Horse project

So I have now had my horse for 5 days. It feels like longer and shorter at the same time. I have come to the conclusion that he is very patient and stoic and incredibly STUBBORN. He allows me to muck around with him but if we try something he doesn't think we should do, he has a hissy fit. I discovered this when he got annoyed at me and we played tug of war.

I have done the same things I did with Arakei and he kind of understood but he is so stubborn he would rather run the submit. I am going to try a different method because I need a round yard to chase him in if that strategy is going to work. If I do it in the bigger paddock, he can stop and rest nearly doing the right thing, but not really. We worked on Friday for so long my arm got stiff and he was tripping over he was so tired. I need a smaller space so that we are acting and reacting to each other at closer quarters and he can't prretend he is ignoring me.

A strategy I am going to try is based on the observation that the dominant horse takes food from the lesser horse. This is why feeding treats to horses is not a good training strategy. It works with dogs because they equate getting a treat with pleasing you. Horses see it as a victory. My plan is to give him hay, let him eat some and then chase him away from it and take it back. This is also important to do with dogs, the dominant dog can claim food from lesser dogs, if you can't take a bone off your dog without getting threatened or bitten, you need to work on his obedience. If you watch horses in a paddock, the one who is asserting their dominance will turf the others off their feed buckets and rotate round. Once they sought out their pecking order I don't think they need to do this as much, but initially there is a lot of swapping around.

I will let you know how is goes.