Retraining a horse

From Mugwump
http://mugwumpchronicles.blogspot.com/2008/09/q-and-ascollection.html

Enjay said... Ever run into a horse who had been trained to do something dangerous and you couldn't retrain them out of it? I had a mare who was taught by her breeder to shake hands for a treat. It was allowed to progress to vigorous pawing at the floor, stall door and people when the treats weren't flowing freely. She'd even paw when she was eating from her bucket. She didn't have a mean bone in her body, she'd just been trained to do something stupid and they had encouraged it to the point where it was dangerous. She'd caught her breeder just right and ripped up a bunch or ligaments and tendons in her knee doing that. When I bought her she was five years old and it was a deeply ingrained habit.
So now do you guys get why I don't feed treats? Pet, hug , kiss, whatever......but skip the damn cookies!
Yes, I have run into behaviors I couldn't change..... here's what I would have tried with this mare. What can happen is I change the behavior for me, but not for anybody else.This mare has had her pawing reinforced either positively, or negatively her entire life. My instinct would be to take the focus away from the behavior. I have discussed my personal space rules with stallions before. I would try a variation of these rules with a horse like this one. It would be about where she stood in relation to me, not the pawing.
She would not be able to approach me to get close enough to touch me ever. I would approach her to catch her, groom, tack, whatever at her shoulder. I would not engage in any kind of play behavior with her. While I was handling her I would wack her with a crop for pawing, (as you did) on the forearm muscle of the offending leg, but only until she backed away from me one or two steps, and only if it effected me personally. That includes annoying me by the way.
The biggest point I want to stress, is she would be taught to stand as I approached her, from the side.
I would leave her tied for very long periods of time. I'd ignore her pawing, or whatever else she was doing until she was standing quiet, in a relaxed manner. If she started pawing as I approached, I would leave and we'd try again later. Check out my story on Captain, you'll see what I mean. I'm serious when it comes to dangerous behaviors.
When I feed horses I expect them to stand quietly, facing me until I have dropped their hay in the feeder and walked away. Horses that paw or whinny or buck or pin their ears....ANYTHING other than stand there and look at me with a pleasant look on their face, don't get fed.
I don't make a big deal of this. I don't yell, or wave a stick, (unless I'm in a loose paddock situation) I just walk away. I'll let them watch everybody else eat for an hour or so, and then I'll offer them some dinner again. If they keep it up, we'll can try again the next time I feed. This may sound mean, but I've never killed one doing this. As a matter of fact I don't think I've ever had one misbehave to the point of skipping two meals. And when it's time to feed my horses stand quietly waiting for dinner.
This is a sad situation. This mare was extremely lucky to land with you. This is the kind of crap that happens when people treat their horses like Chihuahuas. As you can see, this stuff gets me cranked. If she had ended up with anybody else but you she could have killed somebody. Lucky, lucky, mare.