Training Tips

QUESTION: I just visited your website as I was looking for horse training problems. We recently acquired a 4-year-old Quarter Horse/Thoroughbred mare. We don't know anything but that she's lived in a pasture her entire life. She passed her vet check with flying colors and after not being able to get near her back feet three weeks ago, she handled the farrier for a trim and is doing great with that. I have her longeing after many days doing round pen work. We found a skeleton in her closet though. She is quite green but has had tack on her. She accepts a saddle fine and I longe her with one on, and she accepts the bit on a basic headstall fine...then came time to unbridle. She did a complete turn around. She was going to hurt me or herself, she just panicked, she has been a little shy in her left ear, but with a halter on I've got her to where I can rub her all around her ears. She goes nuts when you need to take off the headstall. Our riding instructor, who has many years experience with horses has been helping me with her and has used a lip chain (under the top lip on the gum) to control her. I cannot stress how petrified she has been, breaking out into a lathered sweat come time to take off the headstall. I just don't know what to do right now. Thanks for any input.

REPLY: Thanks for writing. First, I really want to applaud you for the work you've done so far to bring this horse along. Good job!

Hmmm....that is an interesting problem, though. Halter goes on okay, but doesn't go off well. Tells me that probably (maybe?) this horse has had someone just pull the bit out of the mouth abruptly when removing the halter, bonking the teeth from the back, my guess (and that's real painful for the horse), when she should have been allowed to spit the bit out all by herself. Just a guess. Because it's such a common problem I run across.

Because we always like to rule out physical problems before assuming they are behaviorial, I'd like to add that it's always a good idea to have a good equine dental checkup to make sure there is nothing going wrong/uncomfortably with the horse's teeth or inside the mouth. And have a vet check the ear(s), too, to make sure all is well there. Since you said you had a vet check before purchasing this horse, it's probably all fine. Just wanted to mention that, though, for whatever it's worth to you.

I personally wouldn't go the lip chain route. The last thing you want to do is have this horse associating this process with pain, force or discomfort. She's putting enough pressure on herself already! We don't need to add more negative pressure there. We don't go that lip chain route in natural horsemanship; that will only, unfortunately, usually make matters worse. Pain, force or unnecessary intimidation is not how we like to approach problems in natural horsemanship. Let me go into what I would do to back up and break this all down into finer baby steps to get her to handle the entire bridling/bit on/off process and it's kind of in the category of "the long way is the short way."

But first, I also wanted to say, though (I just like to say this as a general rule, even if you don't feel like it applies there), don't underestimate the time it takes for a horse to adjust to a new home -- takes longer than most humans realize sometimes! Horses are 10 times more social creatures than humans are (if you can imagine that!!), so being yanked from one home (from probably her best horsey friends/social order, is a social creature, remember!) and into an environment with strangers, whole new ball game...well...it takes an emotional and behavioral toll on some of them at first. Like a high school kid plopped into a new school/new social order, some settle in quickly, no big deal, while others it can be quite traumatic. So...just showing you that so you'll get some insight there. How long does it take to adjust? Several months in some. Days in others. They're all unique. Like kids, some are bounce-back-quick, no big deal types, others pine nonstop for the friends/world they left behind and then act out. But you can take a pro-active roll applying prey animal psychology for turning that around to convince her, mind, body & soul, that she has arrived at the best place she could ever be in life, to help her get there even more quickly. And here's where I would suggest applying horse whispering/natural horsemanship training techniques in a very clear step by step program, which you can learn more about in my DVD set, the Whispering Way 12-Step Total Training System, and you can order that here: CLICK HERE

After watching the videos, and after learning and applying the methods, you, as the horse's primary teacher will have taught the horse:

This video set will help you to lay down an even stronger, more solid and trusting foundation under your horse there that will then serve you well, tremendously, actually, when you do step up into the saddle. By the time you complete the steps, you will have a transformed horse. The final steps are in the saddle and those exercises will more deeply plant into your horse's foundation the one-rein stop/the "safety zone," and more, that will turn him into a far, far more rational, trusting, happier -- and safer -- horse in saddle as well.

And you can do this yourself if you just back up and learn a few things yourself there. This video set will get you there the fastest with your horse, which is why I'm recommending this route. It's designed for anyone on any level, horse or human, to get professional trainer-like results.

And incidentally...my Whispering Way Complete Training Package contains all my videos and training tools that you need to train or retrain your horse yourself the natural horsemanship Whispering Way. You can check out/order the Whispering Way Complete Training Package on my web site here: CLICK HERE

I'm a very strong believer that every horse owner is their horse's primary teacher/trainer whether they realize it or not. Every time you are with your horse, he is learning something. You just want to make sure he's learning what you want him to learn, not what you don't want him to learn! Natural horsemanship training techniques are gentle, effective, and powerful. Works with every horse every time!

But it's real important to back up and break down all teaching steps in a way that you are releasing baby-gives, allowing the horse to feel the release for the right answers incrementally, so that they learn that's really what you want.

The other thing I wanted to suggest is to do some extensive rope desensitizing, and back up and do this as a pre-step to fixing the bridle/bit problem, so that ropes all around her face and ears are just fine with her, tossed any which way. I myself would do that before proceeding to bring out the halter/bridle/headstall. Because there's probably more than one thing/problem going on there at the same time. So you want to break it all down into understandable, separated-out steps so the horse can more easily learn (or relearn) there, digesting it all one small step at a time. I teach step by step how to do that rope desensitizing here in another horse problem:

Okay...The bridle removal/bitting problem... Since I have already addressed this in another letter/response, and your route to solution will be the exact same route I talk about there, click here to read how to retrain your horse to accept the bit/bridle and removal process and I think it will help you a lot there to get past this problem once and for all:

Keep me posted how it goes and let me know if I can be of any further help there after you have tried the above.