse into doing what the human wants, and that they have to bond with a horse before they can work with them. We refer to it also as the Black Stallion/Flicka syndrome, since the movies of those names, show a person "loving" a horse and then that horse loves them back and becomes trained.  Real life horses do not do that.  Ever.

If it was necessary to "bond" with a horse to work with it?  Than there is no way I could walk into a barn and begin working with horses I have never seen before in my life, nor could the trainers I have worked under have ridden 20 or more horses a day.  

Horses are a herd animal, which means they have a pecking order and a leader they follow.  Each horse knows who it can boss, and who is the boss of it.  What you are seeing is a horse that is your leader, and one that is going to get worse.

Everything you are seeing so far, is the result of the horse knowing she is the boss, and again, I cannot stress enough, that the training horse received before you bought her will not transfer over to you once she has decided she can be your leader.

There is also a chance, if you didn't know the place mare came from well, that horse had been drugged to make it appear better trained, or more docile.  Or horse may have been worked hard each time you saw it too.

Bottom line is you really really need to contact someone that you can take lessons from, both in riding, but most especially in handling of horses.