I have a mare that just recently decided that she will eat grass and by golly she will eat! She’s my first horse and I’ve owned her for two years now and we just moved her to our own property about a month ago.
I’ve been training her, as she hadn’t been trained very well and I can’t figure out how to make her stop. Every time I go out for a ride she throws her head down and eats. No matter what I do I can’t bring her head up, and if she does, then it goes right back down again. Riding her has become a fight that I can’t really win and she’s no longer a joy to get on. I don’t want to be cruel and tug on her mouth and kick or use severe corrections, because I know those just put fear into the horse.
I would really appreciate it if you could give me a pointer or two if you have time. Thanks for reading this!
Katie
Hi Katie,
You can approach this situation with ground work or when you are riding. In either situation, make sure the horse has just eaten her full feed of hay and any supplements or grain she gets. Or if she is a pastured horse, be sure she has had her usual time on pasture.
For example, our horses are turned out for 12 hours overnight to graze. When we lead them out to pasture in the evening, if I would stop on the way to the pasture in spot with lush grass, it wouldn’t surprise me if my horse would start salivating and looking at that grass with an intent to dive down and grab some. But in the morning, when I jingle the horses, the last thing on their minds is to eat grass on the way back to the barn. They’ve had their fill.
So as soon after your horse finishes eating, begin your training session. You will have better chance for success on a full stomach.
First a few pointers and tips.
If you don’t feel confident doing this yourself, ask for someone to help you. Sometimes just the confidence of having someone nearby will help things go better. And its a good safety precaution.
If you feel unable to perform these exercises in a grassy area, first practice them in the arena or a pen just to get your timing down.
I suggest you review all ground training exercises to see where your horse’s strengths and weaknesses are so you can build on her strong points and work on improving her weak areas. You can see an In-Hand Checklist here.
I’d start out with ground training. I’d outfit the horse in a rope halter and you could consider putting a grazing muzzle on the horse for the early lessons. A grazing muzzle will prevent your horse from eating even if she DOES get her head down. You see, each time your horse even snatches one blade of grass when she dives down, she has rewarded herself for her behavior. Each time she does this, it becomes a more deeply entrenched habit, one that will require more persistence on your part to change. So if you can first eliminate the reward, no grass, even if she does dive down, she won’t get the grass !
Now you have several choices as to how you want to approach this.
1. Establish rules as to when a horse can and can’t eat elsewhere and then here. Like you train dogs to wait until you give them a bowl of food, teach your horse to wait until you give him the signal to approach his grain. You’ll need to develop a clean distinction between when it is fine to eat and not eat. You should be able to dump grain in a dish on the ground and your horse should wait until you give her the signal it is OK to move forward to eat. You should also be able to back your horse away from that dish while she is eating.
2. When the horse is most likely to snatch grass, be ready to give the horse something else to do. When she starts to lower her head, make her move forward right away – if ground training, send the horse out on the longe line. If riding, use your method to get the horse to move forward – use as little as you need to get the job done but as much as it takes from leg pressure to clucking to kicking to a tap with a whip to spanking across the hindquarters with a rope. The object is to get the horse to move her feet forward and raise her head. As soon as she does, stop your cues.
3. Whether you are ground training or riding, when a horse starts to dive down, turn the horse rather than pull straight back on both reins. Pulling back or up doesn’t accomplish much more than isometric arm exercise for you and banging on the horse’s mouth ! Instead turn the horse one way or the other. When riding this is best done in a snaffle bit, a side pull or a bosal using a leading rein. Bend the horse and send him forward at the same time and once you gain control, “bait” him again by giving the horse a slack rein.
4. As with many training situations, when you are riding a grass snatcher, you must always be “on” – always ready to react.
Best of luck and let me know how your horse training program progresses.
Cherry Hill
Hi Mrs. Hill! Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. I tried what you suggested and it worked. Though my horse is stubborn she’s very intelligent and catches on quickly when everything makes sense. I know I’ll have to continue the training but already today’s ride turned out miles better. (The wind spooked her once or twice but that’s to be expected sometimes) I only have a small round pen to work her in so I’m mainly riding her out in the yard and on the trails so just being able to ride without being yanked out of the saddle was great. I really appreciate it and I hope you have a nice day.
Thank you again!
Katie
And thank you for writing back !
Enjoy your ride and keep in touch on your progress,
Cherry Hill
I found your post a really good read!!…
Hi again, Mrs. Hill.
I’ve been working on my mare as much as I can. Though I had a really bad fall(my worst ever) last Wednesday, there has still been a whole lot of improvement. She doesn’t insist on eating as much, I just have to keep her moving in the beginning. Once she gets the hang of listening to me, she is pretty good. My parents and I are finally able to move in to our new house were Dolly is, so I’ll see her all the time, and I know that the progress will continue. (winter is fast approaching up here in Alaska, so grass won’t be a problem much longer!)
Thank you again for giving me your advice, and I love your books!
Katie
Hi Katie,
So sorry to hear you had a fall and I know that ground up there is about as hard as it is down here in the Colorado Rockies ! (I lived and rode in the Kenai Peninsula for 3 years, so know that Alaskan ground first hand !!) But we just have to dust ourselves off and get back on. I’m so glad you are making progress with your horse. It will be good when you and Dolly are living at the same place – that WILL make it better because you will have more regular interaction.
Our grass is dry and brown here too so winter is also on the way in the lower 48.
Take care, have continued success and thanks for writing !
Cherry Hill
Hi Mrs. Hill,
I have another problem. In October a crazy wind came and blew away all the leaves from the trees. The change in the way the forest looks freaked Dolly out, and she hasn’t been the same ever since. Just recently (like the beginning of this month) I’ll get to this place in the trail that is a telephone line right-of-way. It has two hills that are pretty steep and not the type you’d go cantering up and down. The second I come out of the forest trail and into this right-of-way, Dolly begins to try to gallop off with me. She’s become very agitated there. The first time I figured there was just a moose out there since I had seen three the night before. But its continued until she actually started to rear and leap and crow hop on me. She’s never reared before and its gotten to the point where its scary. I love her and I’ve put so much work into her, but I can’t figure out a way to get her to stop, trust me, and relax. She’s sending me mixed signals. I’ll ask her to move forward and she’ll throw a tantrum and buck and spin and rear, then when I stop her all she wants to do is paw through the snow and eat. So I know somethings not out there. Do you have any suggestions? I would really appreciate it if you did. Thank you again!
Katie
Hi Katie,
I copied your question and put it in line as a new topic – there are a number of questions ahead of yours.
I’ll get to it as quickly as I can !
Happy Holidays,
Cherry
Katie, I have a crazy spooky horse and will tell you what works for me. First you don’t want to be hurt. Second you don’t want your confidence shaken because that’s harder to fix than a horse (I would know!) First I’d look into a good vitamin supplement such as “mega-cell” sold by horse. Com. It contains high levels of magnesium and calcium. Deficiencies (very common in domestic horses) can cause spookiness. It’s been night and day for my horse and he spooks far less. I would not be without it.
Second, I’d get off the horse veggie coming to that scary area and walk her like any normal walk pretending nothing is unusual. You may have to walk her back and forth a bit. My horse gets nervous on small hills riding back to the house and will begin to buck. I need to lead rope walk him to get him used to coming up to a blind spot.
Also lots of ground work. The more you can build the trust in the v ground, the more she will trust you in saddle.
I love this and I’m having the same problem except mine is while leading on the ground. I use whips while leading but sometimes when his head is down and I’ll whip and whip until he’ll get his head up willingly, it takes so long and I feel bad for whipping him over and over. He definitely isn’t afraid of whips and just seems to ignore them until he’ll finally lift his head up.
I have the same problem, except I give him a kick in the nose (it’s hard enough so he knows that I meant no, but no harder than that) but whenever he’s near any grass he just tries to run me over and eat and eat and eat! I’ve tried whips, but he doesn’t care. Grr.
Okay, I have a three year old draft cross mare. She had been doing well with groundwork but then she had some time off due to unforeseen circumstances. She turned into a horribly insistent grass eater in the meantime. And she’s bad. I’ve never seen a horse act like such a diva when not allowed to eat. First it started in the roundpen, since our roundpen grew plantlife. This caused her to lose all interest in me and try to eat instead. Now usually horses will give in and continue on with the lesson plan if you ask them enough but she started to turn her tail end to me and kick. This is unacceptable. I had to move her to the riding ring on a lunge line to give myself enough space from her hindquarters to feel safe but the problem persists. Any time there is a food source (grass, weeds, whatever) she will eat and telling her to pay attention gets me nasty results. I recently hopped on her for the fifth time and while she did walk forward in the roundpen for a few minutes she did stick her head down to eat, again. When I asked her to move on and bring her head up she brought it up, and shook her head a bit to try and get more rein, and then reared twice when i still didn’t relent. Now, I did not have tight reins, any time she moved her head up i made sure to release the pressure and only let her snap herself with them when she tried to go down to graze. These are unacceptable behaviors and I would like a second opinion. At this moment my plan is to spend the next training sessions trying to teach her not to try grazing while i’m trying to work with her on the ground by jiggling the lead when she goes to eat etc but would like to know if you have any tips for preventing her from trying to snap at me while doing so
I have same problem. Working my horse on lunge line in a mowed grassy area causes him to ignore me. Assuming b him to move off results in rears, bucks and kicks. I get eat, kick, move. Eat, kick, move. It seems to get worse. Tried changing my energy to be calm or excited. No difference.
New approach is to beat him at his game. Tell him he CAN eat, but only on command. I call it the “grass game”. Walk on a lead rope through grass. Walk only a few steps then point to the ground and push his neck down with your other hand until he lowers to eat. After a minute say “up ” and lightly pull on lead up. Pull harder doing short tugs until he pops head up. If he’s stubborn after asking nicely give a short boot to the muzzle while also tugging upward. Not hard, but enough that it’s not pleasant. Give a nice happy pat then walk off a few more steps and repeat.
Gradually make him stop and stand and WAIT for your cue. If he eats before command make him back quickly or yield hind end in a spin. Then proceed again. If he tries to run forward and dive, turn him quick in circle and begin again. Some horses try to beat you at your game.
Eventually have him walk a few minutes, stand and wait then cue to eat. Transition to the saddle. You do same but emphasize more on pushing his neck down. He will learn fast.
This game tells the horse you care about b his wants, but you are the leader and he must listen to get what he wants.