When I first adopted my appaloosa I had to do extensive ground work with him because he loved to crowd you while walking on a lead line or in a stall. Literally he leaned into you with his full weight. I had a bad habit of keeping peppermints in my back pocket of my jeans to use as treats. We had just finished up an hour of training outdoors and I brought him into the barn to groom. Now this was a boarding facility, a huge barn shared with dozens of other boarders, each with their own stall and tack area and there were loads of people in and out. I had on my favorite riding jeans which were faded and about 4 years old, the material wasn't the best but was most comfortable. While grooming Buck kept reaching for my pocket, and I kept pushing him away, as I turned to grab a brush he made a quick move and grabbed for my back butt pocket snatching for the mint but grabbing fabric instead, he yanked so hard I was lifted off of the floor! It surprised the crap out of me and made me laugh at the same time. The big ox was standing there holding the entire right half of the butt of my jeans! I was standing in the middle of this busy barn with my purple underware on display!
The rule is that when your horse does something that is wrong in behavior, you must address it right away as it happens. Addressing it means working the horse which meant lunging and riding with my ass hanging out for about an hour infront of God knows how many people, but I did it! When I got home of course my husband's first statement was "Did you forget something in the barn?" "Is your ass cold?" and "why didn't you stop at the store?". He is quite the comic!
