Dealing with Elsa's Food Possessiveness

Like I said in my last post, Elsa came with a bit of an issue. She was possessive of her food, and was also pushy to get to it. Now let's be clear, she has never been food agressive. She has never pinned her ears, threatened to kick, or to bite me just because I'm close to her food. Or because I felt like sticking my hand in her bucket. Elsa was possessive, not agressive.

So let's explain what this meant.

When I say that Elsa was food possessive, it meant that when it came to her grain, she didn't want to be moved off it. Perfectly normal, but in herd dynamics, horses will always move if a more dominant horse comes over and tells them to. She always was very bad about crowding and stepping on my toes. If I had the scoop in my hand, she would be walking practically on top of me trying to shove her head in it. Same for if I was pouring her food or standing next to her bucket. You can understand why I couldn't let my 2 year old help with feeding then.

So much to the protests of my daughter, I set a strict rule of no children allowed in during feeding time. After that I went home and watched about a hundred videos on how to deal with food agressive horses, or horses with space issues. And all any of them told me was to enforce a personal space bubble, so I did just that.

Fixing the problem.

For a couple months, anytime I went to feed Elsa, I took a lung whip with me. I kept the cord wrapped around the stick and used the length of the stick to create a bubble she was not to tresspass into. (a simple push away with my hand yeilded no results). All I did, was that when I noticed she came into the space to crowd me, I gently swung the stick around in a circle around myself. If she was too close, she'd get caught in the arch. If she didn't respond to the light tap, I'd increase the strength of the tap until she moved out of my space.

It really was that simple, although sometimes she didn't like being told to move back and to give me space when I carried food. More than once she pinned her ears in annoyance and swung her head away and her butt towards me quickly. Since this is an agressive move, I always quickly met it with a quick swat to her rump with the stick. She'd scoot away real quick and go back to following me nicely. When I got to the bucket it was the same thing. She needed to stand back patiently until I told her it was ok for her to eat. If she got too close, I'd swing the stick around in a circle around myself.

After I poured the grain into the bucket, I still didn't allow her in to eat. If I had, it just meant she might start rushing me at the sound of pouring grain. I'd stick my hand into the bucket and shift the grain around, and again reinforce that she was to stand back and wait until I was done. If she took a step towards the bucket, I'd make her take at least one back. You can't give an animal like this even an inch. I'm a firm believer when it comes to food training, to move slow to the point of complete annoyance. (And the opposite is what caused this issue to begin with). When I was ready to let her eat, after she had been standing good, not weaving around or trying to sneak closer, I'd walk at her. Making her move out of my way as I walked away from the grain. This way she never once thought that I might be moving off the grain because of her. No, I was simply done with it and there happened to be some left over for her.

In just a couple weeks, the whip was more just for show. In another week, I started testing to see if I could walk to her feed bucket with a scoop of grain without her crowding me. She relapsed a couple times, nothing major though. I'd simply leave and come back with the whip in hand. In just a couple of months I started letting my 2 year old walk in with the feed scoop (me hovering next to her). In another week or two, I would let her rush over to pour the feed in ahead of me. (But I stayed close to make sure Elsa didn't run her over for the food.)

Now, you may be asking, what caused this?

Elsa's breeder. Like I said, most horses come with a vice, whether or not the seller sees it as one. Now let me just say this, I LOVE Elsa's breeder. This is the SINGLE thing I could possibly complain about at all.

So, how do I know she was the cause?

I didn't find out until after I had already solved the issue. I thought that it must have just been something I had caused by not enforcing personal space. And it sort of was, but it didn't start with me. You see, Elsa's breeder does A LOT of outreach for the Shire horse breed. So in the time between Elsa's birth, and her arrival at my place, her breeder had done a couple news shoots at her place and taken Elsa and her dam to a fair. They'd also been featured in a news print article.

I had seen the printed article and one of the filmed news interviews long before Elsa came to my place, but I didn't know there was a second filmed interview. When Elsa came to me, her breeder sent everything that had even a glimpse of her in it. Her papers, full vet record, and 3 CDs packed full of pictures and videos I'd never seen of Elsa before. One of these videos was the second filmed news article on the Shire horses of hers.

In this video, a couple months after I had already solved Elsa's food problem, I saw the cause of the issue. It happened so fast, it was only about 5 seconds of the film and seemed so innocent, sweet, and fun. Little would most people know how bad it could be. In that short 5 seconds, I saw Elsa's breeder in the paddock with her herd of Shires, holding a scoop of grain, going for the feed trough. Her breeder gleefully laughs as she runs for the trough, shires thundering after her, and she chucks the food into the trough as the shires hurry and rush around it to eat some. It was all fun and games. For me, it was a problem I had to fix so that my kid could help with a chore she loved doing. That is exactly why I will only get a young stud prospect. With a stud, you must always be on your toes, and the last thing I want to deal with is a vice someone else unintentionally created that could either always be an issue, or just dangerous. If this had been something Elsa had been doing for years, it might not have been so easy to fix, and the same goes for a stud. Like I said, I LOVE Elsa's breeder. I couldn't have asked for a better person to buy my first horse from. She really did train Elsa very well, and the girl came in great shape. She was always very helpful and very understanding. She'd call me at 9 at night if I had a question, and when I still had one last payment due after getting Elsa, she understood that I needed to wait a month to pay her because we had just moved. She never once complained, she just told me to relax and pay when I could. (But I hate that I didn't pay her off before I got her (a mix up on my part) and I quickly paid the last payment). This is the ONLY thing I could possibly complain about, and it really was quite easy to fix.

On my next post, I'll be talking about my first attempts at working with Elsa. Some things I did wrong and how she told me. I'll talk about the importance of listening to what your horse has to tell you. That post will be followed up later by the story of my first walks with Elsa (yes I take her for walks). Stay tuned as I get you all caught up on my experiences with Elsa, my first draft horse. Hopefully soon I can start writing about things I'm currently doing with her!

Until Next Time!

#horse #drafthorse #Shirehorse #Shire #Bighorse #FoodAgressive #FoodPossessive