Tips and Advice When Teaching Your Horse Manners
This is basic ground manners explained. In it’s simplest form, good manners means your horse doing as he is told. The horse’s movements should be performed safely no matter how simple or routine the task may be. Your horse needs to know that to push, step on or endanger you in any way – either intentionally or not – is unacceptable. While these may only appear to be slightly annoying habits at times, it is important to break them before somebody gets hurt. Since horses outweigh you by a ton, literally, a misplaced hoof can break your foot. Whilst under normal circumstances you would probably be covered for this under the terms of your equine insurance, it’s always better not to have to find out the hard way! Your very own personal space bubble can be established and then maintained to best avoid this problem.
Nuzzling his nose into your pockets to see if you have apple treats can result in a nibble in a most inconvenient place if he decides to have a little taste. These love nibbles will not feel as such when made by teeth as big as those of your horse. Horses in a herd treat each other differently than they must treat us. They may well nip, bite and crowd each other, but this type of behaviour cannot be tolerated towards humans.
The space bubble lesson is one that many horse owners and trainers have learned the hard way. My first, and subsequently the last, experience with the concept of crowding occurred when I bought my first horse years ago. My wonderful new four-legged friend liked to “help” me with the paddock cleaning. As I shovelled and filled the manure cart, he would come and put his nose into it. Then one day he actually lifted his front hoof and put it into the cart when I put a rake full of manure in. He knocked the cart over, which spooked him, which in turn spooked the other three horses in the paddock. Suddenly I found myself within the midst of hooves and tails every which way. Thankfully I was not hurt, but this could have been a mild or even a serious disaster – and may have even necessitated a claim on my horse insurance.
This happened when our training relationship was in its learning curve phase. I was so amused at his trying to help me with my chores that I didn’t think about the potential consequences. On that day I learned the importance of manners. From that moment on I taught him how to respect my space when going about my tasks within the paddock and with the other horses. There was still plenty of time to be cute during our training time.
Basic safety manners can be taught by utilising the three Ps of horse training. Whether training or riding your own horse or someone else’s it is crucial to the future relationship between you and the horse that you remember the rules of patience, persistence and positive reinforcement.
Patience. It’s important to remember that your horse does not automatically know what you want. Your patience in showing him and letting him try until he gets it will go a long way in building trust between you and your equine. You need to begin the training session with your mind free of stresses. Take a deep breath and relax. It is part of the natural learning process for your horse to test the waters. He needs to check and see if what he thinks you want is correct. This can occur several times before the horse has confirmed his correct assessment of the task.
Persistence. Don’t simply give up when things don’t happen quickly. At first it is hard to communicate. You will both need to learn how to speak the same language! Stay with it and be consistent in your cues. Horses are very perceptive to even the slightest cue. It will not usually take long for a horse to learn what a cue means – then you will have cooperation.
Positive reinforcement. Whenever your horse does something correctly, show him a signal. The best rewards don’t always come in the form of a tasty treat. They love to be released when they’ve done their job. Imagine the “whoa!” or “stop” cue. This is a pull on the bit within his mouth. When the horse exhibits the signs that he understands that you want him to stop, release the bit immediately. That tells him he’s doing the right thing.
Horses need to know their limits. How close can he stand to you before you feel crowded? Can he pull on the lead rope if he doesn’t want to go the way you are leading him? Can he refuse to pick up his foot if he doesn’t feel like it? For a horse this is not natural, even though to us it may seem like common sense. A correctly and carefully trained horse will forever be both a most pleasing companion and could also represent a lower liability when it comes to renewing your horse insurance policy.
Category: Pet
