Respect

I'm writing this on respect.
A lot of the problems people have with horses come from the horse's lack of respect for said person. Any honest trainer will tell you this. Larry Trocha says it and gets in your face about it so that maybe, just maybe, you'll get the point.
This post doesn't cover the huge problems with disrespect like kicking, biting, rearing, bucking, ect. It covers the little things like your horse not paying attention, not taking you seriously, not trusting you. And ok a few little stories on the rearing and kicking.
My example will be a few stories of the things I have done and the things my sister, Aleythia has done.
I'll start with Aleythia.
Aleythia doesn't like to punish her horses. Or she does just not hard enough. That's not a bad thing, but in certain situations it's necessary.
With the four fillie's we're training she's had problems. Mostly with Dash and Coffie, the two bays. They don't blatantly disrespect her, they just don't take her seriously. With Dash she couldn't get her to longe nicely. Dash would be hesitant about what she was doing. I got in there and longed Dash and she was fine. With Coffie, she doesn't listen. She's off in lala land. Coffie takes me seriously. So, what's the difference? Respect. Aleythia needs to be more forceful, more like a leader. She needs to ask her horse to do something and then when her horse doesn't do it she needs to tell the horse to do it, then make them do it.
If you can catch the signs of disrespect from your horse and fix it right away that will save you from a whole lot of trouble in the future.
Now my story.
I was in the pasture with the horses and Ana was being a pill. She layed back her ears at  me and wanted nothing to do with me. So what was I supposed to do? Let it go? I had nothing on me that I could get after her for but my own hands and feet. So, I chased her around. She needed to know that I was boss. When she wouldn't move out quick enough I slapped her. In this process I slapped her and she was cantering away and she kicked. Her back foot got me right below my collar bone. Lucky for me she was running away and I barely felt it. But I went after her again for that. But let that be a two sided warning. Don't let your horse get away with things like that and be careful.
I have had one other similar battle of who's boss with her. It was back when we still had Flicka.
Once again I was in the pasture and she did something. I got after her for it. This time though she thought that she could push me around. She reared up and I knew that whatever she was gunna do it would not be good. I stared at her and prepared myself for whatever was going to happen next. At that moment Flicka came in and placed herself between me and Ana with her ears back and head low. Ana backed off.
Flicka was maybe three years old at that point. I was around eleven. I have no idea what I would have done. I'm glad Flicka cared enough about me to do something about it. Though it surprised me. But even then I knew that I couldn't let her win that battle. Stupid as I was to get myself into any situation like that I knew she couldn't win.

Bad horsey be good,
Lydia Johnson