Wouldn’t it be nice to have your horse stand and wait for you like your dog
sits and waits on command? It can be done! The way to get a horse to do (or not
do) anything is to change his mind and opinion about the situation.

So let’s say you have a horse that won’t stand at the mounting block, or won’t
stand tied to a hitching post, or loses his mind if put into cross-ties. You’ve done
all the traditional things to change his behavior like making him jog a circle over
and over until he wants to stop. Or you’ve made him spin on one front leg until
you both are dizzy and half delirious. You’ve made him sweat, you’ve had
another person stay with him, holding him while you get on, or get the saddle, or
whatever. You’ve smacked him, yelled at him, and tried bribing him into standing,
but he just won’t. If all this sounds familiar, you’re not alone.

Before going into how to teach your horse to stand, whether tied or not,
remember that there are exactly two things we humans cannot ever “make” a
horse do.

1. We cannot make a horse move.
2. We cannot stop a horse from moving.

Wonderful, you think. Why bother teaching anything if those two things are
true? The answer lies within the horse’s innate willingness to do what we want if
we convey that desire fairly, consistently and calmly.
Sure, but how do we do that?
By changing your horse’s mind, you will be able to change his feet. If you can
get your horse to want to do what you desire—either move or not move—he’ll
comply happily. There are things to consider before beginning: intention, energy,
time and space. Your intention must be clear, your energy must be even and low,
time the lessons for when he’ll most want to be with you, and when you aren’t
rushed, and pick a place you can safely work him.
Changing his mind is not hard if you know how to exploit his natural
tendencies. Not what you’d expect to hear, but it’s true. Changing, or managing
his mind is a matter of thinking about your desire and how best to convey it to
him in a way that makes him want to oblige. In traditional fear-based training,
this is taught by making what you want the easy thing for him to do. Basically, it’s
the idea that moving a horse will put you in a dominant position so the horse will
respect you and do whatever you want; think round pen work.

Another way to change the horse’s mind is to use positive, reward based
methods with no fear or intimidation being employed. This way of approaching
horse training doesn’t look like what most of us are taught, and some even pooh-
pooh it, saying it’s too soft and babying a horse won’t work. You’ll need to decide
upon what kind of relationship you most desire and go from there.

Using positive, reward-based reinforcement means that to get him to move
forward, you’ll simply get him into a position that he wants to walk forward.
Reframe your intention from the traditional release of pressure to rewarding for
doing the task. For example, if you are outside of his corral, away from his horse
friends, stand facing them/it and your horse’s mind is already wanting to walk
forward. That’s simple enough, but how do you keep him from moving? How do
you teach him to quietly stand tied if he’s one to sit back and break halters, ropes
and hitching racks?

We exploit his desires and set him up to win the reward for doing what you
want.

One method is to Clicker Train—it’s easy to learn, just look on YouTube—and
incorporates using reward, play, curiosity and interaction between you and your
horse. If you choose to follow this method, you will begin by teaching him to
“target” and then move on to teaching him to stand on a mat or towel or a circle
painted on the ground. This training method is highly successful and is used on
wild animals of all species to train them for veterinary care or any number of
other desired “tricks.” The best part is just how fun it is to do with your horse!
They love games, but people may not realize how important “play” is when
training.

For this discussion, I won’t go into the specifics of Clicker Training, but will
show how you may use positive reinforcement with reward-only to teach the
horse to stand. To begin, take him out of his living quarters, away from his friends
to a safe, enclosed area. Facing him away from his desired locale, stop him and
ask him to stand using whatever cue you normally would. You can pretend to tie
him by laying the lead over the hitching rail or fence so he understands that you
want him to stay “tied.”

Your goal is to praise him for standing still, so your timing for rewarding him
must be impeccable. As soon as he stops moving, praise him by petting his neck
or scratch his withers. He won’t know why he’s getting praised at first, but your
timing and the repetitions will teach him that he gets rewarded when not moving
his feet. Repeat and repeat. As soon as you take a small step away, step back
into him and reward before he moves. Repeat about thirty-seven more times,
then go do something else and come back to the standing lesson.

Each day, you will build upon that first lesson by repeating what you did the
day before. As you begin to see your horse standing and waiting longer, you’ll
start tapering back on the time spent near him and can venture a bit further away
from him, or you can increase the time he stands. So far, your horse has not
been truly tied, but he’s standing and you can walk away. Watch for his
attentiveness and desire to stay with you playing this odd, new game. This is how
you know if it’s making sense to him and if you’ve begun changing his mind.
Then, you’ll see his feet follow suit and your horse will stand calmly waiting for
the next game you want to play with him.

You may need to leave the rope looped and not tied for longer than you
hope, but eventually, you will be able to tie your horse every time. If he pulls back
and feels the pressure, you will need to start over at step one, so don’t rush the
process. Make it easy for your horse and have fun!

FREE Stuff through my website at TanyaBuck.com, and a FREE copy of Trail
Riding Tips here:
https://lp.constantcontact.com/su/Qa0qA96/HorseClicks

Have fun training, Happily Ever After,
~Tanya

Nuts in the Wind







​In the Colorado Rocky 
​Mountains, we get a periodic week or so throughout the year where the wind not only blows, it wails and yowls. It whips and blasts, and shrieks. The pine trees no longer waltz in their usual polite 4-beat cadenced rhythm, arms floating gently in soft waving motions; no, instead, they bump and grind, with branches lashing out, while moaning the unfairness of their being rooted in rock-hard ground while the wind tears at their limbs. Once out of the trees, down in the valley, the grasses are laid flat as the wind plasters it to the ground. Birds flounder, buffeted by unpredictable air currents that can’t be trusted. Even the water in the ponds is whipped into a frenzy of meringue-white peaks and basins.
 
Wildlife is on edge; deer and elk drop their head to graze, but their eyes and ears are on the constant lookout for danger. The coyotes trot along, noses to the ground, backs long and low as they search for their next meal.
 
Turbulent, furious and loud, wind season is nothing short of violent.
 
But you want to ride your horse. He’s a good, solid mount and he’s well-trained, so why not? So you take him to the grooming station to saddle up, but even that simple task is more like a boxing spar than your average bonding time. He’s on edge and doesn’t want to stand still. His head is high with swiveling ears and eyes edged in white. His nostrils flare, and he snorts every three minutes.
 
You smack him lightly with your open palm—a move than normally stops any silliness—and he jumps up and then away from you before the cross-ties hinder any further lateral skittering. This causes head shaking on his part accompanied by drumming stomps from all four feet.
 
You step back, drop the brush you were holding, and wonder who this fire-breathing dragon is as you reconsider the bright idea of getting on his back.
 
Good choice, this rethinking, and here’s why: first, the same old discourse applies here—horses are prey animals. Yeah, yeah, so what? Well, go back to the very foundation of horsemanship and think like a horse, only remember that thinking isn’t actually the basis of your dragon’s uneasiness. Your horse is a horse first and this means his safety is his primary concern at all times. In some animals, this underlying self-preservation current is slow running, more of a hum, but in others, it’s a high-pitched whine that dictates rather than just play in the background.
 
In the times of the dreaded wind, even the horse who is usually calm and docile will be a bit more aware and troubled. He may hide his feelings, but watch his ears and notice the height of his head carriage. Likely, you’ll see sharper movements that are more staccato than normal and he seems….taller. Sometimes you are lucky and that is all you get.
 
Others will notice their horse is higher, hotter, prancier, faster, and less willing than usual. These are the dragon-horses that might be better left in the barn on windy days if you find yourself apprehensive about riding, or even grooming him. If this doesn’t bother you and you are experienced enough, use the windy days to school and help your horse through this fear. The why of this sudden change in behavior is important to consider. As prey animals, the horse—yes, even the domesticated, born in a barn, handled since day one horse—is genetically an equine, subject to the fear of being eaten by some larger predator. In the wind, when the trees are doing the salsa, rhumba and boogie foxtrot all at once, the sound of branches creaking, and whistling squalls sends the horse into input overdrive. . Remember, it is not actually the wind itself that scares him; it’s what the wind hides and carries. Meaning that sounds he needs to hear (something approaching), he cannot, while the air becomes filled with all sorts of odor normally hidden. He can’t hear any bad guys who may be stalking him. He’s smelling all sorts of things he might normally not. His vision is impaired as he squints to keep dust out of his eyes.
 
But you’re in the barn, you say. There’s a roof, walls, and other horses around you say. And yet, your horse is as much frightened dragon as he is equid. Thing is, even though all these things are true, your beloved equine still feels a sense of heightened alert. How to help him let go of his apparent need to breathe fire is simple, but can take time.

The goal is to get your horse to think and not just react. You want to help him find his Zen, you aren’t trying to “make” him see the foolishness of his actions.
 
The first thing to look at is your relationship with your horse. If he doesn’t view you as capable, calm and consistent, he is likely to be more leery than if he knows you will always take care of him. Sounds simple enough, but how do you build that strong bond and trust on a windy day. You don’t. Wait until you are both calm and work on your relationship. This is not a one day quick fix, so give it time—yes, as long as a year, in some cases.
 
The second thing to focus on is your own emotions during windy days. Have you learned to be apprehensive because your horse is? This is far more common than one might imagine and yet people forget how in tune with our emotions the horse is. Be sure it’s not you that’s causing him distress.
 
But let’s say you are fine in all other circumstances and any other place. He’s not a fearful horse, he goes where and when you want him to, he is willing, happy and you seldom, if ever, have any problems. What then?
 
We’ll talk about arena riding at first, and hopefully, you have an indoor. If not, do these things in your barn on the ground. Never do all of the following simultaneously; you’ll do much more harm than good.
 
Since the sound of wind is usually the most common trigger for creating dragons, and masks his ability to know what is around him, or what is coming toward him, we need to help rid his perception of being vulnerable. As you groom him, and later, ride him, do the one of the following. Experiment with everything you can think of to find how best to help him settle and remain calm, even when it’s howling windy.  
 

• Turn on a radio with the volume turned up. Choose music that is calming to you.
• Consider using “ear plugs” that you can buy or make your own, but be sure they won’t get lost or denigrate while in his ear.

 
Some horses aren’t as worried about the sounds, but the odors that get churned up in wind can cause some of them to come unglued.

• Smear a little menthol-scented rub on his nose, beneath his nostrils and it will cover up all other scents.
• Spray some calming essential oil around him as you groom—Lavender is a perfect choice.

 
Since dust and other debris can bother his eyes and cause him distress, and since we can’t put sunglasses on him:

• Try riding in a fly mask to help protect his eyes. Do this even if indoors to acclimate him.
• Some horses prefer blinders or blinkers to limit the amount of motion seen peripherally.

 
When you find which sense he is most vulnerable to having overloaded, you will be able to limit the stimulation and thus help him cope with the overload of his senses. This is a temporary aid to training him to accept frightening noises, smells and the sight impairment he must endure when it’s windy.

Once your horse is able to think and not only react, remove the mask you have applied. Turn off the radio, or take off the fly mask. Maybe stay with the Lavender oil spray; it won’t hurt any training you’re accomplishing, and will help you both feel calmer, easier.

Happy Trails and Safe Riding!
​
~Tanya
 
 
 
 
 
 

Horses and touch go together like sand and sea. You can’t be with your horse or near any horse, for that matter, without touching, stroking and petting him. But how does the horse feel about all that caressing?

For the horse, touch is an important part of his world, just as it is in yours. You may believe a horse’s skin is thicker and less sensitive than your own, but recent research shows this may not be correct; at least not 100% correct. The thickness of the skin varies depending where on the body we measure, and in general, the skin of a horse is less than one millimeter more than our own.

Thickness does not always equal sensitivity, though. Nerve endings are what determine how much feeling there is for the animal. Over the rump, along the top of the neck and over the withers, the skin is thicker than the skin covering the flanks and face. The hair covering the horse is additional protection from the elements, insects, the sun, wind, and the touch of a whip.

 Touching between horses is common and they seek one another for mutual grooming, play and comfort. A horse can’t reach every place on his own body to scratch or rub himself, so he seeks the help of other equines, or finds a bush or tree to rub against. Standing head to tail, horses who are best friends will bite at each other’s withers, crest and backs. Horses stand head to tail under the shade of a tree in summer to help swat the flies off each other. Foals touch their dams often during the day as a way of communicating or to receive comfort.

So how does the horse like to be touched?

Think about bugs. A tiny, seemingly insignificant gnat can irritate your horse to the point of distraction. When a fly lands on the horse’s rump, the horse may not react, but that same fly lands on his ear or face and suddenly the horse is shaking his head and diving his nose to the ground or even running to get away from the irritant.

This tells us that touching a horse softly is probably not the best approach, but touching him with intent and pressure is something he will like and seek. He doesn’t want to be patted and yet most people will swat their horse on the neck or barrel to tell him he’s a good boy. But watch him closely and you will see that each blow elicits not a positive feeling in your horse, but rather a tightening of his muscle, the squinting of his eyes, the raising of his head and perhaps even a tail swish.

To reward your horse, he would prefer a scratch or rub along his crest or near his withers. If you are on the ground, he likes his eyes stroked with the open palm of your hand, or maybe he likes a chest scratch that reaches between his front legs. Anywhere he can’t reach that may be sweaty; he’ll love having scruffed and rubbed.

Those light, tickle-y strokes are irritating to your horse in the same way they are to you if you have ever had a spider walk across your arm.  They make him want to get rid of the annoyance and if you are the source of the irritation, he will want to get rid of you, too.
Pretty much, if you would like the intensity of the touch, so will your horse. This brings to mind whips and chains, and rope halters with knots, and spurs. Think about the end result you are seeking and whether or not the tactile stimulus you choose is the best one for the job.

Remember too, that horses look to one another for relief, comfort, and empathetically guessing what may help him feel better can be a good reward for him, especially if you prefer not to give your horse treats.

To ride or not to ride?
That is the question. Sometimes the answer is easy to get to, and other times, it’s not. You want to ride, but something tells you not to get on your horse today. Or maybe you don’t have a horse and you’re trying to decide if you should get back in the saddle again.
There are many reasons to ride and just as many not to. If you are a happy horse owner, ask yourself if it is just today that you are feeling ambivalent about getting up or if it is tending to be an often-occurring thought—this “I don’t think I feel like riding today.”  Ask yourself the following questions:

• Have you gotten hurt recently or anytime while with your horse.
• Are you afraid of your horse? If so, can you pinpoint the reason?
• Are you physically up to your norm?
• Has it been a long time since you last rode?
• Is the wind blowing?
• Does your horse seem out of sorts; anxiety-ridden or more nervous than usual?

Your answers to the questions above will help you pinpoint the reason for your angst and you can decide if proceeding forward is a good idea or not. You may want to enlist the help of a trainer to help you get over any anxiety you may feeling that you aren’t able to identify. If your horse is acting like a jet-propelled keg of dynamite, the prudent thing to do may be to let him out to run while you watch and ride the next day. If your own body is hurting or feeling ‘off’, you may be well-advised to take the day off and not get on until you are feeling more like yourself.
Let’s say you’ve not ridden in years and now you are thinking of getting back to riding. You are excited and you are feeling anxious about the idea as well. Should you proceed or take up knitting instead? One great way to get back to a long-lost sport is to ease into it and see if the passion you remember having is still there. Take a few riding lessons and ride more than one horse. Go riding with friends or even rent a horse for the day and explore both your surroundings and your own feelings about riding. Once you do this, you’ll have a good idea of how serious you are about continuing your riding career and you’ll have made some contacts to help you get started back to the happy horse owner status you may be thinking about.
Sometimes, the best answer to the question of whether or not to ride is to take a day off and just spend time doing nothing with your steed instead. Bonding while neither of you has any agenda is a great way to spend time together and get to know each other better.
Happy Trails!