Posts Tagged ‘prey animal’

Horses are very useful and trainable animals. They can me used for a limitless variety of tasks such as farming, sports, recreation, and even warfare. Their tremendous strength and endurance are very valuable attributes. Not only are they gifted with tremendous physical qualities but they are also intelligent and very receptive to human commands. Beginner horse training can be fun for both you and your equine companion. There are many different types of horse training techniques, so make sure you are knowledgeable about whatever you choose to apply.

Horses can even be trained in specialized tasks and they thrive in any work they are assigned to do. They can do police work, and they can also be graceful animals for royalty and equestrian activities. They can also be used on farms and in the wilderness. Horses are incredibly versatile animals. They are functional as well as exquisite. Not to mention the fact that they love to please.

However, training a horse can be a real challenge especially for beginners and new horse owners. First and foremost, to be able to train a horse well, the individual must understand how the horse thinks and always — I mean always — consider the animal’s instincts! As animals, instincts always reign above any training or conditioning. Having said that, a horse can be trained quickly and easily when you understand their innate behavior and work with the animal to achieve the desired success. Here are a few tips to help your beginner horse training to move along more smoothly.

1. Horses are fearful creatures

By instinct of preservation, horses are naturally fearful creatures. Because they are a prey animal, they may exhibit reservation with other animals and people in new situations. If the horse doesn’t know you, it will judge you based on your actions, before finally deciding that you are not someone with bad intentions. It bases its decisions on your body language and believe it or not, your thoughts, and will respond accordingly based on what it perceives. The horse will either flee, embrace your friendship or study you further.

2. Gradual training is essential

One must understand that it takes a while for horses to warm up. Training often needs to be a gradual process. You must learn how to tame the horse correctly and effectively. Like dogs, horses must see its trainer as its leader — gender is rarely an issue. It should be noted that some horses are natural leaders, therefore, dominant. If you own one with such characteristic, training can be a bit tougher. Make sure you are asserting dominance at all times. Tough love can be the best thing for both of you till you structure the pecking order of the “herd”.

3. Horses are herd animals

Horses are herd animals and they naturally function in this manner. They will always want someone to lead them. Remember to speak their language in your training. This will speed up the process immensely. Do your own due diligence on the language of equus and natural horsemanship.

4. Riding the horse is not the first step

Before actually riding the horse, you must do some ground work and training. There is no shortcut especially for beginners. Longing and bending is a must at first. Teach commands while longing before putting your rear on the saddle. A horse must be body-aware and desensitized. If you want to get bucked off, skip your groundwork.

5. Proper manners on lead

Lead training is absolutely necessary. A horse MUST display manners with humans on the ground. Teach the horse to walk beside on a lead while giving it basic commands like to turn or stop. Some horses will test your dominance during lead training. It is vital to let the animal know who’s boss.

6. Warm-up the horse before riding

Even with a horse that is already trained, it is still advisable to warm-up your horse physically and mentally before riding it. Do a bit of longing or some exercises in groundword, so the animal will know what to expect.

7. Cooling the animal off

Training sessions must end with a cool down period. Just as with a primed athlete, the animal must be give a chance to settle his muscles. Let the animal relax and wind down. A tired and frustrated horse is very difficult to train. As a rule of the thumb, make every training session a pleasant experience for the horse, always ending on a good note and before the animal has a chance to loose interest. The animal will be happy to learn and do some training again when it knows that the experience is worthwhile. Remember…. Positive reinforcement is a crucial key to success.

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Author: Annabelle Cabella
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Training a horse for good ground manners starts as soon as you enter the stall or field. When you effectively use your vocal and body cues, you are speaking their language. Ineffectively using your cues when trying to catch your horse in the field can cause your horse to run from you. Believe me, it’s not easy to catch a horse that doesn’t want to be caught. They seem to run in circles around you, teasing you. Ineffective use of your cues would include either sneaking up on your horse from behind, or walking directly at their head.

To effectively communicate with your horse, approach them from the side. Make your presence known; talk to, whistle, or cluck to your horse. Walk towards them with your hand outstretched. This gives a horse that is unfamiliar with you the reassurance that they can be comfortable with you. This is how you should approach every horse in the field, no matter how familiar you are with them. If you disregard these methods, you can startle your horse and cause it to run, potentially teaching a very bad habit.

For a green horse or a horse that has formed the habit of running when approached, there are other pointers for when teaching good field manners. When you are approaching the horse, don’t look them in the eye. As with any animal, eye contact is meant to infer dominance. Since horses are a prey animal, if they feel like something or someone is trying to dominate them, they will run. Minimizing eye contact is less threatening to your horse. You may also hide the halter and lead rope behind your back. Horses are smart, and some will associate the halter and lead rope with being ridden. Treats and food can be used to lure your horse if worse comes to worst. However, using food or treats in training a horse should be limited to desperate situations, not every time.

When a horse is consistently difficult to catch, use the previous methods to catch your horse, but occasionally just halter your horse, give them a treat, and take the halter back off. This way, your horse will not assume that they are going to have to work every single time you enter the field. As much as a horse may love being ridden, they have their lazy days as well.

Training a horse for good ground manners extend far beyond the field. Some horses, when standing in the cross ties, will stomp and sway from side to side. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, and it doesn’t mean your horse is being bad. They could be nervous or anxious. Unless he is pulling hard against the cross ties, it’s more of a nuisance than a threat. Some horses do it constantly. To be honest, there is no easy fix for this.

Consistency (not taking them out of the cross ties because they are handling them badly), a stern voice, and a swat on the rump (with your hand only) can help your horse learn that the cross ties are not such a bad thing. They will typically calm down if you groom them while in the cross ties, since it’s relaxing to them. If your horse respects and listens to you in other settings, you have a better chance of helping them handle the cross ties well.

Katie Olson is an accomplished equestrian in the Hunter/Jumper discipline, and she is an experienced horse trainer. She has ridden and/or trained several horses over her eleven-year career as a passionate rider. For more information about training a horse and to become part of our new online community of horse lovers visit Training A Horse. Ground Manners.

Author: Katie Olson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Pressure cooker

Most horse owners make the mistake of assuming that the horse see the world as we humans do and that is not the case at all. It is true that we are both mammals and that makes us close in great many aspects such and nutritional needs as well as need for rest. However the human evolution and the horse’s evolution brought us in two different directions and will therefore give the horse a very different reality than ours.

Horse Evolution Makes It Eat Grass
Mammals are basically divided into two categories where one (the predators) live by eating meat, being other animals, where as the other category lives by eating vegetation from trees and other plants. Humans have evolved into eating both by we are by nature primarily predators eating meat.

Horses on the other hand have evolved into eating grass and are a more defensive prey animal that just wants to be left in peace. Their most active periods are in the early morning and the late evenings where humans are more active during the day. That is just one of the many parts that separate man and horse.

Being an outdoor creature the horse has developed great bodies that are perfect for running outside and grazing plains. They also have a very adaptable mind that is a quick learner and never forgets.

Another interesting thing is that, being different from humans, a horse can go from a sleeping state to wide-awake and moving within a few seconds. Try that out in the morning if you will Horses are also fantastic runners and their body gives them the ability to go from 0 to 40 miles an hour in 3-5 seconds, which in fact is faster than most cars.

Because the horse can become a prey for carnivores it has a kick that it powerful enough to kill or at least disable anyone that wants to hurt it. The horse’s bite can have a similar devastating effect if you get too close.

The horse has many more nature evolved skills to help it in the wild and is has become a formidable survivor. Unfortunately this list also shows us how poorly our view and management of the fantastic animal is.

Signals from the senses
A horse has a great ability to feel a touch and even the slightest touch on the coat will be felt. That is probably also why a horse will be less able to stand pain compared to humans. The sense of taste of the horse is very similar to humans and it can taste sweet, salt, bitter and sour. There are three senses where a horse separates from those of human beings. Those are the ability to hear, to smell and to see.

The hearing range of a horse is not only much wider than that of a human but it can also hear sounds at a much higher frequency. This greater level of hearing comes from the unique ears with a shape and a moving capability that improves the sense significantly.

Just like dog, you will find that horse’s ability to smell if far superior to ours. Even smells that come from a mile away can be picked up. The sense of smelling is used for identifying other animals as a protection mechanism.

The eyesight of a horse makes them able to have an almost 360 degrees view with only a few black spots where one of them is strait in front of their head. Another impressive ability is that the horse’s eyes can process two different pictures simultaneously. As for colors we can’t say for certain but Horses probably can’t see the colors yellow and green.

Conclusion
Horses, being prey animals, are designed to run first and think later. This tendency can however be overcome by the trainer’s strong, calm and empathetic attitude when managing the horse. It is the horse’s nature to act the way it does and has nothing to do with being stupid.

Being able to smell better and hear better than us humans the horse will also experience at lot more from the world than we ever will. If we could read the horse’s mind he might think that humans are stupid because we clearly miss out on so much.

The key to a rewarding relationship between your horse and you is found in a two-may communication and in trusting each other. If a horse trusts you and know that nothing bad will happen to it by following your instructions, he’ll be much more likely to do it. On the other hand we will also have to accept that the horse has heightened abilities and senses that we can’t possibly understand. So building a relationship with your horse is just like building a relationship with another human. It takes commitment, trust and time but then there is nothing more to it.

If you want to know more about horses and horse feeding you can come visit us at HorseTrailerUniverse.com where you will find everything from different types of horse food to information about training your horse. You will also find information about what to look for when buying used horse trailers

Author: Hank Westwood
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Catching a horse can be trouble. If a horse doesn’t want to be caught, his ability to escape and evade that’s a built-in part of being a prey animal can make things really hard on us. All too often, people try to deal with this problem by doing everything wrong. What people don’t realize is that the interaction you have with your horse when catching builds a foundation upon which everything else in your relationship with the horse is built. Get it wrong and you’re going to have trouble in everything else you do.

Here are some mistakes people make when catching a horse, and how to avoid them.

1. Trying to bribe the horse

You’ve probably found that cutting corners isn’t the best way to get ahead in life and with horses that principle holds true as ever. The way to cut corners when trying to catch a horse is by offering him a carrot to convince him to let you put the halter on. How many times have you seen someone out in the pasture trying to bribe the horse with a bucket of grain?

Yeah it’ll work but with a price. The cost for bribing your horse to do things is lost respect. If you give your horse a treat in an effort to get him to do something, he will not respect you as much as he would otherwise. Food does not motivate horses the way that it would a predator animal like a dog.

To avoid this mistake, you need to approach the situation the way the dominant horse in the herd would. Alpha horses make the other horses move around! Control the feet, control the horse. We apply this when catching a horse by pushing a horse that doesn’t want to be caught. That seems counter-productive-you’re sending a horse away that you want to come to you! But this produces solid, long-lasting results-when you push the horse he gains respect for you-the first step necessary to have a true partnership with him.

2. Failing to read horse body language

The second mistake people make is failing to recognize signs the horse is giving you that she wants to have a conversation. Horses give subtle body language cues that we sometimes miss, and these cues can indicate respect, trust, and acceptance. Some signs to look for are ear on you, licking of the lips, and dropping the head. When you see these signs, take the pressure off. Stop pushing the horse, don’t walk up to the horse, and avoid eye contact with the horse at that point.

3. Walking right up to the horse

OK what are you gonna do if you want to put the halter on your horse? Many folks do what comes naturally to humans, they walk straight toward the horse to put the halter on. What else would you do?

Problem is, that’s how a predator would approach a horse. This is recognized on an instinctive level- and if a horse is not comfortable being caught, what’s going to happen if you approach like a predator? You’re going to trigger his instinct to flee.

Avoid this mistake when catching a horse by approaching lateraly, without making eye contact with the horse. If she shows signs of acceptance like looking directly at you, you can stop (don’t approach closer just yet), smile, and praise the horse verbally.

4. Failing to push again

OK so lets suppose you’ve been catching a horse and she’s given you the signs of acceptance, and she’s just standing there watching you. You approach to within 10 feet, and then suddenly she takes off again. Don’t make the mistake of failing to push again. At this point you need to push the horse around to get more respect. We’re giving her the chance to flee if she chooses to do so, but make her work if she makes that choice.

5. Getting too greedy

People get anxious with horses all the time. The first time you’re next to the horse, you might want to hurry up, put the halter on and be done with it so the real work can start. What you’re missing, however, is that when catching a horse the real work began the second you entered the pasture. Failing to continue building a solid foundation from the start will lead to problems down the road. It might require a little more effort up front, but if you’re not anxious and instead use a patient approach, you’ll do better with your horse long term.

David McMahon is a freelance author who owns three horses. He invites you to visit http://www.horse-training-tips.com where you can learn more about catching a horse.

Author: David McMahon
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Horse whispering and natural horsemanship have been a source for a great deal of income for those with marketing skills. When people imitate without having a clear idea what they are doing it and why they are apt to get hurt. With the wrong horse it can be worse. The horse is a prey animal with a strong flight or fight response. Their first choice is to run, and the speed the horse is capable of means they can outdistance most predators. However for the biggest insight into horses it pays to study THEM.

Horses usually will do what is easiest. They naturally follow the path of least resistance. Faced with the wall of a roundpen and a human with a funny looking thing attached they can be directed like so much water through a hose, changing the way the water flows by moving your finger. We often underestimate how powerful this is and if misused how much mistrust it creates with our horses.

If we watch horses interact with each other it will quickly become clear a pecking order. If you doubt this at all put down one less feeder in the pen than you have horses and put a cup of feed in each one. The boss horse eats first and once done will clear out whatever feeder she wants. There might be squeals of protests but other horses bow to her then move to horses they can chase away. This works for all but the bottom horse who will be left looking for scraps, sometimes picking at the boss horse’s feeder after it’s been left in hopes there’s a bit of grain still left.

A horse who challenges a higher ranking member can be bitten, kicked or pushed out physically. The lower ranking horses know their place in the herd and find it easier to go hungry than fight the bosses. It is this strict herd order that can, in a group, result in all horses being fed twice per day and one is skinny while the others are overweight. Often the lowest ranking member will starve to death rather than risk injury in a fight with the boss. This goes to that fight or flight instinct – a horse that cannot flee is in danger of becoming predator dinner.

Using this in a horse training program then you have to insert yourself as a boss mare. Your body language will get through to the horse faster than any other method because they are used to watching body language. The horse knows when something comes at them aggressively they need to run as they could be dinner. Something approaching quietly and calmly, without being a threat, doesn’t bring up that reason to flee. Remember this when you go to catch your horse…the “hard to catch” horse may well be doing what you’re telling him – RUN!

Get your horse in a roundpen with a lunge whip. By imitating things seen in that pen of horses you can get pretty predictable responses. Walking quickly towards the head usually generates a spin and running the other direction. Walking towards the hip drives the horse forward. If a horse stops and raises his head he’s challenging you. Getting your highest point above his – including if he rears – means you have dominance. This is where the whip is invaluable. With the whip you can wave it above his head. You can shake it at him, threaten him and drive him at your will.

There’s an odd thing that happens much like the boss horse. If the horse knows you will follow through with the whip then you probably will not have to. Use it very sparingly – if the horse kicks at you, strikes or charges you follow through like you mean it. Other than that the whip is a tool – it’s used to reach and touch without having to hit. By directing the horse’s movement and speed you can also stop and allow him to stop.

Once he’s established you are in control the horse will often tip his nose towards you, “watching” you with his ears, and in his language he”s asking “can I stop now?” If you aren’t actively driving him forward you have told him yes – and when people have problems with their horses on the longe line or in the roundpen this is often the reason. Allowing him to stop and approach you safely builds trust.

Not surprisingly the hardest horses then to work with are the boss and the bottom. The boss can be the horse that needs strict handling and may always look for that “in” to be dominant. The bottom horse lacks confidence in many cases and that lack of confidence means a great deal of work boosting confidence and making sure when you ask something it is safe. For most people the middle range horses are the easiest but either ends of the herd can, with the right handling and understanding, be wonderful mounts.

Observe your horse daily from the time he’s a weanling. Even as a weanling and yearling he will have very distinct likes and dislikes – these things you can use in training! An individual that is tense will have a rigid jaw…learning people won’t hurt him brings relaxing, and usually he’ll move his mouth – often described as a lick or chew. This is something that as you progress with your horse to look for. Always let him think about things and get that mouth movement before giving up for the day. If you quit while he’s tense you’ve taught him totally the wrong thing!

So often we want great things from our horses. The biggest way to get this is asking the least. Sounds impossible? When working with your horse ask for only 1% improvement. That is not very much! By backing off our expectations the horse often gives much more than 1%. We make more progress by asking for less, providing we are accurately reading their body language as well as accurately projecting ours to them.

Try it. Watch your horses…”talk” to them like a horse. It works! Always try to look at things from the horse’s point of view. If you do that it’s amazing the things horses let us do to them that goes against their instincts and how much they give us that is, truly, a gift. There is no human being alive that can hold still a 1200 pound animal that wants to leave. By getting in his mind it never comes to having to force him. This makes all the difference!

Author: Jan Hoadley
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital Camera News

Time and again, I hear about a horse behaving badly-a horse chases someone around a pasture, it kicks, it bites, it bucks, it won’t canter. While all of these issues sound different-they can all be traced right back to one and the same cause. A horse that exhibits bad behavior is more often than not just suffering from what I call alpha horse complex. That is, the owner of the horse has not truly established himself as the leader for the horse. The horse thinks that he is the leader, and all he is doing is behaving like an alpha horse does! The owner calls this bad behavior and feels like he needs to correct it. In truth, what we need to do as horse owners is take a step back and learn how horses think. Then apply our new knowledge to make ourselves the alpha mare or stallion of the herd, rather than letting our horses fill that role. Where to begin? In this article I’m going to mention 7 easy to apply exercises that will help you become a leader for your horse.

1. No more treats for your horses while working

When you are working your horse, do not give him any treats. Period. Giving treats to a prey animal does not reinforce good behavior the way we think it does. Instead, it makes the horse think of you as a cookie factory. This in turn makes the horse want to take advantage of you. So throw away the treats-during training. Give your horse a treat after you’ve been working with him and you’re finished.

2. Do not use treats to catch your horse

All too often horse people want to just grab their horse and go ride. But the truth is you’re establishing the bounds of your relationship with your horse the second you walk out to the pasture to get him. Your horse is sizing up your body posture, how you walk, and if you can be intimidated. That is he is seeing who is the leader in this relationship! You cannot bond successfully with a horse that you have to bribe to come into you. Instead of wagging carrots at your horse hoping he will come over, learn to catch your horse using body language horses already know.

3. Lead Your Horse Properly

Where is your horse when you’re leading him? Is he in front of you or creeping up on you? If so you aren’t leading properly. He is going where he wants to and not really minding you. Take some time to study proper leading of horses. Just by doing some simple leading exercises, you will find your relationship with your horse improves drastically.

4. Do join-up in the round pen

Longeing your horse in the round pen at liberty so that he joins-up or hooks-on with you is a great way to establish yourself as the leader of your horse.

5. Get the Attention of your Horse

If your horse is not focusing two eyes on you, then he is not paying full attention to you. He is looking off with the other eye for threats or maybe things more interesting than you are. To become a leader for your horse, you need to have both eyes.

6. Do backup exercises

The alpha mare or stallion in a herd gets the other horses to move out of the way. We can use this fact to communicate with our horses just by moving them around. A great way to do this is using backing up as a regular part of our groundwork routine. Backup exercises are an excellent way to get a horses attention when he is behaving badly.

7. Look for Precision

When you are communicating effectively with your horse, take things to a new level by looking for precise backups. Instead of asking your horse to back up 10 feet, ask him to backup just a hair. Start with 2 steps and then ask him to stop with a “whoa”. When you have that down, ask him to backup a single step. Progress from that so that you can get your horse to shift his muscles backwards without even taking a step. When you establish that kind of precise control with your horse, you are not only communicating with him effectively but also establishing leadership. A horse you can control precisely on the ground is a better riding horse.

That concludes our look at 7 tricks to eliminate bad horse behavior. If your horse is being dominant in any way, apply these 7 steps and build the foundation you need for a successful horse-human relationship.

Author: David McMahon
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Canada duty

A horse is a prey animal, and this very fact is vital to understanding horse behavior. One way this manifests is that while as predators, our central goal (whether we are conscious of it or not) is securing a large amount of resources, as a prey animal a horse has a different agenda. A horse wants to remove threats and feel secure. You probably want that too-but for a horse this is first and foremost in his mind. After all his ancestors went about their day to day lives worried about being eaten. Its a constant worry and that’s why horses appear so high strung to us. Horse training is often focused on getting horses to overcome this instinct. A horse lives with a run-now-ask-questions-later approach to life. Horse training is focused on teaching horses to replace this with a stop-think-and then act point of view.

Your horse is probably relatively secure, but this fact (that he wants to run from every threat) manifests itself in many little ways when it comes to horse training. The first thing-and any horse owner knows this-is that a horse is hyper-aware of his surroundings. Part of that awareness is being aware of you-for example a horse can detect the emotional state of a person instantly. If you’re angry or nervous, you’re not going to hide this from a horse. Something else horses do is they are fully aware of every body movement we make.

It turns out that the run-now-ask-questions-later approach goes beyond bolting or spooking when a horse feels threatened. Every aspect of horse behavior is dictated by this approach in lesser degree, which we might call an avoidance of pressure. On a basic level working with your horse you are often dealing with this avoidance of pressure. My favorite example is your walk into the barn and a horse is sitting there with his head through the stall door.

The impulse of most people is to walk up and pet the horse. And where do lots of people like to pet the horse? Right in the center of the head, between the eyes. What many people aren’t consciously aware of is that the horse instinctively sees this as a threat. Right between the eyes of the horse is one of his blind spots. If you’re a prey animal, what are you going to feel like if you get touched on your blind spot? That is going to instinctively feel like a threat. Sure the horse knows you’re not attacking him in the barn, but his instinctive wiring is to avoid being touched in his blind spot. So what do many horses do when you go to pet them there? They pull away. People say the horse is “head shy”, but this is a perfectly natural behavior for a horse.

When it comes to horse training, its all too easy to make mistakes that actually create bad behavior, and dealing with a head shy horse is a perfect example. When a horse pulls away as a person goes to pet him in between the eyes, what do lots of people do? They don’t want to threaten the horse, and so they pull away too. It goes like this. You walk up to the left side of a horse, lift your hand to pet him, he turns to the right to avoid it, and you pull your hand down. This happens so fast most people are barely aware they pulled their hand down. But what happened here? The horse is using his run-now-ask-questions-later approach to remove a threat. He turned from your hand to get away from the threat, and by pulling your hand back down, you did remove the threat. The end result is that you just taught the horse to turn away when someone tries to pet him between the eyes-he learned that pulling away caused the threatening stimulus to go away.

Instead, we want to teach the horse to approach the world in a different manner. Our approach to horse training to remove spooky behavior is to get the horse to stop-and-think first. We want the horse to think about the situation and evaluate whether or not its really a threat to him before he gives in to his instinct to flee. Surprisingly, horse training to promote calm and responsive horses starts right here with small things, like teaching your horse he isn’t going to die if someone pets him between the eyes in the barn.

One way to do this is to not remove the threat when he engages in his avoidance behavior. Working in two stages, start with raising your hand to pet him, let him turn away, but keep your hand in position to pet him. Hold it there until he turns back facing your hand, but don’t pet him. When he returns his head to a position where you could pet him, then drop your hand. This way you’re showing him that the threatening stimulus is removed when he does not engage in his instinctive avoidance behavior. In the second stage, actually go ahead and pet him. This may take gradual escalation, because he may flinch or turn away as you actually pet him. But do not ever drop that hand-until he lets you touch him. Soon he will realize that not only is he not threatened by someone touching his head in the barn, but that it is actually pleasant. This can be applied to all aspects of head shyness like touching his ears. Now see in this small example we have gotten the horse to wait for a moment, use his brain to evaluate the situation instead of just instinctively avoiding it. This will carry over to all aspects of horse training and make him less spooky overall.

Here is another example. Get your horse on halter and lead rope and stand directly in front of him with a whip or carrot stick. Start swinging the whip vigorously over his head. I’ve heard this called “extreme friendly game” by Parelli devotees. Its a very good way to get your horse to be calm and promote resistance to spooking, and if you haven’t done it before your horse is probably going to find it very unpleasant. I have been doing this with my horses, and the first time my horse Henry kept coming right at me when I was swinging the carrot stick over his head! A horse coming right at you is not a safe horse in the least! My impulse was to stop swinging the carrot stick and then use the lead rope to back him up out of my space. For safety reasons, I had to back him up out of my space, but think about the head shy example we just discussed. By stopping the swinging of the carrot stick each time he came forward, I was inadvertently teaching him to remove the threatening stimulus by coming forward. Just like you don’t want to drop your hand, the correct response in this situation would be to keep swinging the carrot stick over his head while simultaneously making him back up, and then stop swinging the carrot stick when he backs up out of my space.

With horse training, timing is everything as we’ve seen in these two examples, and the slightest mis-step in the way we approach our horses can actually program them to engage in bad behavior. But by thinking about how horses view the world and respond, we can minimize the impacts of our actions and in fact turn them around to promote good behavior in horses.

Author: David McMahon
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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