Training Tips

QUESTION: Hi Sylvia. I purchased your DVD's three weeks ago. I have a mustang that is now 7 years old. She has never been trained. Just a little background on this horse: My stepson got the horse after she had been very abused. These people would get drunk and put her in a pen and chase her with a chain saw and they would beat her. They tried to ride her (cowboy breaking) and she would buck them off and then they would beat her some more. The meanest man tried to ride her and she bucked him off and then she attacked him and tried to stomp him to death. She then broke through the fence and was out in the forest for 3 weeks. She rubbed the saddle off her in this time. Somehow they caught her and were going to shoot her and that is when my stepson said no, that he would take her and he did. Two months go by and my stepson is killed in a trucking accident. So my now husband took the horse. He is a very kind-hearted man and loves this horse. He has never tried to ride her. He just loves on her and gives her treats. So now I come into the picture. I have only been living here at the farm since February of this year, but this horse has known me now for 4 years. She only saw me on weekends, but we have bonded. She likes to lick me on my hands and arms; she does this when she is calm or if she gets nervous.

I started working her in the round pen and she is very smart. She has never let me touch her back legs and I can now do that. She was very ear-shy and I can now touch her ears. I can swing the rope all around her and she does not have a problem with it. I have even put the tarp on her and she did great. I have been very pleased because when she spooks, she runs and she didn't run at all.

Yesterday she did something I never thought she would do. I was working on her right side, and she hates you on her right side, and always moves off. I was trying to get her to cross over in the front and she got a little upset so I had her lower her head and relax. She didn't like me putting pressure on her side, but she finally did it. Then I moved to the back and I bent her head to her side and I put my hand on her side and pushed just a little and that is when she bit me. I was in shock! I could not believe that she bit me. She didn't hurt me; I think it was a warning. I went back to round pen work with running and changing direction so that I would be higher in the pecking order. She did drop her head and relax, but I could tell that she was very mad at me. She never offered to lick my hand. I guess I must have opened up a bad memory from her past. How can I get her past this and be able to get her to cross over in the front and rear without getting hurt and without freaking her out. I can just see me putting leg pressure on her and me going flying.

I have learned a lot with your DVD's and a lot of it is working with this horse. Thank you for your time.

REPLY: Believe it or not, as I was reading your letter and only about half-way to 3/4 thru it, I already was predicting your problem you were leading up to there. I even said silently to myself as I was reading along..."ho boy, here it comes...this horse is going to bite her...I see it coming a mile away." Why? Because while you are doing so much right there (and I applaud you greatly for the wonderful work you are doing with this horse!!), you are doing 1 thing wrong and I want to explain why it's wrong. Never let a horse put their mouth on you, not for licking, not for snoozling, not for rooting, none of that. What you are thinking of as maybe endearing, like, for example, a dog licking you, is not necessarily the same in horse language; with horses it can be a dominant gesture and certainly an exploration of your body space that you simply should not be allowing because 99% of the time it will lead to biting. Hand-treating can lead to biting as well. What we want to teach the horse is to always keep their mouth off of us, and also not to associate any part of our body with food. It's kind of like...give an inch, they'll take a mile. If you ever allow them to lick on you, they've lost a portion of respect for you and I can almost guarantee anyone allowing that, that it will indeed lead to biting behavior eventually. Almost always does. Let me direct you to a link on my web site about hand treating too: http://www.naturalhorsetraining.com/TrainingTips8.html

You might underestimate how much serious damage a horse can do with a bite (often more serious than with a kick) so you need to halt immediately ever allowing this horse to put her mouth on you. Follow what you read in that link for disciplining her if/when she puts her mouth on you or bites you, because this is very serious stuff -- and also read the other "biting" links I have in my Q&A section of my web site here (scroll down to "biting" -- the topics are in alphabetical order there): http://www.naturalhorsetraining.com/TrainingTips.html

Biting behavior is usually pretty easy to stop once they hit a wall with that, but you MUST stop letting her put her mouth on you to lick as well. She must learn that the "black zone" is: putting her mouth on you for anything. No rooting on you with her mouth, no licking, no pulling on your clothes with her mouth, all of that is not allowed. Set up that clear black and white zone boundary, and be consistent from now on and she'll learn her parameters there. But BE consistent. No grey areas allowed. This is a people created problem (accidentally, I know) and not from her abusive past, but is about her present perceptions of what she's allowed to do with her mouth around humans and what's not allowed. The more you hand treat her too, the more she can start to perceive she is dominant and can also start to escalate to becoming aggressive at feeding times.

Set up those parameters more clearly now, be consistent, and she'll let go of any biting behavior around humans.

Think about this, long and hard, because I'm right here and you need to somehow shift your thinking about what's rewarding a horse and what is leading-to-bad-behavior routes. Reward the horse with you remaining the leader -- and my DVDs show how to physically reward a horse, and as you'll notice, the horse is encouraged to be submissive there as I reward with stroking/scratching, etc. We teach the horse to keep their mouths off humans and that's about: respect for us as leader. Think about this because I don't want to see you, or anyone there, hurt by this horse's mouth/biting and someone will be seriously hurt soon if y'all continue to allow her to put her mouth on you. I can almost guarantee you.

But this is easy to turn around, and fast, by you and anyone working with this horse, by being consistent with this rule now. Horses learn rules quickly, even new rules, if we are 100% consistent about them at all times.

Hope this helps!