Training Tips

QUESTION: Sylvia, I bought your Complete Training Package back in December to help me train a 4-year-old colt. I am having good success with the colt, but one problem that I have is when approaching him on the side. He likes to always turn and face me. I can get up along the side of him by rubbing him down the withers and often he will stand for a few seconds. I have only been able to touch him on the rear a few times. I can also pick up his front feet and even have trimmed them a little. I am up to Step 4 or 5 (of your program) in his training, with everything except getting him to stand still to start working on his back legs. What am I missing that I should be doing to help with this problem? I have also had the same problem with his mother. She is broke to ride, barely, but has a lot of holes in her training foundation also. She will let me touch her all along the side, but if I try to walk up to her side, she also turns to face me. It always takes me quite a while to pet her all along the side to get to her back end. She also just wants to swing around.

P.S. I really have enjoyed your DVDs and I also think the training tools are top rate!

REPLY: Good work so far! Try using a fence line as a "tool" to help you there with this particular problem. I find a fence line really handy for so many things, to help a horse past a problem. What the fence line does as a tool is help the horse to rule out "directions" that he is picking that are the incorrect answer. If you place a horse parallel and close to a fence line, that makes it harder/impossible for a horse to pivot the hind quarter away from you as a way to avoid allowing you on a particular side.

They're doing that out of mistrust/fear at first, not unusual at all for untrained or wilder or even abused horses.

Try that to help break through that fear as you keep doing exactly what you are doing there. Follow me here? Like, say, a horse won't let you get near his back left leg that you want to work on, to teach them to lift that foot. But out in the open, the horse (because he initially fears "giving up" that side/that foot), has too many choices open to him there; he can keep pivoting all over the place. We want to help him to rule out wrong choices in his mind.

Just recognize his fear at times like that and lead the horse over to a round pen or arena fence line (make sure you are doing this in natural horsemanship halter/12-foot lead rope, not at liberty). Place the right side of his body against the fence line, using leading/backing to position him there if needed, THEN start working your way back to that leg, stroking him with your hand softly, but using advance/retreat to get there. It's during the retreat phase that a horse grows confidence.

When you use the fence line for something like this, then you've ruled out for the horse that moving the hips off to his right, in avoidance, just wasn't one of the choices you were looking for there when you wanted access to his left side. You're now helping him find the right answer.

So, that only leaves him the choices of: A) moving backwards, or B) moving forwards, or C) standing still, when against the fence line. But you've already got Step 3 of my program: Leading and Backing in his foundation already, and you can therefore quickly correct him if he incorrectly chooses A or B there. That then leaves only the choice of standing still/let me on this side (C). Right answer! Thanks, horse! Pet/stroke for right answer. Break this down into the smallest baby steps you can, but against a fence line for this, and that gives you more opportunities to reward with the release for tiny "right answer" baby steps.

Once you get him desensitized on each side, using the fence line "tool," he's going to let go of this issue completely, because nothing bad happened to him when he finally "gave up" that particular fear and he'll let you have access to him there from then on. Use the fence line as long as you need to, until he completely gives up this fear, then step a little away from the fence line to show him: it's all the same everywhere. If/when you see him really tensing up there at any time, go back to Step 1: Bonding - finger in the mouth, lowering his head - before you proceed further. Take charge of his emotions via those two particular bonding techniques throughout any desensitizing lesson like this. As many times as you need.

Give that a try and you'll quickly work past this problem, I'm sure.

Hope this helps! Keep up the good work!