Ask the Experts BEHAVIOUR - Cheski Brown Cheski Brown is principal of Abderry Equine Services Ltd. She says, “I have had the pleasure of meeting thousands of horses, and I’m fascinated with the subject of how to allow them to be happy.”

If you have a question for Cheski, send it to: Ask the Experts, NZ Horse & Pony Magazine, PO Box 12965, Penrose, Auckland. Alternatively, you can fax us on 09 634 2948 or e-mail us at editor@horse-pony.co.nz, remembering to include your postal address. Pen names may be used, but anonymous letters will not be accepted. Letters may be edited for length and clarity

Q
: I have three TB geldings, and two of them have the most fustrating vice.
They both weave tied up, in a yard, or travelling in a horsefloat. My other horse seems to not notice this behaviour, for which I am glad.
They are aged 12 and six respectively, and are ex-racehorses. The 12-year-old has been retired for nearly three years, and the six-year-old for seven months.
They learnt to weave before I got them. They do not weave in the paddock or when you are actually grooming or working with them, but give them five minutes to themselves and away they go... I am worried that they will do themselves damage from actually weaving or getting loose, which has happened before though no harm done. At a show, either my partner or I have to stay and watch them in case one gets loose.
It’s also potentially dangerous when your horse is causing the float to weave as well. It doesn’t matter if they have hay available – they both ignore it. It’s like they get some sort of buzz from weaving.
Do you have any advice on how to distract them? I know it’s a difficult habit to break, but any improvement would be nice.
Amanda, via email

A
: Hi Amanda. Horses weave for much the same reasons that humans drum their fingers, tap their feet, bounce their knees, crack their knuckles, sniff or chain smoke. They do it to give themselves relief from their concerns or frustrations. They are generally oblivious to the frustration and/or concern their behaviour causes the people watching or listening. 
As you say, they learnt to weave before you got them, and as they are both thoroughbred, I am assuming they had careers as racehorses before you got them, which also leads me to assume that they have been weaving for a period that of years rather than months.
Are you going to be able to stop this default behaviour?  I doubt it.
So, what can you do? DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT. Don’t allow their dancing to stress or frustrate you. Take solace in the knowledge that as they’ve been weaving for some time, if they were going to hurt themselves, they would have already done so!  
The weaving has become a habit which they probably started because they were excited and worried by the work they anticipated doing in their racing careers. You mention that your guys don’t weave in the paddock or when you’re working with them, however I bet there are times when you’re leading them, when they can’t stop and wait quietly beside you.
Work on this area. Not by making them stand still, but by waiting them out until they can cope with the concept of being tied to an incredibly patient and unemotional you. The moment they do relax and stop for a second, reward them, not with a vigorous pat and/or cuddle because this has too much energy and movement in it, but with a soothing slow caress of a few hairs with the tips of your fingers on their neck or between their eyes.
A weaving horse reminds me of a pot of boiling water. The weaving is like the water turning into steam; it is done to release nervous energy. You don’t stop water boiling by jamming a lid on the pot to contain the energy – this makes it worse. Water will only stop boiling when you turn off the heat activator.
Everything you do with a busy horse should be as though you are in smooth slow motion. Think, talk, breathe, move, react, s-l-o–w-l-y.
Your dancing horses are worried about the work they’re going to do. You might not think that what you have planned is particularly exciting but they have hang-ups and don’t trust you because you’re human and therefore look something like the humans that formulated the race training programme that they followed in their previous careers.
How can you get their confidence that the work you’re going to ask them to do is not going to be too difficult or stressful?  By ensuring that whatever you do with them stimulates them as much as standing in the paddock watching the grass grow.
Bring them up one at a time with the gent who doesn’t weave and take them for a long hack about on a loose rein in walk. Are they energetic rides that “are keen to get on with things”? Do they want to get on with it to get more done or to finish as quickly as possible so that they can get back out to the paddock?  I won’t be surprised if it’s the latter answer.
I suggest that you take up a training programme to turn them into old trekking horses faced with the prospect of walking for hours every day. When they can stand beside you while you clamber on and then shuffle off in a slow walk while you slump in the saddle, then and only then start a bit of trot work, but once again you want them going like trek horses. By this I mean they should be able to slop around on a loose rein with their heads stuck out and neither you nor they should be pulling on the reins to get your balance. Does this sound boring and as though you’re not riding properly?  Don’t get stuck on the thought that you won’t be riding properly if you don’t organise where they hold their heads.  Let them find their own balance and be comfortable in the knowledge that you are not going to restrain them by pulling on the reins to bend their necks or backs. I reckon this might be quite challenging for you and I am very confident this will help with the weaving.
When they can carry themselves without leaning on the reins and you’re almost having to kick them into action, then you’ll be ready to work on getting them “going properly”.
What to do about the trailer travelling? Same thought process. Getting in a vehicle used to mean travelling somewhere to work very hard. To start with getting in your trailer might mean going nowhere at all and being rewarded with a really scrummy treat, not hay, something very small and tasty that makes them want to be bothered to lick their bowls clean. When they can stand in your trailer and rest a leg, then you could take them for a very short journey.  By very short journey I mean 20m!
When you have their work at home settled, and they can cope with short journeys in the trailer, progress to going to someone else’s property to hack out as “old trekkers” again. When they can work away from home as old trekkers then leave them tied to your trailer to weave if they feel like it but arrange the situation so that they have access to a feed bin that has a couple of handfuls of a really delicious treat.  When you’ve mastered being away from home and working like old trekkers, move on to working towards quality work away from home.
When they are relaxed enough to travel calmly and work properly away from home then take on a small event day where you deliberately arrive very late or very early so that there is the least amount of hype in the air when you’re at the show. When you get there, unload the horses and keep the atmosphere as chilled as possible around them.  Don’t leave them tied to the trailer because they will be remembering their racing days and the default weave setting will return.
Tack them up as smoothly, quietly and quickly as possible and then go back to the trekking horse training. You want to make a huge production of the fact that you do not want anything but a relaxed walk at their first show and then take them home.
To work with the agitated horse requires huge patience and a certain degree of pig-headedness that gives you the air that you have been frustrated by much bigger and better irritators then your two weaving gentlemen. 
Be warned Amanda, they will continue to try to frustrate you because their actions have successfully irritated for years. They will succeed in irritating others who will give you and your horses lots of good advice. However, I think the only way to succeed in mastering this sort of challenge is to stick to your guns and be insistent that you are not going to be frustrated and that before you want an all singing and all dancing athletic equine performer you want a simple horse that can slop around on a loose rein.