Training Tips

QUESTION: Hi Sylvia. I have a wonderful percheron-thoroughbred cross gelding. He stands about 17.2 and is a very big boy with very big feet. He's turning 8, and is a wonderful fieldhunter for my husband. He's kind, gentle and has very nice ground manners. He is relatively green though in lots of ways, but he's willing and smart, so he's coming along nicely. Our only roadblock with him is that he is absolutely TERRIFIED of the farrier. As soon as the farrier's truck pulls in, the horse either turns to stone in his stall or begins snorting and breaks into a sweat. We leased him before we bought him. And at that point, he didn't wear back shoes because no one could get near his feet. In fact, if you could clean them once every few weeks, you were lucky. After some time, my husband and I coaxed him into letting us lift his feet so we could pick them out. Soon after, some trust was built and he started lifting and holding them up himself when we asked. And now he'll let anyone (except a farrier) clean his feet. We've had to tranq him for every shoeing and we try to give him lots of breaks and one of us always attends and handles him on a lead rope (no cross ties), but to be honest... even with ACE, he's a handful and we've been forced to shank him or twitch him plenty of times. The last few times have been a bit better, and we've been able to use less ace and less pressure...but yesterday, he was a wreck again, and one of the groom's shanked his gum. I was immediately horrified and made them remove it, but when he struggled it tore his gum. Later, he stopped struggling so hard, but was covered in sweat and trembling on and off. My husband and I are so upset about this setback. We know the rough treatment will have ruined any slow progress we were previously making on this. But to be honest, I am out of ideas on how to keep him calm and keep the staff working on him safely. I do want to teach him to stand calmly without drugs, and we're willing to put the time in, but frankly my toolbox is bare. And with yesterday's horrible event, I know we'll have my hands full again 6 weeks from now. He is such a nice horse and doesn't show this kind of fear in any other setting. He's sensitive, smart and cares about his rider. He's respectful of all handlers on the ground, too. What can we do to help him get over this fear of the farrier? At this point, we're talking to the vet about a stronger tranq. In my opinion, I'd rather him just wake up with new shoes, than spend 3 hours terrified. I know he can't learn if he's half-asleep, but he can't learn if he's trembling and sweating in terror either. Please, any advice to help us with our horse would be much appreciated. Thanks so much.

REPLY: Hi. Thanks for writing. I've fixed this problem many times and the route you guys are going there is only making matters worse. Your horse associates now the farrier visit with rough handling, pain, trauma, etc. I.E.: it's a well justified fear!!! Crossing into the category of abuse, you need to know. Shanking a horse's gums is one of the most horrendous abuses out there today. And I am not a proponent of twitching or shanking horses either. You need to know that, because if you are allowing such abuse knowingly, then you are (inadvertently) as guilty as the abuser. Horse owners need to be in the position of PROTECTING their horses at all times from abuse, not standing by and ever allowing it. I know you know that deep down, which is why you are reaching out for better answers. Sedation is NOT the route to go either, nor anything you've been doing there (or allowed being done), but instead, fixing the underlying problem is the route to go--- and humanely!

Yesterday I had here a client whose (new to them) formerly abused horse I'm nearly done retraining (overall) who also had a massively phobic fear of the farrier and for all of his 8 years, "had to" be sedated for farrier visits, but still fought, because sedation is never the answer!! I put "had to" in quotes there because that was a grave misconception going the sedation/force route and is caused by sheer ignorance. Long story short: yesterday...his 4th scheduled farrier visit with me present (with no sedation) he stood quietly, no fear at all, the owner this time holding him (me out of the picture) easily, quietly, and the horse was trimmed with no effort or resistance whatsoever, needing no sedation, no force, nothing. Just a regular horse handling the farrier calmly, rationally, happily, like most horses do. A proud graduate of my program. It's past abusive methods used by owners or farriers or vets that causes the problem in the first place. You have to fix that problem the right way. That involves: fixing the real underlying problem -- STOP going the forced/pain/sedation route and now undo the damage! That route you are going there will only escalate the problem tremendously, and make matters get worse & worse. It's like...trying to put a tiny bandaid on a huge festering wound -- it won't work. You have to treat the real wound properly.

To fix the real problem...First...you need to get a farrier who will patiently cooperate with you, NOT sedating, and allow for some proper advance/retreat desensitizing to get the horse over this fear for good. And never let a clueless groom or barn employee hold your horse again for the farrier visit, but take charge doing that task yourself. Do the following not in the horse's stall (so he won't feel trapped), but in the safe confines of a paddock or ideally a round pen. Take the farrier's apron (ask him to take it off as he keeps his distance) and wad it up small for a start, and rub it all over the horse to desensitize him to the smell, to replace that smell sensory memory with something pleasant. (Do this yourself, not the farrier). Let the apron open up slowly as you rub the horse, until he can tolerate that completely, and calmly. Do the same with some of the farrier's tools, rubbing them all over the horse, nurturing the horse through that process. If/when the horse shows curiosity and wants to smell them as you go along, let him. Curiosity is the opposite of fear. Throughout this desensitizing (and throughout the entire lesson when needed), use these relaxing/bonding techniques that I show here, to help the horse cope -- specifically there on that list: use the finger in the mouth and head down technique to relax the horse manually, for your purposes:

Horses don't know how to bring themselves back down from being afraid, once they've wound themselves up. You, the owner, are going to take charge of that relaxing the horse throughout this lesson, using those relaxing techniques, to manually relax him yourself as you go along. Use pressure/release to get the horse to drop the head (lowered head is automatically a relaxed horse) & get good at the finger in the mouth technique you read there. They are very, very powerful training tools!

Next....you need to have the farrier use advance/retreat for approaching the horse. And for teaching you how this is done right, I want to direct you to a link on my web site that goes into more depth on this process (this particular link deals with a horse that can't be touched -- like a wild horse, but use the same method you read there):

That link there shows desensitizing a horse to touch at liberty, after round penning, but you can still do this in halter/lead (preferably a natural horsemanship halter with 12' lead rope (CLICK HERE) -- just apply the same advance/retreat principles there to work the horse past the fear of the farrier. You hold the lead and help relax the horse ongoingly, while the farrier uses advance & retreat in this exercise. It is during the RETREAT that the horse loses fear/gains confidence, not during the advance, so...it's real important as you have the farrier perform this exercise, to first perceive where the bubble space is in the horse's mind that he starts to move away afraid if the farrier "crosses that line" and have the farrier NOT cross it at first. Just have him advance to the invisible line, eyes averted, shoulder to the horse (no eye-to-eye contact!) and as soon as he reaches the line, have him turn away, his back to the horse, have the farrier walk away, stop, pause. Let the horse digest that. Repeat. As many times as it takes until the horse can handle the farrier approaching that line and the horse not moving off. When that goes well (take your time!!), have the farrier advance and step one foot over that bubble-space line, then turn and retreat instantly, walk away, his back to the horse, pause. Let the horse digest that. Repeat. As you go this route, slowly the bubble space line will be redrawn mentally by the horse, closer & closer to him. The biggest mistake people make with these kind of horse fears is being too advance (forward moving) focused, instead of being retreat focused. Be 100% retreat focused, and ideally, get the timing down so that the farrier is retreating before the horse retreats. Repeat: it is during the retreat that the horse begins to grow confidence and refile the farrier as NOT a dangerous predator after all.

As the farrier advances/retreats, soon he'll be within range to stroke the horse (usually on the side or shoulder), eyes still averted, shoulder to the horse. He should stroke the horse only once with the back of his hand (never the front of the hand or it's a "predator claw" in a horse's mind), and instantly retreat, his back to the horse, walk away. Stop. Pause with his back to the horse. Wait as the horse digests this. Repeat. Once the horse can handle that one stroke with the retreat well without moving off, the farrier should approach, stroke twice, retreat, stop, pause, let the horse digest that success. And so on. Via advance/retreat, the farrier is reconditioning the horse's sensory memory to refile the farrier as safe, not something that will harm or traumatize him. Dangerous predators advance only (in a horse's mind). With the farrier retreating repeatedly there, the horse starts to refile him as not a dangerous predator, as his mind switches to, "hey...dangerous predators don't retreat, maybe he's safe, maybe he's not a predator after all. Maybe I can trust him..." After many, many advances/retreats, slowly inching closer to the horse, stroking before retreating, soon the farrier can stand still next to the horse and stroke him many times in that one spot and not have to retreat (is all about "feel" of the animal and responding with the retreat accordingly before pushing the horse over the edge). It's okay at that point for him to stroke the horse with the front (palm) of his hand now.

From there....follow my above link I directed you to, for him to now desensitize the horse's entire body to the farrier's touch, but using advance/retreat even there. Stroke just once outside the "base" he's established there in that one spot on the horse, then instantly retreat to stroking back in the safe area quickly, and slowly the boundary lines will get redrawn mentally by the horse until the farrier can rub the horse all over his body. Repeat: the retreat is everything there! Don't be goal-focused, be retreat focused.

Once that is accomplished, have the farrier stroke down the leg, then retreat back to stroking the safe "base" area you've established. Repeat many times until the farrier can linger there stroking the leg repeatedly longer. (Incidentally, no patting the horse! only stroke or scratch! Horses do not like patting and it only tenses them up. Here we want to RELAX the horse, so stick to stroking and scratching only). Have the farrier pick up the foot, put it down quickly, several times, until the horse relaxes and knows the farrier is not a threat there. I would also suggest you read my foot-handling problem link for you and the farrier to work on this together:

Don't use force there, but use the rope and pressure/release like I teach there, to retrain your horse how to pick up his feet.

This (and much, much more) is taught in my Whispering Way 12-Step Total Training System DVD set. Usually it helps to see this natural horsemanship art taught visually, to really understand how it is all done. You can get that DVD set here: CLICK HERE

Keep empathy present at all times. Force was not the route to go there, nor was sedation. Back up and take the time to fix the real problem (caused by past abusive and unproductive methods used on him there--sedation does NOT stop a horse from being afraid if the phobia is big enough! And knocking out the horse completely is not your answer either for the long run -- take the time to back up and fix the real problem using natural horsemanship humane techniques). The long way is the short way, as we say in natural horsemanship training. The time you take to back up now and fix the real underlying problem, will fix the problem for good. And please intervene if/whenever someone (farrier, vet, grooms, anyone!) tries to use forceful or abusive or unproductive methods in the future, which has created this problem in the first place. Be a strong advocate for your horse. That's part of our deal as their trusted partners. If you allow abuse or force, your horse knows it and will trust you less for allowing it.

If you feel you cannot accomplish this retraining yourself, do call in a natural horsemanship trainer to help you out one-to-one. I have a "Find a Natural Horsemanship Trainer Near You" section up on my web site.

Incidentally...I want to add in here that unless your horse has some serious back feet deformity or confirmation problem, he should NOT need shoes on his back feet. That's a great misconception "out there." Shoes on horses' back feet are usually not necessary. Most horses only need good trims on the back feet, but rarely ever do they need shoes on the back feet. Something to think about!

I do hope this helps and I hope you take positive action now to undo the damage done to your horse and move forward positively and onto the humane path for fixing this problem once and for all.