This is Teddy but he hasn't been the cuddliest of bears. Instead he has been aggressive to his owners particularly around food. He is only 18 months old so I imagine that some ambivalence about people and an absolute certainty about food have led to him developing behaviour that keeps people away from him and away from his bucket. Like a lot of ponies he feels more vulnerable when he is tied up but then has at least 180 degrees of manouevrability with his back end to take a good aim if he needs to! Yesterday we worked on developing a few reasonable boundaries and how to answer the questions that he asks - is it okay to bite you; is it okay to move you around; is it okay to play colt games with you? - he became a much nicer pony very quickly and seemed happy to have something to do.
I have urged the owners to reconsider the Parelli halter and rope particularly on a pony this young and particularly for tying up. If a horse pulls back in a Parelli halter it can cause severe soreness in the poll and neck. Furthermore, the clips on Parelli halters and the positoning of them on a low hanging loop are deliberately designed for smacking the horse hard in the jaw bone if he won't do as is he is asked (even if he doesn't understand). Not only this but if you watch the clip in action, it keeps on swinging for a great many seconds the horse has been given a signal and must be very irritating/ confusing. In the end they desensitise horses to the smaller signals. You'll notice that I have moved the clip from the loop under his jaw to higher up under his chin where it won't swing so much. This was a temporary arrangement just for the session.
