SADDLEBAGS

Questions & Postings Board

Have a question about training, equine husbandry, rider confidence problems, etc.?  Our panel of experts will try their best to answer your queries.   Want to send greetings to the farm? 

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• Respondents

Catherine Sampson, foundation trainer for saddle and harness.  More than 30 years experience working with all breeds.

Dr. Julia Holt, psychologist, horsewoman and lecturer at one of TMHF's most popular workshops, "The Confident Rider".  Sold out year after year.

*Other professionals available for consultation as required.

QUESTION

My gelding has a habit of moving off when I am trying to mount him. I don't have any problems with him when I tell him to stand when he is not being worked. I have tried several exercises with him on a continous basis, but he is very strong willed and acts as if he is scared out of his wits when he sees a whip or lounge line or any type of reprimanding. He actually freaks. I can not clip him because he freaks out at the sound of the clippers.

Any suggestions?

RESPONSE

Unfortunately, there is no quick fix for any of these problems. Having him stand still when mounting is a very basic lesson when starting to back a horse along with saddling for the first time. If the foundation wasn’t taught then, it takes a lot longer. People always seem to be in a hurry to do things with horses. Their rushing – makes the horse rush or become confused and uncomfortable. Disciplining him with a whip for something he doesn’t truly understand, only make matters worse.

When retraining a horse with this problem, have someone at his head as a safety line, so to speak. Leave his halter on under his bridle and just clip a lead shank to it (halter). Every little segment of the mounting process must be adhered to and by that I mean the following: (If you miss a step and get ahead of yourself, you have defeated yourself before you begin.)

Have him stand quietly and time it with a watch. If you can get 30 seconds without him moving a foot - good. Walk him a little and repeat. Do this until you get a consistent 30 second standing rate. Every attempt him makes to move from this position during the 30 second timeframe, have your assistant tug on the lead shank and say "whoa". Once this rule is established move to the next step. *Do not revert to a whip to reinforce this.

The next step is to take up your reins – not too tight so that it causes him to back off, but at least enough line so that there is very minimal contact. If he attempts to take a step forward, relax the reins, and again have your assistant tug on the shank repeating "Whoa". Again, do this until it is consistent that he stands when you take up the reins.

Next you will want him to stand there until his 30 second timeframe is up, then relax the reins, walk him around and praise him. Try it again and again until he does it to the point of being bored. (You can eventually increase your standing rate time as we do when we are teaching patience to driving horses.)

Next step, again with your assistant at hand, place a foot in the stirrup. If he moves, take your foot out, and tug on the line – "Whoa". Keep doing this same procedure as above.

Once that is accomplished, raise yourself up and stand there in the stirrup for a few seconds. If he moves, start all over again.

Once you are in the saddle, be certain that you are not shifting your weight and gripping in anyway that he takes it as a signal to move ahead. If he takes a step, have the assistant tug the line – again saying "Whoa" – dismount and start over.

When you are past all of this and you have finished your ride, dismount and remount. I do this with all my training horses, just to reinforce the stand still principle.

If your horse becomes nervous during any of the above process – go back a step or two to something he is comfortable with. Don’t misinterpret bull headedness with fear. He may very well be head strong, but I find that a lot of people aren’t reading the horse right.

The clipper problem might be even more difficult to overcome, but again – start with a little – back off – and try again.

I hope this helps. I know it sounds boring and repetitive, but that is how a horse learns. In the end, you will be glad that you took the time.

Catherine Sampson

REPLY

Thanks for your information.  I have noticed a difference in his behaviour after only one session.  Assistants are scarce.  Thanks a million for your wealth of information.

QUESTION

I love to trail ride but my horse hates to step in water and he always jumps over small streams of water and even streams that are dry.  Before we approach the water or dry stream, he starts hesitating and I tighten up the reins and try to ride him forward strongly at a walk, but he still escapes and jumps.  I have even tried walking him through some of the trail on foot and manages to get him to walk through with a fuss and then when I go back on his back the fight starts all over.

RESPONSE

I must tell you that almost all horses fear water.  I believe that it isn't hte water that's the problem, after all they drink it, get rained on, etc.  The problem for the horse is its vision.  To a horse, that little puddle or stream looks like a hole and in one way it is a hole.  Put yourself in the horse's shoes.  Would you step into a hole of unknown depth?  Remember that the horse doesn't have depth perception like we do.  Therefore, to ask a horse on horseback to ride into a stream, puddle or whatever, and the horse willing complies, comes strictly from the trust it has for its rider.


Now think back to one of the very first things you stated that you do when you approach a water obstacle.  You said that when he first hesitates, you tighten your reins.   To your horse, that means there is something to fear.  You are restricting his judgement and asking him to stop moving when in fact you want him to go ahead.  Like most problems, this might take hours of patience to overcome.  My suggestion would be to keep the horse focused straight ahead on the stream by closing his escapes routes to the sides and driving him forward from behind with your seat only if he backs away, then relax.  Don't punish him with the whack of a crop - remember he fears the obstacle.   Don't turn him away from the obstacle and try again.  Turning him away defeats the purpose of going forward.  Whatever you do, don't take up rein that would restrict forward motion.  You can step on the gas and brake at the same time which is counter-productive.  It might take you half an hour to an hour to cross that stream, but eventually, if you don't lose your cool and stay relaxed, t he horse will pick up from you that it's OK.  Once the horse crosses that stream, ever it be so carefully, then he has trusted your judgement.

Catherine Sampson

 

QUESTION

I have a 5 1/2 year old mare who was just broke out this past spring. She is coming along great in all areas except this one. My diagnosis is that she is "buddy sour." If I go for a ride with someone else, she's great. When I attempt to ride her by myself, she is extremely nervous, sometimes downright dangerous. Often, she'll not even leave the property. She digs in her heels and WON'T go. I don't want this to develop into a deep-set "habit," so I've been reluctant to even try to leave lately, until I have a remedy to begin practicing on her. Any advice?

RESPONSE

You have a very green horse that doesn't have confidence yet to go it alone. With roughly six months under her belt, asking her to ride out of her normal safe environment is asking a lot. You must remember that the horse is a herd animal and likes companionship and company. They always feel safer in a group. Only the very brave and older horses will accept riding solo with such little training. I wouldn't continue to force her to do something that she isn't ready for. You are right when you anticipate she could be dangerous.

My advice would be to continue to ride with another more experienced horse. Once out on the trail, take turns in the lead and practice having her halt and wait for the second horse to catch up, then reverse the exercise. Practice working around natural obstacles. Where we might use pylons in an arena, use trees to practice bending and yielding.

Personally, I would stick to home environment for the first year and get a lot of communication and confidence building done first. Really get to know your horse under saddle before moving to the big outdoors.

I hope this helps.

Catherine Sampson

QUESTION

My 15 year old mare has developed a resistance to being loaded in the horse trailer. Her "partner" was put down two years ago and since then

she has not loaded easily. Prior to that, she would just walk into the trailer (first) with no problems. Any suggestions as to how to regain

that past behavior?

RESPONSE

Loading problems can be very difficult to resolve. Can you tell me if it is the same trailer she has always been trailered in and how often has she been trailer? Does the trailer have a full partition that goes to the floor, or is it a half-partition? Is it a step up load or ramp load? How does she resist loading - evade, rear, plant her feet?

Please respond to these queries and we'll take it from there.

REPLY

Thanks so much for responding so quickly to my email about my difficulty in loading my mare. In response to the questions you asked:

1. It is the same trailer that she has always been trailered in. After her "partner" died, we switched sides because she had started to kick

at the walls every time we made a turn. Once we switched sides, she was quiet in the trailer while it was moving.

2. We used to trailer at least once a week when her partner was alive. Now we only do it twice a year (up to our lake in the spring and

back in the fall). Her refusal behavior seems to be connected to this and so I am going to start to feed her in the trailer - my dilemma is, how do I

initially get her into the trailer so that she knows that the food is there?

3. The trailer has a half partition but it is welded in and cannot be removed easily - we had thought that the trailer might be getting too

small for her and discussed taking the partition out but were told this would not be possible.

4. It is a step up trailer.

5. Her resistance is generally evasion - she walks up to the trailer and then turns her head and body at the last minute. If we walk

her up to the trailer and get her body aligned correctly (using 3 people!) she then plants her feet and refuses.

We also tried putting another horse in first and then loading her but to no avail. At this stage I do not plan to trailer her in the near future

but would like to spend some time getting her back into the trailer so that when I do plan to go somewhere it won't be a struggle.

RESPONSE

Which side of the trailer does she travel in now - driver's side or passenger side? If it is the passenger's side the trailer will tend to lean a little. If it is the driver's side, then the trailer on that side is riding on the crown of the road. Most roads if not all, are constructed this way to help shed water. You should be trailering her alone on the driver's side.

Sometimes horses go off trailering if they haven't been loaded in a while and this seems to be the case since you are only trailering twice yearly, instead of weekly.

I'm sure you could have the partition cut out of the trailer by a professional trailer company or welding shop, even though it is welded in. A lot of horses feel very claustrophobic in a trailer - they have a feeling of being trapped and can't escape. By widening the trailer, this often helps tremendously. Since your horse was use to a companion and now has no company, she may feel this insecurity.

I would try positioning the trailer against a building so that you at least block one of the escape routes. Always keep the horse facing the trailer, don't turn and walk away from it. Every time you turn and walk away, she wins. Try not to loose patience. If she plants her feet close enough to the step up, try lifting a hoof on the trailer. Be careful not to compromise your own safety when doing this. It can be very very frustrating when a horse won't cooperate, but getting mad just makes a bad situation worse.

If you want to try the feeding technique, make a trail of grain on the trailer floor, but start the trail just out of reach so that she has to stretch and make an attempt to load herself. I would only suggest this method if you have the partition out. If she goes in on her own with the partition in place, she might panic and try to turn around. It's safer with the partition out.

Catherine Sampson

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