Letters of the Month

LETTER OF THE MONTH:

March 2005

Dear Sylvia: I am very interested in learning your natural horsemanship methods hands on. My husband owns and trains race horses and I would like expand this to include helping people with "improperly trained" horses. (It stems from receiving horses that were just nightmares from other trainers) and I truly believe in the power of this training method. Also, could one get the same results from trailer loading training as for stall training that you teach in your web site Trailer Loading Tips?

We have received a mare who is 3 (standardbred race horse we are talking about) that is beautiful but is terrified to go into a stall. My husband gets results from 6 men forcing her into the stall and according to her owner she has had this problem from day one and can actually be very aggressive and dangerous once in the stall. I believe that she needs to be re-introduced to the stall with positive reinforcement and the understanding that it is ok and can be relaxed going in. Do you have any other insights about this problem outside of what is in the trailering information? Thank you for any info you can give.

S & J. K.

Ontario, Canada

I would use the exact same method there that I teach in my trailer loading tip page to help her with entering the stall voluntarily/helping her to get over her fears there. There is so much more you want to back up and plant into her foundation, as I describe there on that tip page, and the tools for relaxation (which I link to in that section there as well) used with her now to help her remain calm and rational throughout the reintroduction lesson. And when you've planted that trust deeply, and plugged the other foundation holes, and go to school her in not fearing the stall, you are, again, as I state there in that section, going to want to be retreat focused, not end-goal focused and she'll get there faster.

And by the way, during your re-lessoning of her, I've found that teaching a horse to cross over tarps beforehand can really help to raise their confidence level that translates out to other scary-to-them stuff like entering a trailer or stall.

And pleeeease...in the meantime, have those 6 men STOP forcing the mare into the stall!! :-) They are only adding to the problem immensely. Know you see that already. She's afraid of the stall because she's been forced, in the past and present. That's got to stop and her backed up and as you said so beautifully: she needs to be reintroduced to it using only positive reinforcement and gentler natural horsemanship applied prey animal psychology techniques now to help her get past that fear once and for all.

And FYI - another link to help you learn a little more about natural horsemanship:

http://www.naturalhorsetraining.com/WhatIsNH.html

Follow that step-by-step, what you read there in my trailer loading tip section, and that should help the mare to get there. Let me know how it goes. And thanks again for writing.

Follow-up Letter 3 Days Later From Same Person - Success Story!

Sylvia, we are amazed!!! I talked with my husband about helping this troubled mare into her stall, and your methods worked!! For 2 days he had opted for a tranquilizer (afraid for the handler's safety more than frustration about the horse) but with my urging Tuesday and Wednesday he practiced what I had suggested and on Wednesday after me using the relaxation tips that I learned from your site there with her throughout both a shower (she was also afraid of the wash stall as she had been hand washed from a bucket her whole life!) and walking to her stall - she gracefully went through that stall door (my husband also changed his practice of front leading to side/rear leading) and right to her food. She also calmly came to the stall gate to let me stroke her nose (something she did not do after being so stressed out in the stall initially). She is now going to requalify on Friday (she'd been laid off a couple months being young) and will hopefully race her first stakes performance of 2005 on Monday night (we really worried about the stress carrying forward and hindering her ability to compete). Thanks again and I look forward to exploring more your materials through books and video and hopefully being able to attend a clinic in the future.

S. & J. K.

Ontario, Canada

ANOTHER LETTER OF THE MONTH:

March 2005

Hi Sylvia. After that rearing bit incident I told you about earlier and then having my horse become bridle shy, I read your bridling lesson with the molasses you directed me to (CLICK HERE), and started that this morning after emailing you. Within 5 minutes he was taking the bit into his mouth and trying to bite it thinking it was solid molasses!! I got it off him and he wanted it back…I was sooooo tempted to go all the way but as you said – The long way is the short way. I took it off him and rubbed him right for being good and left him wanting more. Hopefully we get the same progress when I try again. That had me convinced!!

I have nosed around the product section on your web site, and am very keen getting more of your products. I have been after one of those natural horsemanship halters, but the quality of them over here in Australia seems to lack a certain something. I even went and got instructions on how to make your own but I failed miserably. Those knots are so hard! I will send an order in shortly.

Thank-you so much for taking the time to respond to me. I really appreciate it and I’m sure my horse will in a few months as well. I am still blow away by this morning because I have been trying to gently re-train him to accept the bit but it just wasn’t working. Who knew 5 minutes and molasses would do the trick??!!!

S. K.

(Internet/Australia)

If you have a horse problem or question and you

don't see it addressed in TRAINING TIPS or if you

would like to share your success story with our

natural horsemanship training methods...

Contact Sylvia Scott

Email: Sylvia@NaturalHorseTraining.com

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