Recently purchased yearling

Question
I recently purchased a yearling and have some questions about her behavior. When I bought her she was currently in a pasture with 10 other yearlings. She has been taught all the basics. I can pick up her feet (although she is a bit impatient at times, I'm working with her everyday), groom her, touch her face, ears, legs, catch her with ease, put a saddle on and she does not shy at much (even a plastic bag blowing in the wind). She is an EXTREMELY sweet horse, she comes up to you in the lot, loves attention and is always happy to see me.

Now...to the issues...:-)

1. She does NOT like being by herself, but I need her to learn that this is ok. I tried tying her to the trailer away from my other horses, but she just went crazy. Violently pawing, leaning on the trailer and moving around in ways I knew she was going to hurt herself. Do you have any suggestions on how to improve this? Is hobbles the only way to stop pawing? I am leery to use hobbles for the fear of her getting hurt.

2. When I feed her oats, she is just crazy...she's not hard to feed, doesn't nip or anything, but once it is in the bucket, she just starts trying to throw it out, tossing her head. Any suggestions on how to calm her down when she is eating?

3. Again, she is a very sweet horse, but when she gets mad or impatient, she starts throwing her head around. I have a fear that if I don't stop this now, it will show up when I start to ride her.

I plan to turn her into a barrel horse. I have trained three other horses, but they were both 3 and already started. I want to make sure I don't let her get any bad habits so when I start riding we are on the same page with trust etc.

Sorry for the LONG winded question. I look forward to hearing back from you. Thank you.

Answer
Hi Amy,
Congrats on your new baby - she sounds super nice.

1. (Alone) Take and tie her from above where she can't strike anything - put her in a stall by herself where she has to spend some good alone time and learn that she is ok.  She is going to have to work her way threw this because she is a baby.  This is going to take days - even weeks and she is going to have to stay tied (safely) for hours not minutes and stand in the stall for hours - even days alone.

2.I'd pick up one of th bucked that is stationary mounted and has the "bulb" bottom and a nice lip so she can't throw her feed out and has to slow down to eat out of it.  If you do this I have found it slows them down and teaches them to quit that junk as well.

3.This one will be greatly reduced when you work on the question number one - they go hand in hand.  Your filly is smart, she is communicating to you when she is upset - now we just have to teach her that she can't be a brat and act like that!!

If you need anything else please feel free to email and I'll do my best to help you out.  Good luck with your girl.

Jeff