Posts Tagged ‘horse behavior’

Working with horses can often be difficult and even scary, as horses engage in bad horse behaviors that not only make them annoying but make them unsafe. These behaviors can include biting, kicking, being pushy on the ground, or worse bucking and rearing. The best way to minimize the chance your horse will be pushy like this is to lay a solid foundation that puts you in a leadership position with the horse. Here are five horse training tips to help you achieve this.

1. Have a good lead

A horse that respects you leads well. This means that the horse follows you at a short distance just off your shoulder. Most people lead from the left side of the horse, so he should be just to the right of you with the tip of his nose just at your shoulder. He shouldn’t pull on the rope or drag, and he shouldn’t blast out ahead of you. If a horse drags on the rope, stop every now and then and ask for a backup. This puts a cost into his bad horse behavior. On the other hand, if he tends to walk faster and pass you, change directions when he does this so that you can put yourself back in front of the horse.

2. Teach your horse to relax

Remember that horses are prey animals, so they’re always on the lookout for the next threat. A horse with his head up high is one that is tense and looking for something about to eat him. A horse that is relaxed has his head low and is probably more interested in finding some nice greens to graze on. Teach your horse to relax on cue by lowering his head.

3. Use round-pen training

Here is an important horse training tip-one of the best ways to establish leadership is to use the round pen. This is best done “at liberty” without the lead line or halter on the horse, so you control his movements without using tools-just body language and presence of leadership. Few techniques work as well to get a horse to trust and respect you. This is often called “hook-on” in the roundpen or as Monty Roberts calls it, “join up”.

4. Keep him paying attention

Another important tool to use when training is to keep your horse paying attention. If he is looking off in the distance when you’re working with him, bump the rope to bring his nose toward you so that both eyes are focused on you. Look at the ears. Is one ear acting like a radar dish probing the distance to check for threats? Or are both ears forward on you? If they aren’t on you your horse isn’t devoting his full attention and this needs to be corrected.

5. Don’t just ride off into the sunset

While riding, take the time to run through exercises that keep your horse listening to you, such as flexing and having him move the hindquarter and front. By keeping him listening to you, he is less likely to look off in the distance checking for the newest threat.

By applying these horse training tips, you can start to build a sold foundation with your horse that is gentle, yet teaches respect and leadership. A horse that respects you and sees you as a leader is far less likely to engage in bad behaviors.

For more information, please visit Gentle Horse Training. If you’re an iPhone user, please see iPhone Horse Apps

Author: David McMahon
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Want to know how to buy a horse? Finding the perfect horse is not an easy task. Every Equestrian have made some easy tips on how to buy a horse.

I have been there and done it. Making that first step to purchasing a horse can be a bit nail biting. I have listed a few suggestions that might help you out when getting ready to purchase a horse.

Things you should ask the owner:

- Confirm the information you see in the ad; age, height, color, breed etc
- The horse’s history and breeding
- Ask if the horse has show experience and if so how much experience (show results)?
- What is the medical history?
- How well the horse travels
- Any vices or bad habits (kicking, bucking, biting, spooking, and cribbing)
- Reason for sale
- Ask as many questions as possible to avoid wasted trips to view unsuitable horses.

Visit the horse at least twice:

On your first visit you should arrive a little earlier than scheduled to catch a glimpse of what the horse’s environment is like and what the horse’s behavior is like. You should come with your instructor or an experienced friend. Typically the owner or your instructor will test ride the horse first to see if it is safe and worth your time. After you have ridden and decided if you like the horse you should have a second visit. You should visit again and have another ride. Feel free to visit the horse as many times as you like. Remember, your the one who is buying! If all goes well and you like the horse the best advice is to “sleep on it”. Don’t just accept the horse and hand over the money. On the second visit, maybe try negotiating the price.

Final steps in purchasing:

- Tell the owner if you want to buy and negotiate on pricing. The most important first step in buying a horse is to getting a vet check. Having a vet check is a must, you never know what kind of problems you could be dealing with down the road. If the vet approves the horses overall health you can then proceed to taking your dream horse home.
- Find out what the horse has been fed. If you are going to change the horse’s diet you should change the diet slowly over a week or two.
- Insure the horse before you transport him.
- Prepare a safe area, either a stall or a paddock. Get any basic equipment for feeding, grooming, traveling and blankets for the winter.
- Find a way to transport your horse to your horse’s new home. If you don’t have a trailer you can hire someone to trailer your horse.
- Allow your horse to settle in peacefully, and be careful introducing it to new horses.

If you have any questions with the processing of buying a horse feel free to contact Every Equestrian on How To Buy A Horse.

Good luck and enjoy your new companion!
Dani Nelson

Author: Dani Nelson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Horses, like dogs, are animals that can do considerable harm when they have bad behavior problems. Unlike dogs, however, who can only inflict harm by biting, horse behavior problems which can hurt people include biting, kicking, or striking out when being handled, and rearing, bucking, or bolting when being ridden. So it is important to have a well-trained horse, especially for youngsters or even adults who are new to the sport of horseback riding.

What do you do, then, if your horse has any, or even many, of these bad habits? The first thing to do is have a thorough check-up. Start by pin-pointing when the bad behavior occurs, or what triggers it.

Bad behavior when under saddle:

Misbehavior in horses may indicate that they are in pain and want to be left alone. If your horse misbehaves mostly when under saddle, then the first thing to check is the fit of your saddle. If the saddle does not fit the horse’s back, it can cause pinching and back pain, causing the horse to act out. An expert horse trainer may be able to assist in assessing your saddle and bridle fit, or you may want to hire a professional saddle fitter, because, sad to say, some trainers may not have that expertise.

If the saddle fits good, then check the bit in the horse’s mouth. If the fit looks good, have a veterinarian check your horse’s teeth. There may be a tooth problem that is causing the discomfort.

If your tack checks out OK, then the next step is an overall veterinarian examination to rule out other issues that could be causing pain when your horse is ridden. For example, if there is arthritis in a joint, the extra weight of a saddle and rider may be enough to cause pain.

OK, your tack is not the problem and the horse has no issues that the vet can detect. Then ask a trainer to assess the way you ride. Do you pull excessively on the horse’s mouth? Do you bounce too much in the saddle? Over time, these, too, can cause a horse to say “I’ve had enough!” If the horse is new, maybe he had bad experiences with previous owners and needs to learn that you will not hurt him. All these things need to be well thought out.

But what if your horse misbehaves when not being ridden?

Misbehavior when being handled:

Horses that try to bite or kick at people when they are being groomed, led or otherwise handled may still have pain issues. Again, the first step is a thorough veterinarian examination.

Is the horse grouchy all the time, or just at certain times? If you have a mare, perhaps she bites and kicks only when in heat. Many mares have no symptoms of being in heat, while others let the world know. If your horse has severe symptoms of heat, an ultrasound might be advised to rule out ovarian cysts. If there are none, there is medication, although expensive, which prevents mares from coming into heat.

Does your horse misbehave while being groomed? Again, if the vet check does not reveal a physical problem, perhaps your horse has very sensitive skin. Just be extra gentle in currying and brushing.

Re-training:

When all physical causes of your horse’s bad behavior have been ruled out, then it is time to accept the fact that your horse has training issues. The horse may have been abused by previous owners, or he may simply be a bossy horse who does not accept you as its leader. The horse may have a fearful personality, and behaves badly out of fear. There are numerous possible causes, but to fix them only three things are required: gentleness, firmness and patience.

At this point you may want to find a professional horse trainer. Be very selective! Your horse already has issues. You don’t want a trainer whose methods will only cause more distrust. Anyone can call themselves a horse trainer, so ask around, talk to horse people you trust, and watch any potential trainer work to see how they do the job.

If you have the experience, time and patience to attempt re-training your horse on your own, then invest in some training videos or books. You can borrow ideas from various sources. It can be very rewarding to work one-on-one and develop a strong partnership with your horse.

Pamela Griffin was raised around horses and rode at such a young age that she does not remember learning, although she does have a vague memory of her first fall off a horse! She’s ridden Western, English, and shown in dressage, but currently enjoys the simplicity of riding in the Arizona desert on her Missouri foxtrotter. She writes various articles as an amateur horse owner with years of horse ownership experience.

Author: Pamela Griffin
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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If there is one thing that horse owners fear on the ground-it’s getting kicked. And with good reason. If you get kicked by a horse you risk getting seriously injured and even killed.

So why do horses kick? Like a lot of issues involving bad horse behavior, the answer comes down to one of two things. Either the horse kicks out of fear-or he kicks out of dominance.

The good news is that horse kicking can be controlled or even eliminated without smacking the horse or even focusing on kicking at all. Instead, you can deal with the problem by building leadership, trust, and respect. How do you do this? Simple-with proper ground training.

Good ground training will eliminate horse kicking because a horse that knows he can trust you is a horse that won’t fear you. When the horse isn’t afraid generally, he isn’t going to fear having his feet handled or fear having you behind him. Conversely, a horse that sees you as his respected leader is not going to try and dominate you. So let’s explore a few ways that we can build leadership, trust and respect with ground horse training, with the goal of eliminating horse kicking in the back of our minds.

Often, eliminating fear and dominance go hand in hand. So you don’t have to focus on what “type” of horse you have too much when applying general principles of horsemanship. First off, what do dominant horses do with the other members of the herd? Well, they herd them around! This simple fact-and keep in mind this is something a horse intuitively understands-is something we can use to our advantage to train our horses gently without using any kind of force. All we have to do is move our horses around. When you do that, your horse will instinctively see you as a leader. Horse kicking will be unlikely in that case because a horse doesn’t kick his leader.

We can make a horse move forward, backward, to the side, or in a circle. OK here are a few basic things we can do:

• Ask your horse to go backwards.
• As your horse to move his forehand.
• Ask your horse to move his hindquarters.
• Circle or lunge your horse.
• Circle or lunge at liberty in the round pen.

By doing these groundwork exercises we teach the horse to view us as a respected leader. This is because we are tapping into his built-in instinct to see those who make him move as his leader. In fact, working your horse at liberty at the round pen may be one of the most important exercises you can use to do this. That’s because you control three things:

• When the horse moves and when he can come to rest.
• How fast he goes.
• What direction he goes.

Round pen work is also safe. By doing these three things, you establish yourself as a leader because your horse will know automatically you’re his leader because you’re controlling his movement. That’s what the trick really is-control the movement of the horse at all times. Then he will see you as his respected leader.

Next time your horse kicks-instead of giving into your impulse to smack him-try asking him (firmly) for a backup instead. By asking him to move off, you build leadership and respect-so reduce the chance of a horse kicking in the future.

David McMahon is a free lance author who owns 3 horses and writes about horse training issues. For more information please visit Mastering Basic Groundwork (Horse Training) [http://nmhorse.com/Basic_Groundwork.html].

Author: David McMahon
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Your horse runs over you or crowds you. He bites. Or maybe balks, bucks, or tosses his head. He won’t take the bridle, and he rears, runs away and bolts.

If any of these describe your horse, then you’re dealing with bad horse behavior. While each of these problems can have their own specific solutions, it turns out that by applying some very general but effective horse training principles, we can go a long way toward eliminating all of these problems.

When it comes to horse behavior, many problems can be reduced to one of two issues with the horse. If a horse is acting badly he is either:

1. Afraid (acting out of fear)
2. Dominant (acting in a way that disrespects you)

We can get around both problems by being an effective leader for our horse. If we are a strong and effective yet compassionate leader, our horse will not be afraid because he knows he can trust us. And if we are a strong and effective leader, a dominance-minded horse won’t be naughty with us. This can be done with proper ground training.

These days there are a myriad of ground training techniques. But its possible to identify a few key items you should be using on every horse that will help establish leadership. Here are five key methods that produce all around general results regardless of the type or horse you have or his disposition, or what type of “bad horse behavior” he is showing:

1. Lead your horse properly. When leading a horse on the ground, you’re not just walking from place to place-you’re using body language to communicate with your horse on multiple levels. By leading him properly, we can show the horse that we are a confident leader to be trusted-and someone that he must follow. A confident leader is one worthy of being followed-this helps build confidence in the horse that is afraid and shows a dominant horse that he is not the leader-you are.
2. At-Liberty Round-Pen Training. A great way to become a leader for your horse is to utilize at-liberty training in the round pen. By mimicking the behavior of the dominant horse in the herd, we can establish leadership in a way that not only speaks to the horse in a way he naturally understands, but in a way that gets rid of many problems like crowding, balking, being hard to catch, kicking, and biting.
3. Back Your Horse Up. Yes, backing up is a simple exercise, but it can be made challenging as well as basic. Not only that, its a sure fire way to build up trust with your horse, and to also show leadership by asking him to walk backwards where he can’t see.
4. Flexing. By practicing flexing on the ground, you train your horse to respond lightly to the reins and teach him how to respond to an emergency stop.
5. Get and Keep the Attention of Your Horse. If you’re the trusted leader of your horse-he is going to pay attention to you at all times. Simple exercises can be performed with your horse during groundwork training that make this automatic.

Building a solid horse training foundation with groundwork will allow you to eliminate fear, and prevent a horse from dominating you. by putting in some extra effort now, you can have a sfae and fun riding experience later.

David McMahon is a free lance author who owns 3 horses and writes about horse training issues. For more information please visit Mastering Basic Groundwork (Horse Training) [http://nmhorse.com/Basic_Groundwork.html].

Author: David McMahon
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Your horse runs over you or crowds you. He bites. Or maybe balks, bucks, or tosses his head. He won’t take the bridle, and he rears, runs away and bolts.

If any of these describe your horse, then you’re dealing with bad horse behavior. While each of these problems can have their own specific solutions, it turns out that by applying some very general but effective horse training principles, we can go a long way toward eliminating all of these problems.

When it comes to horse behavior, many problems can be reduced to one of two issues with the horse. If a horse is acting badly he is either:

1. Afraid (acting out of fear)
2. Dominant (acting in a way that disrespects you)

We can get around both problems by being an effective leader for our horse. If we are a strong and effective yet compassionate leader, our horse will not be afraid because he knows he can trust us. And if we are a strong and effective leader, a dominance-minded horse won’t be naughty with us. This can be done with proper ground training.

These days there are a myriad of ground training techniques. But its possible to identify a few key items you should be using on every horse that will help establish leadership. Here are five key methods that produce all around general results regardless of the type or horse you have or his disposition, or what type of “bad horse behavior” he is showing:

1. Lead your horse properly. When leading a horse on the ground, you’re not just walking from place to place-you’re using body language to communicate with your horse on multiple levels. By leading him properly, we can show the horse that we are a confident leader to be trusted-and someone that he must follow. A confident leader is one worthy of being followed-this helps build confidence in the horse that is afraid and shows a dominant horse that he is not the leader-you are.
2. At-Liberty Round-Pen Training. A great way to become a leader for your horse is to utilize at-liberty training in the round pen. By mimicking the behavior of the dominant horse in the herd, we can establish leadership in a way that not only speaks to the horse in a way he naturally understands, but in a way that gets rid of many problems like crowding, balking, being hard to catch, kicking, and biting.
3. Back Your Horse Up. Yes, backing up is a simple exercise, but it can be made challenging as well as basic. Not only that, its a sure fire way to build up trust with your horse, and to also show leadership by asking him to walk backwards where he can’t see.
4. Flexing. By practicing flexing on the ground, you train your horse to respond lightly to the reins and teach him how to respond to an emergency stop.
5. Get and Keep the Attention of Your Horse. If you’re the trusted leader of your horse-he is going to pay attention to you at all times. Simple exercises can be performed with your horse during groundwork training that make this automatic.

Building a solid horse training foundation with groundwork will allow you to eliminate fear, and prevent a horse from dominating you. by putting in some extra effort now, you can have a sfae and fun riding experience later.

David McMahon is a free lance author who owns 3 horses and writes about horse training issues. For more information please visit Mastering Basic Groundwork (Horse Training) [http://nmhorse.com/Basic_Groundwork.html].

Author: David McMahon
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Horse groundwork training is a vital part of getting your horse ready to ride. You should begin with three goals in mind. First, you want to become a leader for your horse. Horses naturally look to a leader as they are herd animals in the wild. For safety reasons, you want to assume that leadership role. Otherwise your horse is going to be making the decisions, like when to run away when he hears something scary on the trail. He’s also more likely to exhibit bad horse behavior if you haven’t established leadership. With leadership comes respect from the horse, and a horse that doesn’t respect you is more likely to rear, buck, and bite among other problems.

There are three simple horse groundwork training exercises you can do to establish leadership. The first that should be done is round pen work ala Monty Roberts “join up”. Take your horse to a round pen and take the lead rope off. Then send him out to your left at a canter. Have him go around about five times and then ask him to change direction and go around to the right. As he is going around apply pressure-swing your rope at the hip and maintain eye contact at the withers. At this point, start looking for signs of acceptance from the horse. This will be communicated to you with four basic gestures. An ear on you indicates respect-the horse is paying attention to what you have to say. Next comes licking of the lips or chewing. This is a sign of relaxation, which really means that the horse is not feeling any fear-or more to the point he trusts you. When you see these signs, take some of the pressure off-stop swinging your rope and back off a little bit. The horse may indicate increased trust by dropping his speed down and circling at smaller distances. The final sign to look for is the horse dropping his head. When a horse drops his head, this is a submissive act that says “you’re my leader” and “please let me join the herd”. When he does this, take eye contact off the horse, walk backwards away from him in a spiral pattern, and exhale. This will bring the horse to a stop. Now you can approach the horse and get him to hook on (follow you without a lead rope).

The second horse groundwork training activity to include in your routine is simple leading. Put a lead rope on your horse and just walk around. Look for signs of disrespect: crowding, edging past you as you walk, and taking two or three more steps when you’ve come to a stop. If your horse indicates one or more of these signs, spend a few minutes each day walking backwards away from your horse. This way you can only be in front of the horse as he’s being led, and he will see you as a leader in his mind. Occasionally ask for stops by stopping, raising both hands with palms out and exhaling. While you’re doing this, make sure the horse has both eyes on you. If they are not you he is not paying attention (disrespect), so bump the rope to bring his nose on you.

Once leadership, trust, and respect have been established, its time to turn your horse groundwork training toward preparing a horse to be ridden. The goal now is to set up a set of cues that will be given to control and direct the motion of the horse, and teach him these cues on the ground. The cues given use a pressure and release reward system. Pressure is the cue to move, release of the pressure is a reward to the horse that reinforces the desired response. The main areas we want to work with are: moving forward and backing up, moving the forehand over, moving the hindquarter over, and disengaging the hindquarter.

Let’s start with moving the forehand. To move the forehand, apply pressure between the jaw and withers in the neck area. When the horse takes a step away from you, release. Do the exercise on both sides. Then repeat with the hip area. Disengaging the hip is a process of applying pressure to the hip and having the horse circle his hip around while keeping his front legs in the same location. His hind legs should cross over one another. This is called “disengaging” because we are taking away the forward impulsion of the horse-when his hind legs are crossing he does not have the balance necessary to move forward.

Backing up applies pressure alternatively to the opposite sides of the face. Shaking the lead rope will do this, or you can apply pressure with your hands (in the air just by the nose). To ask the horse to move forward, you can do a driving exercise. Stand at the midsection to the left of the horse and put your riding or carrot stick over his back. Point forward with your left hand and tap the back of the horse with your tool. The tapping is “pressure” asking the horse to move forward. When he starts moving, you can release the pressure.

The final groundwork exercise you can use to prepare for riding is lunging. The focus of lunging used in this way is not to wear down the horse, but rather to build communication. To do this you will start the horse moving at a walk and ask him to stop periodically. When he is doing that well in both directions, then begin to include trotting. At first, have him start at a walk then ask for trotting, then work on having him drop down from a trot to a walk. Then stop again. Mix it up so your horse is never sure what you’re going to ask (keep him paying attention). When he is doing this well, begin including cantering in the exercise.

David McMahon is a freelance author. He invites you to visit http://horse-training-tips.com where you can learn more about horse groundwork training.

Author: David McMahon
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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The process of a clicker training horse program uses operant conditioning. The name of the training program comes from the conditioned re-enforcer that is used (the click or other marker signal) paired with a primary re-enforcer (food or something the horse values).

This way the trainer can mark correct behavior with the clicker and then use positive reinforcement to help the animal identify its correct responses. The clicker training horse program encourages the horse to take an active role in the learning process and provides a basis for the trainer and horse to have a positive partnership.

For many their first exposure to clicker training is at a dolphin show at the aquarium, a dog agility performance at the park or a trained animal in the circus or zoo. While this form of clicker training is fascinating and interesting, many don’t interact with their horses this same way.

Often trainers don’t require horses to work at a distance or to perform complicated maneuvers without being in contact with a human. In fact, most of the time horse handling is going to require the contact of a human. So why is there a clicker training horse program and why does it work well for horse?

Why Does It Work

The best thing about a clicker horse program is that it is extremely flexible. For most trainers you simply have to add the click and treat to your existing training methods. By adding these two things to your training method you will make the lesson clearer to your horse so that training becomes easier and the trainer can build behaviors in smaller steps.

However, when you want to go beyond the basics a clicker training horse program will also help you to train your horse in other methods that would otherwise be too difficult to do without the precision of the clicker and the treat motivation for the horse.

The clicker is ideal for training liberty work or any horse behavior that doesn’t require direct physical contact with the horse through either body or equipment. The clicker is an ideal way to build your horse’s confidence and change their attitude toward handling and riding. The clicker provides you with a clear way to communicate with your horse and a positive way of training horses that have emotional difficulties ranging from aggressive to scared.

When people think of clicker training they tend to think of the free shaping method first. This is where you wait for the animal to perform a specific behavior and then click while providing a treat. This marks the behavior for the horse and makes them more likely to repeat that behavior in the future.

The second type of clicker training horse method is known as molding. This is when you physical put the horse or a part of the horse into a position you want. For example, if you are teaching the horse to step on a mat then you could place the foot on the mat yourself. This is helpful for horses that are calm about training and don’t offer any form of behavior.

Lastly, there is the most common method of clicker training with horses. Clicker training allows you to use the same aids of horse training that require direct contact with the horse, but you don’t need to add pressure in order to get the desired response.

This is an excellent way to teach horses to become responsive without needing to increase pressure to the point that you or the horse are uncomfortable or cause a negative reaction from the horse. The clicker training horse method that you choose to use will depend on your unique and individual horse training methods as well as the temperament of your individual horse.

Sheryll Walker is a horse enthusiast, helping numbers of people to learn secrets of Natural Horse Training. To discover more helpful tips on Clicker Training Horse and learn more about Natural Horse Training, visit http://www.HorseTrainingHelp.com.

See also information on Sport Horse Training.

Author: Sheryll Walker
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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