Connecting with your Horse


© Gwenyth Browning Jones Santagate
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May 23, 2001


This is the first step in gaining his trust and respect. As for getting past this and beginning to work with spooky "things" ... the approach and retreat works best so you let him know you're not going to try to force anything on him. Clicker Training, at this point, is wonderful!!! Targeting a scary object (once the horse understands the targeting) can get a horse past the scary thing in literally moments! I've worked with big, crinkly yellow rain slickers on horses that would jump at the sound of cellophane! Within, literally minutes, the horse will be walking blindfolded with the slicker over his face! Tambourines, drums, flags, umbrellas, flapping paper, jackets .... all these things. Ask for the targeting of the object first, use your Clicker training (positive reinforcement) and always respect HIS line of fear!

2. With Clicker Training we use treats ... Cheerios, tiny pieces of carrot - they're used as "rewards" but also as "motivators". It's not bribery ... and if the horse begins to mug you for the treats? Begin with the horse behind some sort of barrier (such as stall door) ... teach him that he won't get a treat unless he does something (targeting is the first exercise taught) ... then he soon learns that he's got to do *something* in order to get that treat.

On working with a "dangerous" horse -- It's a very rare horse that is not able to get through his fear. Those with severe physiological/neurogical issues are the ones that may not be able to get through. But that's only about 2% of all "problem" horses, if even that. Mostly scared, unruly, dangerous horses are dangerous because they're scared. They've been so mishandled and mistreated that they no longer trust humans. It takes T-I-M-E ... and it's always, ALWAYS in the *horse's* time frame - not ever in the human's time frame.

Avoid blowups at all costs. There's really no reason why a horse should have to get to the point where it feels it NEEDS to blowup! There's really no reason why a human should have to cause a horse to get to this point! We should always, ALWAYS leave a horse in a better place than we started - the horse should be happy and calm. If the horse starts to get unnerved, just go back to where he's comfortable and start again - maybe even another day.

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1.   Jun 28, 2001 1:36 AM
As with training any animal, understanding, patience and trust is all important. Nice article.

-- posted by JButler



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