Training Tips

QUESTION: Hi. I've been training this 5-year-old appendix quarter horse who just arrived at our barn. He's a bit skittish but only at random times. He's very visual too and needs to see everything. The weird thing is when he's getting tacked up or ridden, he's very relaxed and carefree. But then all of a sudden he'll just explode into this episode from spooking. We haven't figured out what he spooks at since he never seems to be near one side of the ring or the same place when he spooks. The other night I was tacking him up and had everything ready and was putting on his bridle when he freaked out. He ended up hitting his head on the door to his barn buddy's stall and tearing the corner of his eyelid resulting in stitches. He's ok but I don't want him to hurt himself again. Any advice would be great. Thanks!

REPLY: Thanks for writing. Yes, I've got some ideas that will get you on a better track there. Actually, I can quite clearly see with my "professional eye" that your horse there still has holes in his foundation. I see them very clearly. And I've got some ideas that you can even do yourself to close up those foundation holes and get the quiet, cooperative horse I know you want there.

What I'm guessing, because I see this problem so often, deal with it regularly, is part of the problem there (if not all of the problem) is your horse has what we call an "eye changing problem," looks like from here, and is very common horse problem that manifests itself like that. Horses are right-eyed or left-eyed, much like we are right- or left-handed. A horse with a more severe eye changing problem is fully convinced that they must keep you in just that one preferred eye or else they might, lordy, die or something, is a prey animal fear (their eyes are on the sides of their heads, not in front like ours are, so they turn to keep you, the predator, in the one preferred eye -- or anything they are wary of or about).

This eye changing problem will manifest itself by at first not wanting to make certain turns in the round pen (I do recommend round penning this horse, at liberty, to flush that out). Look closely there as you're sending the horse around the round pen, and asking for turns, and you'll gather quickly which eye they are less confident in....it's the direction they don't want to turn to go in, to have that "off" eye on you (usually is the right eye they don't want on you, but in some, minority, it's indeed the left eye).

I find out there in the training trenches that the majority of the horses out there are left-sided and their right side is their off/more uncomfortable side, at about the same percentage as we see right-handed people more in the majority in this world than left-handed. But in horses, it's the reverse; the majority seem to be "left-sided," and the minority right sided. I assess quickly (and you can often see it even at liberty, via round penning) which is their preferred side. When they keep showing you, "ooooh oooooh....I want to go the other direction, not this direction you just asked for," as they try to turn back to going the direction they felt more comfortable doing, bingo, you'll be flushing out which eye is the problem side eye.

Or when you are standing near to them, be real observant which side they subtly try to force you to be on by raising their head and crossing that head over so a preferred eye is on you constantly. I find many owners often quite oblivious to this, that their horse is even doing this, because sometimes the horse does it so quickly and subtly the owner never noticed. But it's important to notice! It's taking quite a lot of "mistrustful/worried" energy out of the horse to keep doing that.

Think of it like this for deeper understanding: Imagine that you're at party or formal business function, and you just realized you have a huge rip in the seat of your pants. Oops! Let's up that ante and say...not only that, but you forgot to wear underwear that evening. Big oops! But imagine you're not at liberty to leave that party/business function, you're stuck. Let's up that ante even more: you're the keynote speaker at that function and tada....you're on! No time/means to escape and worse: the seating is in a roundtable format. Okay, we'll give you a break there and it's: a horseshoe shaped seating forum. So what to do you do, even as you continue to try to perform there? It's obvious right? You keep everyone facing the front of you, as you keep pivoting so that no one can get/see behind you. And think of the distracted energy it is sapping out of you there as you surreptitiously maneuver to keep that "only one good side" working for you there. Now...imagine trying to focus on your speech all at the same time! Get it?

Well, since a horse's eyes are on the side of his head, it's the same for the horse when he perceives he has only one good eye to keep on things and on you. Imagine the amount of energy and stress that saps from the horse as this is what is on his mind foremost quietly: "oh please, don't get on my other side so I have to focus on you from there; I'm not comfortable with that."

And when you plug them into what I want to show you below, you will definitely quickly see which is their tougher side to learn on and also which eye is their tougher eye to allow you on. But it's indeed fixable! We like to spend about 80% of our time on the more difficult side, to get it catching up with the "good side." To keep them learning/performing/complying evenly there.

Gone on unchecked, unfixed, eye changing problems in horses can be quite serious and, believe it or not, is usually the root cause of most problems later in saddle, I find often, but so many people just don't know about it (even quite serious problems! bucking, rearing, runaways, irrational behavior suddenly like that) if that is not fixed on the ground safely first. Because...if you climb on the back of a horse with that serious eye changing problem....how does he keep you in his preferred eye "up there?" Answer: he cannot. Reaction: sensory overload & then irrational behavior, often a panic attack melt down. If you cannot understand that meltdown, flip your brain back to the above rip-in-pants-no-underwear scene, when/if people suddenly discover it and your ruse is up.

Be aware of that eye changing problem in so many horses, because it is so prevalent out there. And the exercises I'm going to go into below are fully designed to get them past that eye-changing problem once & for all and fully, comfortably balanced with both eyes equally so the anxiety can end once and for all, often for the horse's first time in their life! But you fix it safely on the ground first!

Incidentally, it's always important when you see an eye changing problem get flushed out to first evaluate if there is some kind of vision problem that has gone undetected in the least-preferred eye. So important when you are having behavioral problems with horses to always first rule out the physical aspects before assuming something is behavioral or attitudinal in nature. And this may involve having a vet give a very thorough eye exam to absolutely rule out that possibility. Because it does happen often enough that scar tissue is present from a past eye injury which is deterring their vision, or an eye disease or infection may be taking hold that you don't know about but needs immediate medical attention. I've seen this occur more times than you might think!

I also find eye changing problems extremely common in current and former racehorses, off the track. They have only been taught to go to the left usually and therefore they are very unconfident going right and that's also about: being left-eye dominant because that's how they've been taught to be to run the race track, which of course, only circles counter-clockwise/to the left. So if you have adopted a former racehorse, know they usually come with this eye changing problem as pretty much a given, but it can be fixed and by you. They're not "being bad" intentionally. They don't have a "bad attitude," nor are they being "stubborn." They're simply: stuck with a big ol' rip in their pants and no one has bothered to help them sew it up kindly.

So...eye changing problems are not only very common, but I might even go as far as to say that most untrained horses have this in the beginning, to some degree, some worse than others, and they need to be helped there to get past that.

I predict that's what's going on there with that horse you've got there/wrote about. It takes a heck of a lot of internal (used up/wasted!) energy in a horse to mentally struggle with that problem, so getting them past it once and for all is quite a mental breakthrough for them as much as it is a physical breakthrough. Lots of precise round penning, at liberty in that less-preferred direction will show the horse he CAN do this and nothing bad happens to him. Inside the horse as he makes that breakthrough finally: "Wow, I can keep the human in my 'bad eye' and nothing bad happens to me! Cool!" And they relax about it once & for all, for good.

To learn how I teach round penning the natural horsemanship way (because it is not about just mindlessly longeing a horse around & around a circle!), I built up on my web site a step-by-step tutorial that you can read/learn more from. At the top of that round penning section, there is a printer-friendly pdf version of that article that you can print out if you wish, to study, then get out there and apply. That round penning section starts here:

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

After you have round penned the horse (if you have access to a round pen, of course, or a safely enclosed area no smaller than 50 feet and no larger than 100, otherwise, just follow what I suggest 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 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 the horse 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, that horse is learning something. You just want to make sure the horse is learning what you want them to learn, not what you don't want them to learn! My 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.

I also wanted to direct you to two other helpful problem training tips links that will help you there as well/are in the same category as what you are dealing with there, but go into a little more step-by-step details for fixing eye changing problems and also more specifics about despooking a horse:

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:

I hope this helps, and let me know if I can be of any further help to you there. Good luck to ya! Stay safe! And thanks again for writing.