Training Tips

QUESTION: I am wondering about some training ideas. I am in the process of purchasing a foal from a PMU mare. A friend of mine owns the mare. I am begining to train my little colt and I was just wondering, what would be the best way to train him how to stand on the cross ties. I have started with clicker training, as I have trained many of my kennel dogs that way. It is working, but I was wondering if you had any idea as to how I could go about this. The foal is being weaned slowly, and he will be gelded shortly. If you have any ideas I would greatly appreciate them.

REPLY: Thanks for writing. The key to cross-tying or even tying a horse to anything period (including a foal/colt) is to make sure they thoroughly know how to yield to pressure in the first place. Rule of thumb: never tie a horse to anything if they do not fully understand how to yield to pressure with the lead rope, so you would want to start off teaching the foal this right away.

I would start off the lesson (every lesson!) with deep bonding, scratching and stroking all over the horse's face, head, neck, eyes, ears, "search touching" for the horse's favorite spots to be rubbed. so you can return to those special places whenever anything falls apart in training. You will want to accustom the horse also to your sticking a finger in the corner of the mouth (no teeth are there in the corner, don't worry, even in adult horses), feathering the tongue with your finger to produce the mouth working. This a method we use to relax the horse. Even at liberty, when a horse is working their mouth, they are letting down/relaxing/submitting. You can produce the same relaxation response/submitting effect artificially by simply sticking a finger in the corner of the mouth as such and the horse will instantly begin to work the mouth (remove the finger then) and in a horse, where the body goes, the mind follows. He will instantly relax when you do this.

Bonding is, in my opinion, the first most important foundation to lay down in a horse. And it is laying down a foundation deeply in place that you can return to time and again to calm/relax the horse if any part of the lessons are suddenly perceived too stressful to them, to instantly bring them back down, not being pushed over fear thresholds, and the horse reassured. And you'll also be using the bonding constantly for simple, loving reward to show them "right answer" during training.

After that, your very next step should be to teach the horse the concepts of yielding to pressure. And the easiest way to introduce that is to teach the horse to drop the head. For this, you will be working with the lead rope attached to the halter. I myself will only train a horse in a natural horsemanship halter with 12 foot tied-on lead, as the design of the halter is such that the horse feels the pressure more softly and easily, giving them the opportunity to respond (succeed!) more quickly, affording more opportunities for reward, and the 12 foot lead is your safest length to work with any horse in.

All horses learn from the release of pressure what it is you want, not the pressure itself, so it is crucial that you get your release timing split second accurate when you get the right responses so the horse learns more quickly what it is you want.

To begin to teach the concept of yielding to pressure, to drop the head, stand next to the horse's head, facing forward. Bend your body over at the waist, hold the lead rope with steady pressure downward. The second the horse gives the head even an inch downward, instantly open your hand, releasing for that correct response. Reward for the smallest tries, slightest changes in the right direction and the horse will get there faster. If the horse shoots the head upward at the feel of that downward pressure, keep the pressure remaining, do not release, treat your arm like a bungee cord, resistance meets resistance, but the instant you feel any downward pressure whatsoever, release. Pause. Stroke the head for reward. Repeat. But reward baby steps in the right direction with the release. Hold the rope pressure downward again, and release when you feel the horse give downward. Pause after every release for a second so the horse can digest the right answer and what he is doing to reap the release. Continue this until the horse's head is very low to the ground, ideally, nose touching the ground. At that point, if you feel comfortable and the horse is relaxed enough/safe enough, squat to the side there and ask for the head down using the pressure release. And after the head is low enough to the ground, stroke/bond on the horse from down there so he will file away this head-down (relaxed!) position is a nice place to be around us.

This is one of the simplest first behaviors to teach a horse and is actually very important for two reasons: 1) a high head is a tense horse, a lowered head is a relaxed horse; where the head/body goes, the mind follows, so you are actually teaching the horse to relax in your presence; 2) you are introducing to the horse in the most rudimentory/broken down form of the concept of yielding to pressure.

From there, you can use pressure/release to teach the horse how to bring the head around to the side, both sides, so the neck is yielding easily to pressure every direction. Next you can use pressure/release to teach the horse to be led and not until the horse fully complies with that, yields to pressure there every time, should you consider tying him, especially young horses, as they can get their necks seriously injured (even broken!) if you tie them before understanding how to yield to pressure and if they struggle there. So take the time to plant this well into the foal's foundation securely, then he should be safer to tie or cross tie. If he's resisting cross tying, you just need to go back to basics to teach him how to yield to pressure more.

This will get you off to a great and proper start from the get go and all of your foal's ground training set well in place until time to saddle train up the road when he's older.