Training Tips

QUESTION: Dear Sylvia: I have a problem I have not encountered before and am wondering if I could solicit some advice from you. Some background: I am helping a friend with her 6-year-old paint mare. My friend is still inexperienced, but a very willing learner and she is catching on fast. This is her first horse and so far they have begun a very loving relationship. Unfortunately, it has gotten to the point that her horse has become (in my opinion) borderline dangerous; the horse weighs 1200lbs (16.1 hands) and uses every bit of it to push my friend around and if necessary "push" her right out of the paddock whenever she feels threatened: ie. any time my friend gets around her with a spray bottle, or a hoof pic, or a blanket, or goes near her hind end. From what I understand there wasn't much to her horse's initial training - it was one of those "grab-em by the ear and swing aboard" type of situations.

Anyway, all of the aforementioned problems I feel confident I can help her with but there's one I just don't have experience with yet. The horse kicks people. I've already been on the receiving end of it once because I was being stupid and wasn't paying well enough attention. I had her in the round pen for the first time yesterday and it was a small but significant success. She gave me her left side fairly easily - the right took a little longer; and she was kicking as high and as far back as she could every time that rope came behind her. She can't be trusted to stand quietly when anyone is around her hind end and for a big girl she swings quick (and don't even think about touching her back there). She also doesn't have a clue yet about giving to applied pressure (you tap her on the side and she'll move on top of you instead of away).

I've started several horses both young and old and have yet to come across this issue. I've ruled out soreness/lameness and I really don't think it's out of fear since she'll be really calm and quiet before and after she lashes out. I hate to say it but I'm really leaning toward a defiant behavior that we need to stop now before someone gets really hurt.

I know I've written a book here but I hope you can understand what I'm saying. I really liked your web site and especially like your statement about taking different ideas from different trainers and blending them. I completely agree. These animals are all unique personalities and not any one thing will work with all of them. Thank you for your time, and consideration

REPLY: Hi. Thanks for the great overview there, I get it. And I agree with you. This kicking behavior needs to be nipped in the bud, and fast, before someone gets seriously hurt. Don't worry, there's a solution.

But first I wanted to back up and give you a helpful tip to get her pushiness of her owner nipped in the bud as well. Follow this step-by-step exercise and it will plant a cue into this horse's foundation (and fast too) to back up/move her feet away, and in the process, she'll learn to be far, far more respectful (and you can even do this lesson today, teach it in about 5 minutes or so, and it'll stick forever, going a long, long way there):

And from that point forward, until this horse behaves completely, have the owner work this horse in natural horsemanship halter/12' lead rope from hereon, for grooming, for everything, so she can remain consistent there, reminding the horse that it is she (the human) who is the leader and in charge of that horse's (follower) feet and that the horse is never allowed again to move the owner's feet. Horses follow a pecking order instinct that states, "He (or she) who moves the other's feet is higher up in the pecking order, therefore the leader." Your friend's horse has deftly learned to move the owner's feet, therefore worked her way up the pecking order.

Back feet kicking. What's going on there is it's a combination of two things: 1) the feet aren't properly desensitized yet to touch, as well as 2) this horse still perceives she's the leader and can get away with that. Dangerous combination! She wouldn't in her wildest dreams kick out like that at a real perceived lead mare in pasture. I know your instincts are saying "that's not okay," and your instincts are correct there, listen to them. Here's how to fix that problem.

However, it sounds to me like this horse there won't even allow the touch of ropes, so I would work (with the horse in the natural horsemanship halter/12' lead, no clips, but the lead rope tied on for better communication) to get the horse accustomed to a rope casually, gently tossed back there, very nonchalantly, with my hand holding the lead rope (no slack, holding a little closer to the head for control), turning the horse's head into me and stroking the horse at the same time on the neck with that forward hand holding the lead. That stroking forward hand tells the horse that I'm not asking anything of her, just...touching her with a rope, no big deal like. If she moves or kicks at that, I just direct the move with the horse's head turing into a circle into me (the hind quarters moving away from me), moving right along with the horse. If this doesn't work and the horse is too over the top kicking from that, over-reactingly, I will then stitch to using my extendable/retractable training wand with plastic tied to the end -- and would have desensitized the horse to plastic/wand first via this route:

The wand is simply a safe lengthened extension of my arm. Using advance/retreat, I would rub the horse with that wand/plastic and eventually head down to the back legs with it, but using advance/retreat, working to retreat before the horse reacts there as I touch new areas with it, if I can get my retreat timing quick enough. Slowly I would work my way down that leg with the wand to the feet, again using advance/retreat. However....if the horse kicks at it, I don't react, don't even reprimand, but if I can, I'll try to leave the wand/plastic there until I see a pause in the kicking, then I'll release (retreat) for that pause so that the horse knows she did the right thing there suddenly, not kicking. All horses learn from the release of pressure what it is you want, what is the "right answer," not from the pressure itself, so the key is to work to release quickly for the right answer so the horse can connect the dots incrementally.

Now...all that said, some horses can have really extreme problems back there and if that route is not succeeding, if the horse reacts too violently even to that approach, if the horse just goes over the top at the slightest touch there with anything, then I'm going to turn to doing what I think of as passive desensitizing. Stop & read this link on my site, because I briefly touch on this method there, then come back to read this email:

You can do a lot of passive back leg desensitizing via that tying a long 20' rope or lariat to the saddle horn in the round pen and send the horse off at liberty. As the horse moves and turns there, the rope will touch the back feet/legs and you'll see the back feet issue flush out and the horse has to work it out for herself. But be real careful doing this and my advice is: clear out of the round pen as you send the horse off there at liberty and don't reenter the round pen until you know it's safe to do so. Some horses have this back feet being touched issue sooooo badly that they can go pretty ballistic in there at first, even though the rope is not hurting them a bit as it drags/touches their back feet. So...let them work it out alone without you in the round pen because some who have it bad enough can run right over you there.

I got called in to work with this one horse a while back that had that back-feet kicking/being touched there issue so badly, he'd put quite a few farriers in the hospital. And when I saw my first line "tools" just weren't going to do it, I indeed went that passive desensitizing route. You've got to get real creative in natural horsemanship training with some horses.

Well...I hooked my lariat up to the saddle horn, let the rope dangle off, and I cleared out of the round pen quickly (had someone holding the gate open ready for me). And that horse went absolutely nuts as he dragged the rope hooked to his saddle horn (have to use a western saddle for this), and I mean: bigtime rodeo. He fought & fought and kicked and kicked that passive rope touching his back legs as he moved around. After a bit, I used my wand with plastic, from the outside of the round pen, to keep him turning (so the rope could keep crossing and touching his back legs/feet). He kicked like crazy even though the rope wasn't harming him one bit. He finally settled down after about 15-20 minutes, but by no means "there" yet. We walked away, left him in the round pen for about 45 minutes to just "live life" with that rope following him around, touching his legs, while I moved on to work with another horse. Came back later and decided it was safe to enter the round pen (though had someone manning the gate for quick exit, if necessary). I put on gloves, picked up the end of the lariat and started asking the horse to move again. This time he moved off more rationally, and as I had him make turns there, I lifted the rope and from that long distance, I manually started having it do more desensitizing behind the horse's rump and on down his legs to his feet. By then he tolerated it more, kicked less and less, and I did this until it was no big deal. This was the first time this horse had allowed anything back there without a kicking fight. I upped the ante, turning him often, making sure the rope was touching him everywhere back there and he just accepted it. He realized: it was harmless and a fear he could finally let go of.

From that point forward, I was then able to get in and follow my regular procedure for teaching a horse to pick up their feet softly (that link I sent you to there), switching to a rope in my hand and so forth. Got him learning to pick up the feet, allowing for hoof care. And he never had a problem since.

Try that if you have to, but stay safe! And that horse should get past kicking out at things. See...it's not fair to reprimand a horse for something they don't understand or are fearful of if it's just a fear or not understanding response. But once you get her past the desensitizing/touching issue, and can pick up her feet, then and only then can you start reprimanding her for kicking any other time, but it's got to be done in that order.

Once she's fully desensitized to being touched back there and picking up her feet (all the above well accomplished), then if she tries to kick (because she now understands), I would reprimand her by jerking on the lead rope (as soon after the kick as you can, within 3 seconds only) and walking directly into her as I jerk at the same time, while making a loud "shhhh" sound (which means "stop it"), forcing her to move her feet to scramble backwards. Many feet (or yards!) if necessary to hone the point. And to remind her: I'm the lead mare, you are the lower pecking order one, be respectful, please, you are not allowed to kick." Then stop, be at the end of the lead rope, stare directly at her, full eye-to-eye contact, stand there silently staring with firm, tall erect posture (that's an alpha mare posture she'll well recognize). And just wait as you stare. She'll drop her head, work her mouth (usually!). And that's her saying back to you, "oops, sorry, leader. I get it. I understand."

At that mouth working, step toward her and stroke her for reward. Yes, reward. She backed up/off, she said "I understand." Reward understanding via stroking. Take the try. Then go back to working with her like nothing happened. We don't get real emotions in there when training, negative emotions, I mean. It's all about posturing. Then I would go back and set her up to do it again. Yep, not avoid the issue, but set her up to maybe do it again so it affords you the opportunity to be completely consistent there, showing her the black & white zone. White zone is when she's being good and no unnecessary pressure is applied. Black zone is when they've crossed the line into unacceptable (often dangerous to us) behavior and we then apply pressure proportionately, moving their feet backwards like that, with the "shhhh" sound accompanying it, and the horse quickly finds: the right thing easy, the wrong thing hard. If you use the Shhh sound every time you reprimand (but only use it to mean "stop it" for bad behavior) quickly just the "shhh" sound alone has them correcting their behavior all by themselves, no need to apply any further pressure, they get it.

But again, I would not want to go the reprimanding route until I felt the horse was given full fair (and creative as need be to get) advantage of learning what needs to be learned there, and in this particular case you have there, the horse has simply not had her back feet/legs desensitized to touch yet and that's not her fault, but needs to be tackled now in the above order and she should get past it once and for all.

And stay safe! Keep your radar switch on at all times with a horse like this. Radar blaring is simply: common sense, so never shut off that radar alarm manually. It will shut itself off all by itself when it is no longer needed. And don't ever hesitate to wear a helmet when schooling kickers to keep you safer.

Another route you can go, if it's still cool enough weather there where you live (don't know what the temps are where you are right now): Put a blanket on the horse, and on the eyelets at the bottom of the blanket have tied socks filled with sand that are going to bump against her back legs a lot as she moves about her pasture, getting her used to that, and just let her live life for a while with that, getting passively desensitized. But you can only do this humanely during cool enough weather for the horse to have a blanket on in the first place.

Get as safely creative as you have to, to help her get past this dangerous problem once and for all, and natural horsemanship is all about sometimes putting on your creativity thinking cap to come up with outside-the-box thinking, especially in the category of desensitizing the horse to something they are afraid of so that it is no longer an issue.

Desensitizing horses to food handling (and much, much more) is also taught in my Whispering Way 12-Step Total Training System DVD set. Usually it helps to see this natural horsemanship art taught visually, to really understand how it is all done. You can get that DVD set here: CLICK HERE

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 wanted to direct you to one more link for tips to get a horse bonded to you more deeply which will help for everything you are doing with her there now:

We have to have a horse deeply bonded to us in order for them to be willing to learn, I feel strongly, so use those techniques often, to help her to relax more as you are schooling her, and this is especially true when doing desensitizing lessons. Return to deep bonding whenever it is needed to help her remain on rational mode and open to learning.

You're doing a great job there, by the way!!! Keep up the good work. Try all that above and let me know how it goes.