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Dear Friend and
Horseman,
Welcome to another
Horse Training Tips Newsletter.
This particular issue is
probably one of the most important ones I've ever written. Because the
message here is so critical, I hope you read it a couple times over.
I'm going to start off with
several questions that were sent in by my subscribers. If you pay close
attention, you will notice a common theme.
I'm going to give just a
short individual answer to each question and then I'll get into the
big topic of discussion that I feel is so important.
You may notice that a couple of
my answers are a little, shall we say, BLUNT. Well, what can I
say, sometimes I just can't help myself.
Okay, let's get started...
Question:
Larry,
I'm working a filly who was abused and is very dominant towards people. I
have worked many ground hours with her and she has joined up, if I may
say so, quite well.
She saddles fine and is very
supple. I have been walking and trotting in arena doing circles. Today
as I trotted around in a semi-small circle, she stopped and reared.
After she reared I asked for a
trot again and exaggerated my posture forward. When I could feel her
begin to stop and rear again, I would round my back more and lean
further back.
How to correct and am I doing the right thing. I thank
you.
D.A.
My
answer:
Hi D.A.
I wouldn't worry about your posture when the horse rears. I'd be more
concerned with knowing WHY she reared in the first place. There is always a reason
for bad behavior.
Knowing "why" is the key to permanently fixing the problem.
Usually, a horse rears as a result of balking or refusing to go forward.
And is usually a sign of disrespect toward the rider or a lack of
discipline.
In your email you said this mare
is very dominant toward people... well, there you go. You need to
change that. She needs to learn to respect people, not dominate
them.
By the way, I don't buy the "she
was abused" theory. If that was true, she would be afraid of
people, not pushing them around.
I also don't believe that the
mare "all of a sudden" just started rearing. This has been coming on for
a while, you just haven't recognized the warning signs.
Now, the other possible reason for a horse rearing is when the rider has
a death-grip on the horse's mouth, so make sure the reins are loose.
You can counter the rearing by going forward.
A horse can't
rear if he is moving ahead. When she begins to stop to rear, make sure
the bit isn't restricting her and then spank her butt to make her go.
Don't be timid with this, get her going.
Take care,
Larry Trocha
Larry Trocha Training Stable
www.HorseTrainingVideos.com
www.HorseTrainingTack.com
Question:
Larry,
I have never had so many problems with my horse since he got gelded.
Now
every time I ride him he bucks for like 10 minutes and I thought that
gelding was suppose to mellow a horse out and I am having lots of
problems.
He doesn't respect me anymore,
and I really miss our bond.
He was awesome before and now it seems like
he don't trust me once the saddle is on his back. Its hell.
I haven't fallen off yet but
he's going to over power me one of these days.
Now when I lead him he rears
but I don't want to send him to a trainer that's going to beat on him. So
what should I do?
Connie
My
answer:
Hi Connie,
Let me see if I've got this right.
You say your horse has no respect for you.
You say he is getting to be dangerous to handle.
You say you know it's just a
matter of time before he hurts you.
Then you say, in spite of him being extremely dangerous, you dont want
to discipline him. Hmmmmmm...
Hey, it makes perfect sense to me... NOT.
Connie, here is my question
to you.
Besides disciplining him, what could you possibly do that would motivate your horse to behave?
Horses like this don't
care if they hurt you.
This horse is having a great
time pushing you around and using you for his personal entertainment.
He's having fun doing this, what motivation does he have to stop?
Connie, it's time to get real
here before you get seriously injured.
First of all, gelding him
had nothing to do with the way he is acting.
This behavior has been
building for a while (it's probably the real reason why you had him
gelded in the first place). But his behavior now is so bad
you're scared.
The bald face truth is that you need to make "bad behavior"
uncomfortable for your horse or he'll only get worse. And if you can't
do it, send him to somebody who can.
The consequence for not taking
the appropriate action is a trip to the hospital.
Larry Trocha
Larry Trocha Training Stable
www.HorseTrainingVideos.com
www.HorseTrainingTack.com
SIDE
NOTE: According to the latest statistics,
approximately 80,000 people each year are taken to the hospital emergency room
because of horse related injuries? After reading this issue of
the newsletter, are
you at all surprised?
Question:
Hi Larry,
I have been receiving your emails and I was wondering if you could give
me some advice.
I have a 6 year old gelding who
was only broken in the summer of last year. Its a very slow process. My
main problem with him is that he tries to bully me.
He rears and tries to scare me,
when we are going forward he would stop and refuse to go on. he is
making me very nervous. HELP
Susanne Stafford
My
answer:
Hi Susanne,
Your problem is a common one.
I'm impressed that you recognize what your horse is doing to you. Many
riders seem to never have a clue.
Anyway, the root of your horse's belligerent attitude is that he
doesn't respect you.
He's testing your authority. He sees no reason why he should cooperate. After
all, nothing unpleasant is happening to him for exhibiting his bad
behavior.
You need to apply some discipline to get him to understand that you
expect him to be good. He needs to realize there is a price to pay for bullying you around.
First, you need to make him behave and do exactly what you want
on the ground. If he gives you any attitude or refuses to try,
discipline him.
Once he has respect for your authority on the ground, it will be
much easier to get him to do what you want when you are on his back.
Take care and good luck to you.
Larry Trocha
Larry Trocha Training Stable
www.HorseTrainingVideos.com
www.HorseTrainingTack.com
My
Comments:
There are several more emails
I'd like to address here.
One is from a 14 year old girl
who's mare kicks her on a regular basis (great kids horse, huh).
Another is from a guy who's
horse is gate sour and won't leave the company of other horses either.
When he tries to press the issue, his horse starts rearing, lunging and bucking.
A third question is from a lady
who's horse won't respond to her leg cues and viciously kicks at her spur.
Her
horse also runs backwards when she tries to get him to go forward. And
when leading him, he pins his ears and gives her threatening looks like
he's going to bite her.
As I said earlier, all the horse
behavior problems listed above have a common theme. The ROOT CAUSE of the
problem is the horse's lack of respect for the people who handle them.
Let me make this perfectly
clear...
You won't have any luck training a horse that doesn't respect you.
Because this concept is so
important, I've addressed it below. My goal is to try to give you a
better understanding of "respect" issues and what to do about it.
Does your horse have any of these problems?
-
Rearing
-
Kicking
-
Biting
-
Barn sour or refuses to leave other horses
-
Runs over the top of you
-
Pushes you around and won't behave
-
Bad manners and general lack of respect
-
Takes off with you for no reason
-
Balks and refuses to go forward
-
Out of control or no control at all
-
Stiff, heavy and hard in the mouth
-
Won't stop, turn or go where you want
If your horse has any of the problems listed above or is just
difficult to train in general, then the following information may
be just what you're looking for.
You see, what every single one of these behavior
problems have in common is that their ROOT CAUSE is the horse's lack
of respect for the people who ride and handle them.
As a horse owner, this type of behavior can be hard to
figure out. That's because its kind of like a "catch 22" situation...
The horse misbehaves because he doesn't respect you. And
he doesn't respect you because you can't control him. And you can't
control him because he weighs 1000 pounds and is misbehaving.
It's a vicious circle and a tough combination to deal
with if you don't know how to handle it.
In the beginning stages, many horse owners aren't even
aware that their horse is being disrespectful toward them. They have a
hard time recognizing it. That's because this behavior starts out very
subtly and gradually gets worse over time.
This "respect" thing is a natural part of a
horse's instinct and is related to dominant or submissive behavior when
relating to other animals.
In a herd of horses, every member has his place in the
pecking order. The top horse is dominant over all the other horses.
And, the horse at the bottom is submissive to all the other horses in
the herd.
The dominant horses have the respect of the submissive
horses and always get their own way. The submissive horses get no
respect from the dominant horses and are always being pushed around.
The horses in the middle will be dominant to certain
members and submissive to others. It's the natural way of the horse. In
all relationships, in all encounters with others, a horse will be either
dominant or submissive.
How does a horse become dominant?
He becomes the
dominate horse if he can CONTROL the other horse and MAKE HIM
MOVE out of his way. If he can control the other horse, he in
affect, becomes the submissive horse's leader.
A dominant horse will be the one who kicks or bites any horse who crowds him or invades his space.
He
will also exhibit his dominance by crowding, pushing or invading the space of
other horses. He's exerting his control.
Read the paragraphs above again. They are key.
Now, it's not always the biggest or physically strongest horse who
is dominant. Sometimes its a small horse. But it is always a
horse that is willing to "impose his will" that wins dominance
over the other horses.
When I was a kid, I had a little 14 hand tall palomino
stallion. He ran with all the other horses out in the pasture. Even
though he was the smallest horse of the bunch, he ruled over every
single horse in the herd.
Why? How? Because he really wanted to and was
willing to fight for it.
You see, he had the willingness to fight for
dominance.
He certainly wasn't the strongest horse in the herd. But he
was the one who, "in the blink of an eye", would turn and kick the heck
out of any other horse that tried to push him around.
Now, the vast majority of horses prefer not to
fight.
They are timid by nature. They may put on a good bluff
but when their bluff is called, they back right down. So, any horse that
exhibits even a little bit of aggressiveness is usually the
winner.
Okay, so how does all of this relate to you and your
horse's behavior problems?
Well, like it or not, the horse sees his relationship
with YOU the same way he sees it with another horse.
One of you is going to be dominant and the other is
going to be submissive. Naturally, the horse would like to be the one
who is dominant.
Now, if the horse insists on getting his own way and you
don't correct him, you are in for
trouble. He'll get bolder and bolder and that's when the behavior problems start.
Be aware, bad behavior doesn't happen over night. It comes on little by
little.
To have a good relationship with your horse,
you have to be the dominant
partner in the relationship. You have to make sure the horse sees
you as his leader. This is what wins his respect, trust, and
willingness to please you.
How do you go about this? Well, there are several
different methods to get this done but in reality there is a definite "right way" and a definite "wrong way" to go about
it.
One way is to just do what another horse would do out in
the pasture -- turn around and "whomp the bejeezus"
out of the horse every time
he does something wrong.
This will gain his respect... and it will
get him to mind you.
However, there is more to it than that.
There are usually other ways of dealing with this type
of problem.
(Of course, with really bad or
dangerous horses, a good, hard spanking is a lot better than doing
nothing at all).
Usually,
thoroughly teaching a horse to move out of your space will go a
long way in gaining his respect.
Ground exercises
of moving the individual parts of the horse's body works great.
On the other side of that coin, trying to "pet"
the horse into
respecting you definitely won't work. Feeding him cookie treats won't do it either.
You have probably already tried both and found they only make the horse
worse.
Gaining your horse's respect and trust requires the
proper balance of training,
discipline
and rewarding
the horse's willingness to try for you.
Read the above line again.
Knowing how to do this is the key to transforming your
problem horse into a dream horse. The kind of horse
you have always wanted. It's also the key to maintaining a good
relationship with your horse. Keeping a good horse good.
I just can't emphasize this "respect and trust"
enough. Without it, you just don't have a good horse. You'll have hell
training him. And you'll have hell handling him.
The techniques used to gain a horse's respect and trust
are not complicated or difficult to learn. Just about anybody
can do it if they know what to do.
To achieve good results, a horseman needs to know
what training methods to use, how to apply those methods and
why those methods are appropriate.
You can see a
good example of this in my "Training
the Foal and Weanling" video.
Sincerely,
Larry Trocha
Larry Trocha Training Stable
www.HorseTrainingVideos.com
www.HorseTrainingTack.com
Well, this wraps it up for this newsletter. I hope
you liked it.
Until next
time, have fun training your horse.
Larry Trocha
www.HorseTrainingVideos.com
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