Training Tips

QUESTION: We have a four-year-old Hanoverian mix gelding. He's got 1/2 Hanover and some thoroughbred. His dad was a pure bred German Hanoverian and his mother has some thoroughbred and conamera pony. He stands around 16.2. We have now learned that his dad was a biter. He's a biter with some very difficult aggressive behavior. We've been very slow to start him. He walks, trots, and canters and we've had him at one or two schooling shows. He's a beautiful mover and we love him. However I feel he's very dangerous. He is very agressive (charging and biting) when in his paddock, stall, or on cross ties. He never was a kicker, but has now started kicking out in his stall. He's never been abused, we had him on our property. He was gelded at 8 months because he was a biter and aggressive. I couldn't handle him when he was a colt and had a trainer come in and work with him. He's had round pen training and ground training (long lines, etc.). We've had him at our trainer for the past 30 days and she's trying to figure out what to do with him. He's fine under saddle, but on the ground he's dangerous.

He was never the type of foal that stayed with his mom. He was always interested in what was going on around him. He's not very herd bound but gets along with other horses. You can turn him out with any horse (mare or gelding). It's human beings he has trouble with. He will come up to you and appear to want you to pet him and then he'll just lunge at you with teeth bared. Because of his size - very big boned and tall - and aggressive behavior, I'm at my wits end. We don't know what to do with him. I'm so afraid he will hurt someone. He comes at you with the intent to hurt you. We've tried all I know. What should we do?

REPLY: Good overview there. I see a lot. Let me see what I can do here to enlighten and guide a bit. First, he's acting like a typical stallion, even though he's already been gelded. Since he was gelded so young, I would first have a vet throughly rule out the possibility that he was "proud-gelded" or "proud cut," which means, some of the testicle was accidentally still left in there; just because they removed the scrotum, does not mean they necessarily got the testicle, which happens sometimes if they are gelded early, before the testicle descended (hence testosterone still surges, creating stallion-like behavior). There's a simple blood test they can run to check for this. Don't let the vet just "examine"; insist on the blood tests. It's not an easy thing to pick up on without the proper blood tests. If it is positive, then the horse is a cryptorchid – meaning there is still a testicle inside his body that never dropped into the scrotum and needs to still be removed. You can read more information on that in detail here:

Unfortunately, after they've already "learned" stallion-like behavior, that doesn't erase the behavior aspect, since it has now been learned, even if you have surgery performed to correct it, but it's easier to turn around than you think usually.

In the horse prey animal world, they follow an instinctive dictim/"RULE" that goes like this: "He who moves the other's feet is higher up on the pecking order." Understand...this is very basic instinct in them as a pecking order prey animal. They have to know who is higher on the pecking order and who is lower, and that includes us humans. They don't rest easy until they know the answer to that question. They're not being bad necessarily; they're just following instinct as a horse. In natural horsemanship, we establish ourselves quickly as the "lead mare" in our little "herd of two." And that involves showing the horse (no matter what age/sex) that: we move their feet at all times, not the other way around. Simple concept, I know, but memorize it, because it involves everything you do with the horse. Most people aren't even consciously aware that their horse has taught them to move their (human) feet, not the other way around. More common than you might think. :-) And is the basis of most all disrespectful behavior in horses. His attack is his directive to move your feet. Time to turn that around!

So...here's what I would do to reestablish that pecking order right away with this horse. First of all, just FYI, I use a natural horsemanship halter with 12-foot lead rope, and that attached (tied on, not clipped) lead rope comes in handy for just about every single thing I do with the horse whether it's just in my hand or on the horse.

It's designed for maximum communication by the way the knots are tied at strategic pressure points around the horse's face, so...the smallest amount of pressure is quickly and easily felt by the being-schooled horse. Not all halters are the same or communicate the same. I personally will not work a horse in anything but the natural horsemanship halter and it has a nice, long (safe!) 12-foot lead attached; slack is your friend in NH! Slack allows you the opportunity to have room to communicate to the max to the horse, but the 12-feet distance allows you to remain safe from a biting, rearing or acting up horse without ever really losing control of the horse. And the length allows for some interesting, effective exercises that you can do here, as well.

In halter...and in a situation where a horse is acting up like yours there, if I were the trainer there in that instance, I would instantly make the right thing easy, the wrong thing hard, as we say in NH. This horse is not so much troubled as: he's learned this is a successful route for him to declare, "I don't want to; I don't have to! Na na! Go away! I'm the boss here." And....it's working for him! That has to end & now! I would go as high up that Volume of pressure as I call it as I have to in order to make that no longer: 1) acceptable for him to do nor 2) successful for him to do.

I'm going to show you here 2 diagrams on "V-thinking" or what I often call "Volume thinking" as we apply it in NH training. Study the Volume-Thinking diagrams (click below), then come back to read further here:

Adobe Reader to view and print these PDF Volume-Thinking Charts: Get Adobe Reader

All horses learn from the release of pressure what it is we want/what is acceptable to us, not from the pressure itself, so generally we start very low down the "Volume" first when trying to teach a new concept, climbing it with pressure until we get the response we want, then we release the pressure instantly and the horse learns.

In the case of an attacking/aggressive horse, however, which is quite dangerous, I am going to start from the getgo as high up the Volume of pressure as I have to, to show the horse this no longer works and that this is a very serious infraction in our "herd of two." As he starts to get it, however, I'm going to release farther down the Volume to show him the get-along spot.

If haltered when I'm working with the horse, I would have the horse in my NH halter with 12' lead (repeat: only in that; anything else is unsafe by my book!) and I would have with me my extendable training wand with plastic tied on the end as well. Most horses fear that sound initially of the plastic bag, so it's an effective tool to get back control in such horses (later, we'll desensitize them to it so they won't fear it, after they are better trained/respectful).

If/when the horse attacks aggressively like you're describing, I would go up the Volume of pressure dramatically and that horse is going to run into that shaking plastic/wand bigtime...all by himself. I would shake it assertively toward him, and I would be making this sound at the same time, "SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" very loudly as I come into him, yet keeping my distance safely. We have found that the "Shhh" sound is far more effective a disciplining sound than shouting "No" or shouting at a horse period. Horses don't hear words the way we do. They only hear consonants, so No, Whoa, Go, can all sound alike to them. The "Shhhhh" sound seems to go deeply into them and most times halt them in their tracks, especially if you apply Volume thinking pressure there at the same time at first. And if you use the Shhhh sound when disciplining assertively, very quickly they file away that "Shhhhh" means "STOP IT!" It works.

Another route you can go, especially when the horse is at liberty, like when you're approaching him in a paddock & he wants to attack, or any time you feel he's more apt to attack like that: one hand will have the training wand to keep him off of you respectfully, and....(okay, don't laugh).....the other hand: a squirt gun. Yep. A kiddie squirt gun and you squirt the horse if/when he attacks aggressively like that, right in the face. It doesn't hurt the horse, just wakes them up to: this is not okay to do any longer.

The name of the game there is, in order to turn this behavior around, you need to make the right thing comfortable/easy, and the wrong thing VERY uncomfortable/hard, but without hurting the horse. Now...if a horse were literally attacking me with those front feet, striking me, or all out, teeth-bared, all out war-like, yes I will indeed "attack back" (resistance meets resistance as we say in NH) with the wand with plastic out so he runs into that, whatever I have to do there to keep him off of me if it got bad enough: that's war. But when it is war like that, you have only 3 seconds to react to make that horse think in his mind that he is going to DIE. Now...we NH trainers are THE gentlest of trainers, but an attack is another thing altogether. We must become the lead mare there and attack back in a way that doesn't necessarily hurt them but indeed moves their feet, not the other way around. But you have 3 seconds to do this after the bad attack behavior. After that 3 seconds, it means absolutely nothing whatsoever to the horse, so don't "go there." After 3 seconds, that's "revenge" and horses have no capacity to understand revenge; that's a human emotion.

We don't often have to "go there" but some problem horses indeed learn how to push human's buttons and quite dangerously. That's when we need to get creative, remaining non-violent (no pain inflicted if we can help it), yet up the Volume of pressure as high as we have to, to hone the point once & for all: this is no longer acceptable, sorry. And we get in and reward deeply, instantly, when they find the "white zone." Lots of love given there for the "right behavior!"

Your horse is very much controlling the ground dance there, totally in charge of the humans, simply because to him: this is just about moving that "lower pecking order animal's feet and off of him, there done!" This must stop working for him and I think you all need to call in a professional who knows how to do this, to turn this around. Or...if you feel up to it yourself, try some of the above methods (but please....only in an NH halter with 12' lead to keep you safest if the horse is haltered). Of if you don't feel you can handle that, listen to that gut instinct, and instead get an NH trainer in there who can step in to turn this around once & for all. I don't want to see anyone get hurt there, and I know you don't want to either. You have got to make the right thing easy, the wrong thing hard there. And you CAN kill a horse with kindness as they say. We are only kind/loving to the horse when they are behaving. When they are not behaving, we go as high up the Volume of pressure as we have to, becoming a strong lead mare in their herd, to get through to them consistently, fairly, directingly what is acceptable behavior and what is not. Think about all this...

If I were working your horse (just going to teach you what *I* would do there), I would also, aside from all that above, strongly work to bond more deeply with this horse. I'd rub/scratch (never pat a horse) on the face, neck, all around there, "search touching" to find his favorite spots, and I would memorize those favorite spots so I can come back to them if/when he's ever upset or tense, for rebonding. Rubbing the eyes firmly with the open paIm of your hand melts most horses. But when I find his particular special favorite spot and he leans into it, saying, "more, more!" that's when I retreat and move to rubbing another spot. Always leave a horse wanting more and you get farther with them wanting to be with you. Indulge for a sec, but move away from that before they pull away. Leave them craving more.

I'd also be very frequently holding his head with one hand and slipping the finger of my other hand into the corner of his mouth (no teeth are right there in that corner, don't worry) and I would "feather" his tongue. This produces instantly the horse "working the mouth/licking the lips." That then produces instant, automatic relaxation in the horse. When a horse is working his mouth himself, at liberty, he is letting down, saying, "I understand, I get it; you're the leader, I'm the follower." And his body relaxes more. Or, another good way of explaining what that mouth-working at liberty means is: "when a horse is working his mouth, he is digesting your thoughts." The interesting thing is: if you produce the mouth working yourself, via a finger stuck in the corner of his mouth and feathering the tongue until he works the mouth (then you remove the finger), it does the EXACT same thing to his mind/body. Where a horse's body goes, his mind follows. Always. So...that's a handy horse whispering gentling trick I would use there, and often. When I'm starting a wild horse, and I've desensitized them to the human hand, from that point forward, every time I see the horse grow tense, my finger is back in the horse's mouth, to get him working the mouth, then I'm rubbing his favorite spots. Try it. It's amazing. More powerful than you might think.

Here are more horse whispering tricks of the trade bonding techniques you can use:

The next immediate thing I would do after bonding like that is work to get the horse to lower his head. A high head is a tense/on alert horse; a lowered head is a relaxed horse. A horse is not capable physiologically of being tense if his head is down. True! So...We are going to teach the horse to relax by teaching him to lower his head. Here's how: Hold the lead rope about a foot and a half below his chin (if you feel safe there, squat to the side of the horse; if you don't feel safe instinctively, don't squat) and just hold the pressure steady. Don't jerk, just keep steady pressure downward and wait. All horses learn from the release of pressure what it is you want, not from the pressure itself <---real important to remember in all horse training. So, you're going to hold that pressure steady downward. At first the horse is going to probably try to jerk upward to find the release. Do not release when he pulls the head up. Treat your arm like a bungee cord that just follows him up, but the pressure remains. Only when you get any downward movement of the head, then release instantly, opening your hand. Pause. And repeat. Make sure your release timing is split-second instant when the head comes downward (even an inch downward) so the horse understands what he just did there to reap the release of pressure.

But also, reward with the release for the smallest try, the slightest change in the right direction and he'll get there faster. Do this exercise, pressure/release downward until the horse's nose is touching the ground, if you can. Then love on him down there. This shows him: the relaxed, head down spot is a nice place to be. This might take a while the first session, or it might come instantly, but stick it out until you get there. It's not hard to teach a horse this if your release timing is instant when the head goes down (even an inch down at first). And make sure your releases NEVER come when the head is shooting up or you'll accidentally teach the horse that pressure means: bring the head up. Again, the horse learns from the release what it is you want and will steer into the direction of what reaps the release. They all do. Again, just the nature of the beast and how they communicate pressure/release to one another in a herd, so this is language they are born understanding.

When you are doing this head down lesson, if the horse tries to move forward to run into you at any point, even one shoulder or step forward into you (or for ANY time he tries to run into you for that matter/tries to move your feet), have a few feet of slack in the rope and instantly jerk the lead rope down hard, several times, and walk INTO the horse. And make this sound when doing it: "Shhhhhh!" (Very effective disciplining sound we've found in NH; far, far more effective a sound than the word "no!" I guarantee you), and he'll skedaddle backwards at that action. And you're also planting the "shhh" sound to mean, "Stop that" and this translates amazingly well to everything he does wrong, even in the saddle, and before long only the "shh" sound stops them in their tracks and has them correcting themselves. So use that sound whenever disciplining. Is important.

And you just showed him what we call the "black and white zone." In the white zone, all is calm and easy for the horse, the "getalong spot," when he's meeting expectations respectfully; the black zone is when he crosses the line into disrespectful behavior and that's when pressure instantly goes up higher on him. Real important to clearly and consistently show the horse (at any age) that black & white zone and the "rules" there. And remain consistent with those rules at all times. They are not to walk into you. Ever. Nor come into you aggressively. Ever. They wouldn't DREAM of walking into a lead mare, or coming at her aggresively, not even if their life depended on it.

So, showing them they are not allowed to do this with us either, shows them: you are indeed the lead mare, they respect that greatly and they now know clearly what the pecking order is, and they stop thinking about it, stop testing it. Horses actually like/respect those higher than them on the pecking order; they have great disdain for those lower than them on the pecking order. Just the nature of the beast! So...you're doing him a favor showing him clearly who's the leader and who's the follower, and they actually LIKE you better for that, and they relax greatly after that, because trying to figure that out takes a lot of mental energy (and anguish) out of them. Often when you go to again lead them after having to send them back like that, you'll hear a HUGE sigh from them behind you. And that sign means exactly what it sounds like: A big sigh of relaxation/relief because now "they get it." Before: they didn't and they knew they didn't.

Horses instinctively, believe it or not, are far happier and more comfortable in the follower/getalong spot than in the more stressful to them leader spot or even in the aggressive/ trying to figure out who is leader spot. So...part of helping them learn to let down and relax around us with proper respectful behavior is also about showing them more clearly that you're the leader and they are the follower. Calmly, consistently, fairly. This isn't about ever getting angry at the horse. Just act. No negative emotions. Just do it rotely, automatically, fairly and consistently.

If you've had to send him back by jerking the rope downward and walking into him, because he got too pushy/aggressive/whatever, pause after you've done that. Give him a moment to think about what just happened. Via thinking, horses learn. Keep your distance for about 15-30 seconds, stare at him (eye-to-eye contact is a pressure to horses) and wait for him to work his mouth at liberty if you can, which generally is exactly what happens after you've done that, during that pause. Then remove your eye contact, lower your stature by bending, head down, and approach the horse, rub on him and praise him. Yep, praise him! He moved back didn't he? And that is the behavior you want to reward. Then calmly, warmly, go right back to bonding, and asking for the head to drop. The white zone.

These are real basic beginner training lessons that sound simple, but take practice at first, but ohhhhh so important. This is clearly missing in your horse's foundation, I know already, even though you are riding him already. Back up and fix his foundation before going any further.

If/when you master that, now start working on safe, respectful leading manners to get you into the round pen to work him again like I teach in that link above for placing that backup cue in his foundation. In NH we always lead with lots of slack in the rope behind us, NOT grabbing the lead right under the horse's chin; that's not safe for a lot of reasons and does/can encourage biting behavior. Again, in NH, slack is your friend! Teach the horse to lead walking several feet behind you with slack in the rope. If he rushes up or closes the gap, turn, face him, jerk the rope downward and walk into him until he's moved back that distance. Don't let him move YOUR feet; show him at all times that it is you who moves his feet. And you can do this perfectly calmly; don't let it get you upset. It's just showing the black & white zone, calmly, rationally, fairly, is all. If you show him this backing expectation if/when he crowds you, in the way I showed you here, you'll find that soon, just jiggling the rope will send him back, respectfully. I can teach any horse to back up on cue in a first lesson until just a teeny tiny jiggle of the lead rope has them stepping back nicely and calmly for as long and far back as I ask, the horse doing it rationally, respectfully, even happily, and I think it's important to teach this early on, because, I feel: how can you teach a horse to go forward, lead respectfully with good ground manners, if you also don't place a cue at the same time to go backwards if they get too close? That's only fair to them. Make sense? And this shows the horse that you know how to place his feet where you want them and that goes a long, long way in establishing respectful leadership AND keeps you safest at all times.

The other thing you can do when leading, to remind him to keep his distance, when he's first learning this, if he tends to get too "rushy" when you're walking with him, is to take a length of the 12-foot lead rope and while you're walking forward, your back to the horse, twirl a big portion of the end like a propeller on an airplane over your head. If the horse crowds too close, well, he's going to run into the propeller all by himself and get whacked! And believe me, he files it as: "yipes, I just made myself run into that rope!" He does NOT perceive it as you whacked him with the rope at all, but the opposite: he did it to himself. We call that in NH: setting up the wall and allow the horse to run into it all by himself. They learn very quickly not to do that. Try that. In fact, any time you feel he's charging you, as you described, I would have that rope twirling throughout, this time smacking the ground hard at every spin so that he'd run into that "propeller" all by himself and hence think twice about ever doing that again. Again: he files it as: "I just ran into a wall all by myself. Oops, not gonna do that again." Make the right thing easy, the wrong thing hard. Ropes are handy for that (I just use the end of the halter/lead combo. It's my handiest tool I own and I use it for everything; I never enter a pasture of horses without it).

Once you get him in the round pen....I don't know if you've seen on my website, but I teach my method of round penning a horse, step by step there, pictures and all. Kind of a small, free "book" to help others out there. There's a printer-friendly pdf version of it that you can click on/open/print out at the top of that page. Here's that link:

You may think your horse has been round penned properly, but it's my guess: he has not. Read it over. Apply it. He'll become more respectful afterwards.

Believe it or not, that horse shown in that round penning session there on my site was a fresh off the range 2-year-old filly who was TERRIFIED of humans and touch. That was her first round penning session. They called me in for that one because she was new to the owner and they needed to get the feet trimmed. Did I go straight for the feet? Nope, that would be what we call in NH "jumping from A to N." She needed to learn some "letter steps in between" before she would be ready to then have her feet desensitized to picking them up, being handled, etc. And she did great there and later in her first trimming session, because I laid down this foundation first.

So, done right, round penning does some remarkable psychological therapy for such horses. Fearful horses, aggressive horses, any of them who might need that "tool." It's applied prey animal psychology, speaking the language they are born understanding. I think a round penning session or two, done the way I teach there, would do wonders for your guy. And will help you create a more clear black and white zone for him, will show him you move his feet, not the other way around, will show him the better way to get along with humans. If he charges you at any time in the round pen at first, just have that rope propeller spinning, slapping the ground hard with it as it spins; I guarantee you, he'll change his mind about that fast! If you need to, bring in with you the wand with plastic tied to it as well, to make sure at first he understands he's not allowed to charge you. Don't use whips; you'll find the rope (or the wand with plastic if needed) far, far more effective, you'll see. And get good at using the end of the rope to spin/slap the ground when needed, if you have to go up the pressure scale at any time to keep yourself safe. It works.

In addition to all I've suggested above, I honestly think you need a bigger/better plan there to plug up all his foundation holes. And that's what I wanted to talk to you about next. 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.

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: