Ground work and chewing the lead rope?

[dudey]

I have a 5 year old ex racehorse, who I have had for 9months. he can be quite mouthy, likes to chew things (his fav game atm is removing his over reach boots!) and I am having trouble doing inhand work with him. he likes to take hold of the leadrope while doing it, the bit just below the clip under his chin. Tonight I was doing a small amount of ground work with him. he is getting quite good, it is a work in progress, although he has clearly had alot of correct handling i dont think he has had much in the way of backing up, moving over etc. But he was always trying to get the lead rope in his mouth, if he couldnt get the lead rope he was taking hold of my jacket. He wasnt trying to bite me, he was wanting something in his mouth. problem is if I let him take the rope I then struggle to get him to walk on again, Im not sure why. And also his attention goes to the rope in his mouth rather than my requests!

I dont know if I should be telling him off for taking the rope, or the opposite extreme and ignoring it or something in between. leading him normally, say from field and back he dosnt do it. But when I put his headcollor on he tries to get the noseband bit of that in his mouth.

I do wonder if it is a slight anxiety reaction. He will also try to chew his rope while getting his feet done. He is ok with that but isnt 100% sure of it. So if it is anxiety my initial thought is to ignore it as stressing the point will just add to his anxiety? But also he can be quite cheeky, not naughty, just cheeky so i dont know if it is this.

So should I be letting him chew the rope or what?

[Mellymoo]

Ooh, I don't know about letting him do it, but Jos chews his reins at shows during in-hand, and also takes hold of my clothes if I am not quick enough to open the gate to let him in! I suspect that it could be slight anxiety. I just remove his gob and carry on, making nothing out of it. He is getting better, and doesn't often do it now.

[sandy]

My youngster used to chew the leadrope alot when we did groundwork or went for walks, even when I used to sit on him bareback. I used to ignore him and carry on with what we were doing. I think it is an anxiety thing. He's now 4 and been with me for 18 months and stopped doing it a while back. Funnily enough I hadnt realised he'd stopped til I read your thread.

[steve]

Max loves to chew leadropes!, as soon as the headcollar goes on he has the rope in his mouth. I do try and discourage this with a firm "no" but once we are walking he soon grabs hold of it again!!

I bought him one of the leadropes with the bit of chain on the clip end, and this did discourage him but he soon worked it out once tied up! I now have a normal rope for leading but he gets tied up to a breast bar type thing with a quick release on one end.

[donnalex]

Either use a chain one as suggested or get an ld one and cover the first part where he like to grab it in Cribbox.
By taking hold of the rope he is taking the pressure off himself and stopping you from working effectively. He is clever

[jennyf]

I think it's the equivalent of a 'horse dummy' and it does tend to be the more stressy horses that do it. In my experience, it tends to lessen and even go away after a while, or when other factors sort themselves out.

[kirsten]

I agree with the others above who say it seems to be a stressy thing. My project horse was terrible for doing this but it gradually faded. I was advised at the time to use a chain but I felt he needed to alleviate the stress somehow, and I would rather he chew the rope than me! I would firmly take the rope/rein from his mouth and redirect him by, say asking for a step in one direction. I did find the chewing increased if he didn't have plenty of time to process what I was asking of him, and he needed lots of breaks (such as just being led around without any difficult demands made). Try not to worry; it sounds like he is trying to work things out.

[medicinepony]

Ive got 2 horses that do this (father & son) I just let them do it, ive always thought of it as their equivilent of a dummy, I go through a lot of ropes but it seems to make them feel safe and it does reduce after time

the older one only does it when learning new things or doing something he either dislikes or finds difficult, it doesn't affect what Im doing other than give me an indication on how he is feeling

the younger one has being doing it a lot less recently, hes 14 months now. at one point he did it so much I carried a plastic hoof pick in my pocket and let him chew it, it worked well during vet / farrier visits as he was too busy chewing to pay them any attention

seems to help them to think and at least in my experience they stop in their own time. I would expect that if forced to stop before they were ready they would just substitute the habit for something else that might not be so cute, like bucking or napping