When ever I open my window or doors in my house the fire alarm goes off? Can anyone help me fix this?
He is still young and learning, I don't think I'd use a stud chain yet. I don't think I'd take him out along the road yet either, there's time for that when he's had more training and is a more mature horse.
Yes this would be a situation where a chain would be appropriate HOWEVER. I work with a stud, and when he's serving a mare, I have a stud chain either over his nose or under his chin. There has been times (rare, but it happened) when he has seen the mare in season and ripped out of my hands. Chain didn't bother him at all- and I had my WHOLE body weight on that chain. What I'm saying is- if he gets in his mind that he's going to bolt away or charge. he can still do it. Once he realises that he can- the chain will be useless. So, my recommendation is: use the stud chain as a training tool, not a means of restraining your horse. So, say you take him a couple steps out of the property and he misbehaves. Ask him nicely to behave, and if he doesn't- give him a sharp jerk on the chain. When he calms down and stands for a couple seconds, praise him and take him back to the property. Lesson ended. This will teach him that if he behaves, he gets to go back home. If he misbehaves, he gets a sharp jerk on his nose and doesn't get to go home. As his understanding grows, you can start taking him further and further away. Start small- as I said, only a couple steps out of the property at a time. He's only young, and he's probably frightened. So take it slow! Good luck,
Horses aren't all that complicated. Barn sour and buddy sour are both physiologically fear-based behaviors. Fear causes the release of stress hormones (adrenaline, cortisol, and others along with various neurotransmitters). These chemicals trigger major nervous system and behavioral responses. Add pain on top of fear, and the stress level (and hormonal/neurotransmitter responses) can skyrocket. The last thing you should do is to try to control a fear-based stress response by inflicting pain. Your horse is not ready to head down the road. You have not established the level of trust in you that he needs in order to follow you as a trusted leader. When I train a green horse to work along the road, I respect that horse's physiological makeup, and assure that before putting him or her into that situation, that horse has learned to trust me as a leader and feel safe with my decisions, and I arrange for the horse to also be accompanied by a well-seasoned horse to reinforce the this is safe message delivered to the greenie. Doing this right takes time and patience, and bigger and badder control devices can never produce a safe, confident mount. If that horse continues to fear the imagined monsters encountered away from home, then sooner or later someone is likely to be hurt when the big bad control devices won't stop the major panic attack and natural fight or flight behavior that is likely to manifest.
I don't know what the laws are in Florida, but here in Illinois, if you even SUSPECT abuse or neglect, you are required by law to report it to the office of the inspector general. If you don't report it, and it is discovered that you knew about it, you can be charged with a crime (forget what they classify it as) and can face a stiff fine and possible jail time. He needs to look in the phone book and find the number, call them and report it. He then needs to report to the head of the agency (not the house manager), As far as the resident tearing up their own stuff, that is allowed - it is THEIR stuff - and they can do as they want with it. And yes, sometimes it is necessary to restrain people to prevent them from doing harm to themselves or others. The restraint should not cause harm to the person being restrained, although it does accidentally happen sometimes. If it does, it MUST be documented and usually a hearing withing the company is held to see if there was a way to better handle the situation. Videotaping it with his cell phone would probably be illegal, because it would show the resident's face. But if there is a lot of yelling, audiorecording it might not be. He desperately needs to find out who to report this to - was there nothing in his training that taught him this - we had 16 hours of training on reporting abuse, plus I went to a special seminar that lasted another 8 hours so that I could be classified to be what is called a first responder - I could go and be one of the first on the scene other than the people involved if an incident happened where there was an injury.
