Horse Training Success

Once you have helped your horse conquer his fear of being touched around the head you can gently keep reinforcing this in a number of ways. Obviously when your horse has been calm about having his head touched, reward him. Scratching a favorite spot is a good reward. Another reinforcement is to play with your horse's ears/pat his head while he is eating. Two reasons for this. 'If you relax and let me touch your face you can eat' (no eating no touch) and the good feelings associated with food will 'transfer' to being touched on the head.

And then you can take the training to another level. A useful cue to teach your horse is 'head down'. It makes bridling and haltering SO much easier, especially for taller horses. The idea is pressure and release. The reward for doing what you want is release from the pressure. Put your hand on his poll and push down gently and slowly increase the pressure. Ignore any fussing and as soon as you detect a tiny dropping of the head, reward by releasing the pressure and heaping praise on your horse. As with all horse training, small often repeated lessons are the most effective. Your horse will not 'get' this lesson overnight, but in time, he will learn to drop his head to a small gentle press on his poll.

Long term, you could continue on to 'bombproof' your horse to arms and ropes flicking about his neck and face. How do you do this? Well you stand at a distance from your horse that he determines is 'safe' and wave and dance about like a goon, gradually getting closer and backing off when he shows signs of nervousness of the lunatic and then in again and back off again etc until you are waving your arms about and doing the chicken dance right next to him and he is bored. The idea is NOT to scare your horse. Do NOT hit or touch him. Be somewhat predictable in your moves, but make them big, flamboyant moves like windmills and stretches. And don't necessarily focus all your moves or body language on your horse all the time. Ignoring him while he stands close by and you flamenco around the acorn on the ground will help him relax and will get him thinking that maybe what's happening has nothing to do with him.

Again, small often repeated lessons are the most effective. Your horse will not 'get' this lesson fully first go, but in time will not be bothered by unco-ordinated idiots raising their arm suddenly under his nose. And obviously this lesson will be a biggie for an abused horse. Baby-fairy steps in terms of lesson progression in those cases. It could take many lessons for an abused horse to stop shaking when you are standing on the other side of the paddock and raising your arm. So be it.

To desensitise your horse to stray and flying ropes, again stand at a distance from your horse that he determines is 'safe' and twirl and throw the rope about, gradually getting closer and backing off when he shows signs of nervousness at your actions or the rope. The idea is NOT to scare your horse. Do NOT hit or touch him. Be nonchalant and unconcerned. Pretend to be interested in other things. Ie don't constantly focus on the horse, but sometimes focus the fence or someone else or nothing at all. And then in again and back off again etc until you are too close to twirl a rope without hitting him. Do NOT hit him no matter what. At that point stop and offer the rope to be sniffed and inspected. When your horse is unconcerned by the rope, use it to rub him starting from the shoulder. Follow the same principles for touching a headshy horse with your hands. When he is fine being rubbed with the rope you can start gently draping it over him and sliding it off. And gradually move to swinging it over him and flicking it off. Please avoid rope burn or painful flicks. Clearly they will work against you!

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Labels: abused horse, bridle shy, halter shy, head shy, horse breaking, horse training, wild horse