horse pawing

Question
I have a 8 year old mare,she has always been with her brother who is 6. when she is in stall and we leave her alone she is always pawing the stall, is there any advice you can give to help us with this,even if a human stays with her as soon as the other horses are gone she starts...(BAD BEHAVIOR)

Answer
Hi Carla!

It is almost impossible to train an ingrained stall behavior out of a horse....such as pawing, stall weaving, etc.  These are part of their mental make-up...it's just who they are deep down inside.

So, What to do?  Ignore, ignore, ignore.  That's the first and best thing.  No reaction from the human is often a disappointment and can lead to less of the offensive pawing.  Also, I recommend a distraction....busy hay (a low quality, low protein hay that is there just to keep them "busy" munching) or a stall toy.  There are plenty different diversions/toys in the tack catalogues.

Lastly, keep her tired and I mean TIRED.  Lots of turnout and lots of ground work. Longeing in a roundepen or out back on the longeline and of course steady riding, and I do not mean 15 minutes of walk/trot.  I mean an hour of basic work and then cantering both ways of the ring until she is sweating and huffing.  A tired horse is a calm horse.

Solange