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Horse Training Success |
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Dealing With A Rearing Horse
Sun, 03 Aug 2008 05:38:00 +0000 This is how dangerous rearing is (very lucky escape):Whether you are working a seasoned horse or training a young colt who's confused about what you want from him, there may come a time when that horse suddenly rears up, and learning how to handle the situation before it happens is a lot better than figuring it out as you go. Horses can rear for a number of reasons, but fear is usually the greatest trigger. A horse's natural instinct is to run away from danger, and seeing anything he doesn't know can make him feel apprehensive. If he's frightened enough and feels like he's trapped, rearing becomes a real possibility. Pain may also cause rearing in some instances. An ill fitting bit may cause pain when you pull on the reins, causing your horse to instinctively pull up and back to relieve the pressure. And then sometimes a horse's rearing is simply a test to see which one of you has the dominant position in the relationship. Whatever the reason for your horse's rearing, it's important to realize you are in an extremely dangerous situation, and knowing how to react properly can save you an injury, and possibly save your life. Your reaction will depend on whether your horse rears while you are leading him from the ground or riding him. What To Do If Your Horse Rears While Being Led Rule number one; get away from his front to avoid those kicking hooves. It is far safer to get behind his shoulders and out of striking range. Resist trying to pull him back down with the reins. Your horse will only see this as an attack on his head and pull up in the opposite direction to try to escape.Unfortunately, this video demonstrates the handler tugging at the horse from in front, with the horse struggling backwards and nearly falling over as a result:Use a calm voice to try to regain his attention and get him to focus on you. As soon as his front legs are on the ground ask him to go forward. A horse that is moving doesn't have the physical capability to rear, so if you can distract him and get him moving again, the episode may be over. What To Do If Your Horse Rears While You're Riding Him The very first thing to do when you are on the back of a rearing horse is to lean forward, let the reins go slack and hang on to the horse's neck or mane. This is not as easy as it may sound, because your natural instinct is going to be grabbing on tighter to the reins already in your hands. However, if you pull back tighter on a horse that is already rearing you are likely to succeed in pulling all the way back over for a fall. Considering your horse weighs about ten times more than you, you would be at serious risk for being crushed.Here is an example of the threat of rearing escalating into a full rear when the rider holds the reins tight: The minute your horse's front legs hit the ground, give him a strong cue to move forward, both vocal and with a kick. If you can get him moving he can't rear again, and your next step is regaining control. As soon as he takes a few steps forward, cue him to turn left and force him to go forwards a few feet, then cue him to turn back to the right and go forward again. In this way you are showing your horse that you are the one in control, and by getting his attention back on you with familiar commands, he should calm down quickly for you. Be sure to praise him for responding to your commands and end the session on a positive note.This gal does a decent job of getting her horse moving as soon as she comes down. Being prepared to deal with a rearing horse before it ever happens to you is the best to save you and your horse from potential injury. |
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How Young Is Too Young?
Mon, 28 Jul 2008 06:43:00 +0000 It's a question that pops up regularly in my inbox. When can I start riding my horse? When can I start sitting on his back? When. When. When? Are we there yet? The answer (despite what you see every day in the racing industry) is leave babies to be babies. Stay off his back until he is AT LEAST two. Preferably THREE. You can do plenty of groundwork until then. And when he's two, if you just have to start riding, keep it very light (short trails or round pen sessions) and make sure the rider is light as well. Horses take time to mature. Horses that are 'pushed' to bear weight when young will end up with back and leg problems when older. Chiropracter anyone? Sometimes as early as 4. Yes you read that right. I do assume you want to be able to keep riding your horse well into old age? After all the effort, time and money you pour into him?This video horrifies me. They are both yearlings. Yes she looks light weight, but these horses SHOULD NOT be being backed at this age. She should be shot. Whoever advised her this is a good idea should be shot.On a side note, have you ever considered what happens to the horse that you rode too young? I mean, he's lame so he gets sold, right? Who buys unsound horses? Hmmmm? Who exactly? Have a ponder. Then look your yearling in the eye next time you feel like trying to ride him and think about his future. As a steak.Blogged with the Flock Browser |
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White Horse Genetics Unraveled
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 01:39:00 +0000 An international team led by researchers at Uppsala University has now identified the mutation causing this spectacular trait and show that white horses carry an identical mutation that can be traced back to a common ancestor that lived thousands of years ago.It is a fascinating thought that once upon a time a horse was born that turned grey and subsequently white and the people that observed it were so fascinated by its spectacular appearance that they used the horse for breeding so that the mutation could be transmitted from generation to generation," says Leif Andersson who led the study. Today about one horse in ten carries the mutation for Greying with age.White Horse Genetics UnraveledSo the genetics of the white, or what horse people call grey, horse have been unraveled. Isn't it fascinating that where once (apparently) the white horse was a such a rarity and so prized that it has been bred to the point where one in ten horses has the gene. Amazing. Even more so when the research suggests that all grey horses have ONE common ancestor. Incredible really.Blogged with the Flock Browser |
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Horses Afraid of Men
Mon, 14 Jul 2008 06:02:00 +0000 Hello to all of out there in horse-land;back again after neglecting this blog for far too long.There was a recently emailed-in question regarding a horse (of course) and his apparent fear of only one of his new handlers. The female handler had no trouble while the male handler could not get near the animal without being seriously threatened.Now first up, let's assume that both people are gentle in approach and of equal competence around horses. With that assumption, we can say that this horse has a fear of men. And moving further along, that somewhere in his past, this horse's natural suspiciousness of anything new was justified by some guy's actions and reinforced into fear of all men.How does this happen? Some explanation thanks to the brilliant Temple Grandin:http://www.grandin.com/references/thinking.animals.html"animals .. think by making visual associations. These associations are like snapshots of events and tend to be very specific. For example, a horse might fear bearded men when it sees one in the barn, but bearded men might be tolerated in the riding arena. In this situation the horse may only fear bearded men in the barn because he may have had a bad past experience in the barn with a bearded man. Animals also tend to make place-specific associations. This means that if a horse has bad prior experiences in a barn with skylights, he may fear all barns with skylights but will be fine in barns with solid roofs. This is why it is so important that an animal's first association with something new is a good first experience."That includes men, women, boys, girls, bicycles, dogs, cats, umbrellas,logs..... It's why lots and lots of work 'on the ground', with gentle introductions to EVERYTHING you can think of, will serve you and your horse well in future years. But I digress. Back to the topic:"if a horse falls down in a trailer the first time he loads, he may fear all trailers. However, if he falls down in a two-horse, side-by-side trailer the 25th time he is loaded, he may make a more specific association. Instead of associating all trailers with a painful or frightening experience, he is more likely to fear side-by-side trailers, or fear a certain person associated with the "bad" trailer. He has learned from previous experience that trailers are safe, so he is unlikely to form a generalized trailer fear."So what to do when your horse is afraid of men? Well, DO NOT send him to a 'traditional' rough 'em up male trainer. No, no, no. You'll need a confident, experienced and gentle male handler to help your horse rewire his survival instinct, and learn that men are ok. Just basic, regular training will do. It's the attitude of the trainer to the horse that is important. And it might be a wise idea to get all the guys who will be around this horse to have a few lessons regarding their behavior, so that the retraining doesn't get undone within a week of success. |
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Melbourne Cup Could Have Been A Pantomime
Fri, 26 Oct 2007 01:38:00 +0000 As some of you may be aware, Australia (well, a large part of it anyway) is in the grip of horse flu. Equine Influenza if one wishes to be correct. And that means lockdown. No horse travelling. No Ag Shows, no Pony Club, no racing.The legenday Birdsville Races were affected by the slight inconvenience of not having any horses to race. For those that don't know where Birdsville is, it's in the middle of nowhere. Known as the most isolated town in Australia, being 1161km (721miles) from the nearest capitol city. Population 120, food shipped in fortnightly and with no, I repeat, no, cell/mobile reception.Perhaps taking a cue from this horse festival in Banbury, UK, the race meet went ahead anyway.However, Melbourne has not been affected by this lockdown, and so the Melbourne Cup, with all it's high fashion, dress up silliness, drunkeness and stopping the entire nation working for a day, is scheduled to go ahead as planned: |
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Freak Horse Racing Accidents
Tue, 23 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000 There they go again. Those Thoroughbreds and their 'freak accidents'. The Caulfield Cup is the lead-up race to the Melbourne Cup, the 'race that stops the nation'. The race that Melbourne has a public holiday to watch. Truly!So what happened at the start of the Caulfield Cup to the favorite?From 'The Age':"The noise Maldivian made when he struck the stalls caused second favourite Eskimo Queen to lunge at the gates, slip to the ground and become caught under the stalls. She was also withdrawn."Maldivian reared in the confusion and struck his neck on the barrier."...highly fancied Caulfield Cup favourite, Maldivian, was left gashed and bloodied just moments before the race's start... Maldivian... was taken from the barriers with blood pouring out of the 15-centimetre cut high on his neck. It needed up to 14 stitches."Back to the subject of horse racing and freak accidents. Although I wasn't able to dig up any figures on the freaky ones, there is enough data about on the 'regular' ones to be rather worrying.From Wikipedia:"Current estimates indicate that there are 1.5 career-ending breakdowns for every 1000 horses starting a race in the United States, an average of two horses per day. The state of California reported a particularly high rate of injury; 3.5 per 1000 starts. As a ratio (of injuries with eventually fatal complications to total competitions), this is far in excess of all other legal human and animal sports, including boxing, motorsports and greyhound racing."And from this study:"As anticipated, the type of race had a big impact on the risk of injury. Horses in hurdle races were 4 times more likely to suffer serious injury while those competing in steeplechase races were 7.5 times more likely to sustain a serious injury, compared to races on the flat."So that explains why horse racing 'freak injuries' really aren't freak injuries at all. They're just the more visible end of the ordinary injury rate in the sport. |
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Audio Horse
Tue, 16 Oct 2007 04:50:00 +0000 It is with great pleasure that I've come across a dedicated horse radio show... and not only that, but one that does not discriminate against a person for living in proverbial Timbuktoo. Aka it is also available to listen to online.Sensibly named 'The Horse Show', there are interviews and panel discussions on all sorts of horse management and training topics. Here is a list of radio stations in the USA that air the program:http://www.thehorseshow.com/stations.aspxAnd here is the link to listen online:http://www.thehorseshow.com/listen.aspxThere is a catch - you need to be a member and it costs $9.95 a year, but at this precise point in time, the fee is being waived in exchange for completing a survey.Thanks to the person who emailed in asking if the Horse Training Success book is available as an audio. It's not right now, but I'll keep the idea in mind. Your question sparked off the search which resulted in this find. |
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Make Your Own Rope Halter
Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:50:00 +0000 A rope halter can be far stronger than the 'regular' halter, and a lot more comfortable for your horse too. Sounds good? Even better, you can make 'em yourself.There's a fantastic webpage on how to make your own, complete with information on the rope to choose, how much you'll need for your size horse, tools you'll need and the different knots and how to tie them. Oh, and instructions with pictures on constructing the halter of course! It's all available at http://www.naturalhorsesupply.com/tiehalter.shtmlThe only improvement would be a video of the process.However, once you've made your very own rope halter, here's a video I found to help you put it on your horse and do it up. |
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The Head Shy Horse - Ongoing Training
Fri, 05 Oct 2007 10:19:00 +0000 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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The Head Shy Horse - What To Do
Fri, 05 Oct 2007 10:14:00 +0000 Points To Note:A headshy horse has developed the HABIT of moving away anytime someone reaches for his face, regardless of whether he thinks this will end in pain or not. It is up to you to teach him a new habit. One you want. A few points to note before beginning. Always stand to the side of your horse, never in front. This is for your safety and your horse's peace of mind. It is less threatening to them for you to be on their side and in full view. Always be mindful to have a relaxed, nonchalant, non-aggressive attitude. This is inside, how you are feeling, and your voice and body language. It all counts. Your horse can sense how you feel. Do not use angry voice tones or body actions no matter how long each lesson lasts or how slow your horse is at 'getting it'. Take your time. Hours if necessary. Let your poor horse know things have changed for the better. Rub and stroke until he relaxes and quits being nervous. If you stop before he relaxes and accepts what you are doing, his headshy habit will continue. If you stop touching him when he reacts badly, this will reinforce that moving away will stop what he doesn't want. Always end on a high note. Pay attention to your horse. He will tell you how quickly you can proceed with the lesson by his reactions to what you are doing. As you improve your listening, you will see an improvement in your horse's trust. Remember that gentle hands will prevail. The Nuts and Bolts:The overall method goes like this. Start at a spot where your horse likes to be scratched. Somewhere he is very comfortable being touched and does not react badly. Then you gradually work your way from this 'yes' area toward the major 'no' area, backing off toward 'yes' whenever he gets tense, starts fidgeting, shows the whites of his eyes, pulls away, lifts his head up, swats you with his tail etc. You'll have to learn to read your horse. Incrementally rub and scratch toward 'no' to expand what he is comfortable with. Go as slow as it takes. In more detail, start at the 'yes' spot. Typically the shoulder or sometimes the nose. Rub until he is quite happy and relaxed. Then explore where the boundary of 'yes' is. Stay within that until he is relaxed again. And then, for a stroke, slightly expand the boundary. And then go straight back into the 'yes' area. Circular strokes are great. The circle just happens to be a bit wider when you push the boundary of 'yes'. Gradually increase the frequency of expanding 'yes' by that little bit, until the boundary of 'yes' has been expanded. Back off into 'yes' at any sign of resistance. Make sure your horse is completely comfortable and trusting before going further. Repeat all the way up the neck, leaving the strongest 'no' area until last, which is often the ears. This approach and retreat works really well. Often you will get to a stage where your horse will stand still and tolerate your touch, but you can still feel that he isn't entirely happy. Then it's time to OD on rubs and scratches all over the tolerated and nearby areas until he's bored. Well done. It may have taken a couple of hours of rubbing, but your horse won't give two hoots anymore. Do this every time you catch him to reinforce the lesson that he no longer has to fear having his head touched. It takes time but is well worth the trouble. With time and patience, he will understand that this rubbing feels good, and he will learn not be nervous about your hands near his head. For abused or severly shy horses it’s best to approach the problem in even smaller steps, beginning with whatever body part your horse will offer to you. This will be either his nose or his shoulder. Depending on the level of shyness of your horse, you may only be able to make contact for a split second. The split second being the amount of time he was comfortable, and stayed quiet. So keep touching him a little while longer each time. And stop before he shows signs of objection. It may be that you only get to put your hand NEAR his nose/head/shoulder. That's ok. It's all building up your horse's comfort zone bit by bit, or hair by hair! Once you can make contact long enough to start rubbing, you can begin to expand this 'yes' area. |
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