Training Tips

QUESTION: Hi Sylvia. I just bought an American Indian horse a couple days ago. She seams to be a sweet horse, but she has gotten a little messed up along the way. First, she will not let you on her right side, she just gets beside herself. When you do, she does not know how to longe. When I ask her to walk, she will turn and puts her head down and pushes me. She would go right over the top of me if I would let her. When you ride her she will try to rub you on the rails of the ring. I worked her last night on the ground, and I could get her to go around me a lap or two, but then she would turn and push me. I would hold my whip out in front of me in both hands, so she pushed against the whip. Though it would be uncomfortable for her, it did not stop it. I do not want to hurt her, but I can't have her running over me either. I turned her loose in the ring to see what she would do and she did the same thing. I tried to be bigger and make noise and wave the lead and my hands to stop her, but she would not stop. She would go around a time or two and then come to me and put her head down and push me. She's a bulldozer on four legs!! What can I do? Thanks for you help

REPLY: Horses follow an instinctive rule that goes like this: "He who moves the other's feet is higher on the pecking order." As pecking order herd animals, your horse is trying to climb the pecking order over you by moving your feet. Time to raise the bar a bit there to reassert your status as "lead mare" in your little "herd of two." When she pushes you like that, make a loud "Shhh" sound and send her away from you. Yep, away. She's only allowed to be with you if she's respectful. This is exactly how a lead mare would discipline the "bratty youngsters." She sends them away. And lets them come back in only when they are showing polite, contrite, more submissive behavior (body language).

As you see her heading in too fast and/or starting to head butt you, anything remotely rudely like that, quickly throw your arms up big & wide (makes you look very big suddenly to the horse), and make this sound very loudly, assertively: "Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!" And kick dirt with your foot in her direction if you need to add that in there, as well.

If she's in halter/lead rope when she does that, instantly jerk the lead rope downward repeatedly, hard, and walk into her, while still making the "Shhhhhh" sound (a sound cue which means "stop it!"). This will skedaddle her backwards and out of your space. She needs to learn to come in more respectfully, which is: quietly, slowly.

Make the right thing easy, wrong thing hard there. If/when she comes in politely, respectfully, turn & pet her, reward. When she comes in aggressively like that or head butts you (she's not allowed to do that with humans!), do what I just said & send her back. You will NOT "lose a friend" in this horse if you maintain your "lead mare" stance there. This is exactly how the lead mare in a real herd disciplines the youngsters, who in the end, respect her.

Horses actually like & respect more: the leader/human positioning themselves as lead mare in their herd. What they do not like and definitely do not respect: those they perceive lower than them in pecking order (and those whose feet they can move). "He who moves the other's feet is higher on the pecking order" is a rule all horses live by completely instinctively; they don't know how NOT to live by that. Move her feet there, and away and no longer allow her to move yours. Be as assertive as need be via jerking the lead downward repeatedly with the "Shhh" sound, walking into her and she'll quickly back off scramblingly and she'll get the message.

The other thing you can do if that doesn't work well enough, if she's bad enough there, is escalate your pressure there: use the end of a 12' lead rope (works better than a whip, trust me), and as she comes in too fast, too rudely, whatever, twirl the rope vertically, smacking the ground hard as you spin it (if she's at liberty) or if she's on the end of your lead rope, twirl the end of the lead overhead, like a propeller, with a long enough extension of the lead rope. Horses don't like to run into twirling ropes, and that usually stops them dead in their tracks and backs them off.

Escalating up higher from there if you ever need to: have a plastic bag tied on the end of a dressage whip (with string part of the whip cut off) or get one of my extentable/retractable training wands that you can use for this purpose (CLICK HERE) and use that waving toward her if needed to drive her off and away from you for disciplining disrespectful behavior like pushing you. No horse in their right mind will run into that! As she comes in more respectfully, you can drop the wand down low, go passive, pressure off, to show: right answer there, thank you! Be the strong (and fair, consistent) lead mare there in your herd! She'll respect you more for it.

I'd strongly suggest doing some round penning with her, but done effectively. I teach step-by-step my natural horsemanship method of how to round pen a horse, here on my site:

My Whispering Way Round Pen Leadership DVD also teaches the art of natural horsemanship round penning visually. To learn more about and order that video: CLICK HERE

If/when she comes in toward you during the round penning at first, unasked, simply twirl the end of the rope, long & wide & slap the ground with it as you spin. If she keeps coming in (to try to head butt you, etc.), she is going to run into that spinning rope all by herself and she won't like that and will think twice about that working for her any longer. Be the director of her feet. Round penning session or two will hone the point that you are the director of her feet and she'll settle down in that regard.

More importantly probably, you need a much bigger plan in place there now to start instilling manners and better training in your mare there after the round penning session. She's got holes in her foundation that I see very clearly, including, but not limited to: eye changing problems (preferring to keep you only in one eye, very common horse problem that can be at the root of quite a lot of disrespectful behavior). You can read more about eye changing problems here:

Another exercise I recommend to get your horse's ground manners down well I teach about here:

You don't want to spend all your time telling your horse what not to do, but far more time spent positively showing her what you do want her to do, so she spends more positive quality time with you.

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.

This route will absolutely get your horse past all of those issues, and more, I assure you.

One last link on my site that I think might help you there -- to learn a little more about natural horsemanship and prey animal psychology in general -- my "What is Natural Horsemanship" link here:

Hope all this helps. Let me know if I can be of any further help to you there and thanks for writing.