17

Retraining the Spoiled Horse

IF A HORSE IS HANDLED WITH FORETHOUGHT and patience when he is young and as he grows, training usually goes smoothly. Each horse has his own personality and quirks, but a good trainer works through any challenges that come along and heads off potential problems and bad habits. If you take time to build trust and confidence, the result is generally a responsive, well-mannered horse.

Sometimes, however, you don’t have the option of starting with a young horse. You may need to work with a horse who has had less-than-ideal beginnings or a bad experience along the way. In this case, your challenge is to correct the damage already done. Usually, the correction involves going back to basics in the area of training that was left out, rushed, or handled improperly.

A well-trained horse has good manners. He respects humans as the controlling force in his life and does not question or refuse to obey commands. A horse who was properly imprinted as a foal (see pages 70–81) is receptive to human control, as is any horse who was well handled during early training. A horse who has been allowed to do as he pleases has no respect for humans.

Good manners are crucial to control of your horse and to your safety. A horse who is disrespectful and inattentive can be dangerous, whether he stomps on your toes or takes a parting shot at you with a hind foot as you turn him loose in the paddock.

SAFETY FIRST

Some bad habits and phobias can be dangerous. A horse who sets back when tied, for example, or one who rears and goes over backward in an attempt to avoid the bit may be more than you want to deal with. If you feel that a problem is beyond your ability, seek the help of a professional trainer. An even better solution may be to get a different horse; never risk your own safety or that of the horse in attempting to correct a problem that could pose serious danger.

A horse may have bad manners and an aggressive attitude that was not corrected sufficiently by the person who was handling him previously. Some pushy horses take advantage of a softhearted or timid person who allows them to do as they please. Bold horses spoil easily if they feel they can have their way in the horse-human relationship. Once bad manners become habit, it takes consistent training to break them and to reform the horse so that he respects his handler.

Some horses are frustrating and difficult to work with on the ground — they fidget when you try to groom and saddle them, step on your toes and bump you, root and tug when led, and drag you along. Showing lack of respect such as walking over you or crowding your space often occurs when a horse is treated as a pet or when training is inconsistent. The horse doesn’t have a clear sense of his place in the relationship. To develop a well-mannered horse, you must assume the role of boss, and your horse must fully understand and accept this. Kind but firm handling leaves no doubt in the mind of the horse that his role is follower, not leader.

Some horses handle very well on the ground but exhibit problems while being ridden. Most problems stem from inadequate or inappropriate training or a phobia that developed after a bad experience. Often, the retraining required to eliminate the problem is more challenging and takes longer than training the horse correctly in the beginning, so if your horse has a problem, plan to invest sufficient time to correct it.

There are many ways to deal with problem behavior. This chapter offers some suggestions. Always remember that any training method you choose will have advantages and disadvantages; how you implement a particular training method will dictate your level of success. Even the best techniques may fail if they are done at the wrong time or if they are presented incorrectly. Select a method suitable for your particular horse. Your understanding of the individual horse, and your sense of what is appropriate for you to do with him and when, is most important.

Often a problem is a manifestation of something else, such as a gap in early training. If you go back to elementary lessons and work on basic handling, the problem you are trying to correct may abate, simply because the horse is developing more desirable responses.

The Pushy Horse

Establish consistent rules so that your horse understands his behavior limits and that humans have special status. He should know that humans give the orders and are to be respected at all times. They are not to be touched without permission, never bumped (even accidentally), bitten, kicked, or swatted with a tail. If you spoil a horse by allowing him to nuzzle, rub, play, and push, he learns to consider humans his equals, buddies to roughhouse with. This leads to dangerous consequences, as humans are much more fragile than his herdmates.

Think Like a Horse

Horses are herd animals, accustomed to a social structure in which they must find their niche. Social ranking is part of herd life: who eats first, who leads, who follows. Equine reactions are based on dominance and submission. A horse must figure out how humans fit into that scheme — is he higher in the social order or must he submit to them? If he succeeds at dominating people, he will do as he pleases until he meets someone who can teach him more acceptable behavior. Horses need ground rules that they know they must obey when being handled by people. Then you, not the horse, can make the decisions — a much safer situation.

Don’t Allow Pushing

Your horse must learn to keep a respectful distance at all times. This eliminates “accidents,” such as his stepping on your foot, swinging his rump into you, pushing you into the gate as he crowds through, and smashing your nose when swinging his head to look at something. Be alert to any rule violations. Don’t just ignore anything that seems like an accident. Through your own body language, let him know that you have a personal space that cannot be violated or disrespected. Even a gentle horse can be dangerous if he doesn’t respect your personal space.

When handling a horse, make sure he knows where his place is and allow him to be comfortable in it. If he pushes into your space, however, make him uncomfortable: let him run into your hand, the lead rope, a stick, or a whip. Create an imaginary box that he is not allowed into. Don’t let him rub, hunt for treats, or nibble your hand or hat. Be firm and consistent with young horses who are still learning how to relate to people. Little nippers grow up to be big biters. If you rub on the horse, he will rub back. You may be setting yourself up to be challenged.

If your horse invades your space by stepping on you, bumping you, or rubbing on you, enforce your rule of no uninvited touching by swift and appropriate correction. Firmly but gently push his head or body away, or use a quick, sharp slap or a bump with the butt of a whip. The circumstances and severity of the violation should dictate the degree of reprimand. Do whatever is reasonable to make it clear to the horse that aggressive behavior will not be tolerated.

Be Consistent

Discourage your horse each time he transgresses, insisting that he keep his distance. Move him back or give him a spank (if appropriate), then reward him with a friendly pat as soon as he backs off and stands quietly. Don’t overdo the reward; you’re trying to instill discipline, not bribe him to correct his faults. If you’re consistent, most horses will get the idea and comply with your wishes.

The Body Basher

A horse may step on you and bump or smash you into the stall wall or fence when you are grooming and saddling. In deciding how to handle this behavior, you will need to distinguish between behavior triggered by fear or discomfort and that which is deliberate and aggressive. If your horse is jittery about some aspect of handling, he needs gentle, patient work to help him overcome his fear. If he’s trying to bully you, on the other hand, he needs firm and immediate correction.

Be Vigilant

Usually, when a horse is trying to get the better of you, he is not showing alarm but instead goes about it purposefully and watches to see what, if anything, you’re going to do about it. Any deliberate exhibition of bad manners should be corrected with an immediate reprimand or an appropriate smack — without anger. Keep in mind that some aggressive horses won’t pay much attention to you unless you change their minds with a little pain. Be sure to make the correction fit the offense, however.

CARRY A STOUT STICK

For an aggressive horse who tries to mash you into the wall, carry a short, stout, blunt stick, holding it so he runs into the stick instead of into you. After a few times, most horses learn that it’s not so pleasant trying to move into your space.

After making your point, go about your business so your horse knows that he hasn’t won and must do your bidding when you groom or saddle him. A horse who habitually bumps a person must learn to stay back or to move back on command. Tap him on the chest with the butt of a whip to back him up, then reward him with praise when he responds. Anytime he steps into your space, immediately make him get back where he belongs. It’s not enough to halt; he must back up. This makes him realize he must submit to you and that you are in control. If the horse will not back up, he cannot be controlled.

The Hard-to-Catch Horse

Many horses in pens and pastures become evasive for a variety of reasons, but most can be retrained. Fear, resentment, or habit may be at the root of a catching problem. A young or inexperienced horse may avoid people because he’s afraid; when he’s handled regularly with kindness and consistency, he’ll lose his fear. If he was handled improperly as a youngster, however, or was always chased into a corner to be caught, the horse may exhibit elusiveness even after he is no longer afraid.

Sometimes a horse avoids being caught because he doesn’t like what’s done to him afterward, such as a painful wound treatment or a long ride. Whatever the original reason, some horses become habitually standoffish. Your task is to change your horse’s mind so he’ll realize that being caught is not something to fear but rather something to look forward to.

Reward Him

If you consistently give your horse a treat — such as grain to eat while you groom and saddle him — he’ll want to come to you. Don’t take grain with you to the pen or pasture, however; he may try to get a bite and still keep his freedom. He must learn the rules: if he is caught willingly, he is rewarded with a treat. Give him grain, a carrot, or an apple after you halter him and bring him out of the pasture.

Examine Your Relationship

If your horse becomes hard to catch, carefully consider what you are doing and how you approach him. If he associates you with negative things — long training sessions, endless repetition of boring maneuvers, and long rides day after day — he may want to avoid you and so becomes hard to catch.

THE GRASS IS GREENER

A horse in a paddock that has little grass will welcome a few bites of greenery as a treat. If every time you catch him you let him graze for a few moments in a patch of grass along your yard or driveway, he will look forward to this.

After you catch him, let your horse graze while you groom him in preparation for saddling.

If you are overworking him or overdoing his training, slow down. Give him a break. Sometimes just giving him a treat (or brushing him or cleaning his feet) and turning him loose again will be sufficient reward to keep his interest. Vary the routine, so that some of the time you are not working him, or doctoring him, or doing whatever it is he has come to resent. Make sure pleasant activities are as much a part of his training as is work.

OUTSMART HIM

You must outsmart your horse and catch him in a way that won’t hinder your purpose. If you always run him into a small corral or the barn to catch him, eventually, you’ll always be able to catch him there, but this will never make him easier to catch in the open. If he ever lives in a large field or gets loose at a show or trail ride, you’ll still have a problem. Teach him to be easy to catch under a variety of circumstances.

Horses will tolerate hard workouts, but if this is what he expects every time he is caught — especially if he suffers from discomfort and muscle soreness afterward — he’ll try to avoid being caught. A horse will work his heart out for you if he respects you and has been trained and conditioned to give you his best, but if you take advantage of this trust, your horse may try to find a way out of hard work.

The Confirmed Avoider

Sometimes you buy a horse, then discover he is hard to catch. A spoiled horse can be a frustrating challenge; to persuade him that being caught brings a reward of treats or some other incentive, you must first catch him. If you have to run him around the pasture every time you want to catch him, you defeat your purpose. Once a horse starts running, he gets into a different frame of mind and may keep running, circling the pasture again and again with no intention of going into a corner or into the corral.

Use a Small Pen

With many problem horses, it helps to keep them in a smaller pasture or pen for a few days or weeks until they get used to being regularly and easily caught. Horses who run from habit rather than fear won’t bother to run if there isn’t room. Putting a horse by himself can also help if he’s been in a group of elusive horses. Horses in a group can be hard to catch if one or two are habitual runners. Keep him by himself, and catch him several times a day until he realizes catching is pleasant.

Another method is to put him in a pen with a buddy who is easy to catch. With some horses this even works in a large pasture. A horse who is a “good influence” makes it easier. Greed and jealousy can be used to advantage. If the hesitant horse sees you catch and feed his buddy, he’ll want a treat also and feel left out.

Don’t give him the goodies, however, until he allows you to catch him. He may come for his share but not yet be willing to give up his freedom. If he is dominant over the other horse, enlist the aid of a helper so your trainee can’t eat the other horse’s grain. If you are working alone, take the first caught horse out of the pasture to have his grain, still in close sight of the reluctant one, who will feel somewhat jealous and be more willing to submit to the halter so he can have some, too.

Another way to teach an evasive horse to be caught is to work him in a round pen, as described in chapter 5 (see pages 121–23). If this is done properly and with patience, the horse learns that it’s a lot of work and effort to avoid you and that he’d rather come to you without the fuss.

Walk Him Down

If you don’t have a pen, follow your horse patiently around the pasture until he resigns himself to being caught. Allow plenty of time, preferably on a day you don’t need to do anything more important with him. If you’re in no hurry, you won’t be impatient or tense.

Walk toward your horse matter-of-factly, in a casual, nonconfrontational manner. It’s better to zigzag than to approach him head on. When he moves away, just follow him calmly and confidently. He may run to the far corner, incite herdmates into running with him for a while, or stay on the far edge of the group. Ignore the other horses (or you may want to stop and pat the calm ones) if he’s in a group, and continue to follow him around patiently.

If he stops, you stop or take a step backward. Read his body language to see if you should walk toward him or wait. His ears and attitude will tell you whether he’s receptive or ready to flee again. If he moves off, continue following wherever he goes. Be persistent; you can walk him down, as you don’t have to trot or run — just patiently follow. At first he may enjoy this little game, but eventually, he’ll tire of constantly having to move away from you. Avoiding you takes more effort than he wants to expend. At some point, he’ll let you walk up to him. Praise him and pat him, but don’t halter him immediately. Be casual, then halter him nonchalantly. Turn him loose after a moment, and walk him down again or give him a treat, and then turn him loose again.

USE POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT

Try keeping the difficult-to-catch horse in a small pen without feed and water. But catch him several times a day to take him to water or to feed him. This system of catching first and then feeding can change his mind fairly quickly. Even if you don’t resort to this solution, catching him a few times a day and then immediately turning him loose after a treat or a quick grooming will enable him to associate catching with good things. If you give him some kind of reward every time you catch him, he’ll usually reform.

Walk out in his pen or pasture often to catch and pat him, then turn him loose. After a few times, he’ll know you’re going to catch him every time you come and that indeed being caught is actually pleasant. Once he realizes this, he will stand when you approach or at worst just move away a short distance and then let you walk up to him. Soon he’ll look forward to your arrival instead of taking off when he sees you coming.

Whip-Break Him

This sounds cruel, but if it is done properly, it is not. The purpose of whip-breaking is to encourage the horse to turn and face you; then he cannot kick you. The whip is used not to punish but rather as an extension of your arm so you can touch his rump at a safe distance, out of kicking range. This works only in a small pen or a stall, not in a big pasture. The whip can be any type, even willow, as long as it enables you to touch him and stay out of kicking range.

This method works for a spoiled horse who sticks his head in a corner of his stall or pen as you approach, turning his rump to you or even threatening to kick. You can’t get to his head without coming up behind him, and it’s not safe to approach his rump. Even if he lets you ease past his rump toward his withers, he may turn and run off.

First try to catch the horse quietly without using the whip. If he turns his rump to you, cluck and ask him to move. If his head is away from you, in a corner, whatever way he moves will be toward you and should be rewarded. If he takes a step, stop clucking and praise him. Then cluck again. If he takes another step toward you, praise him, and back up a step to reward him. If he doesn’t respond or turns away from you, however, tap gently on his rump with the whip. Never tap his legs or hit hard, or he may kick.

THE WHIP IS A CUE

Never lose your temper or whip a horse when using this method. If he becomes frightened or excited, he may try to jump the fence or run around the stall and over you. Think of the whip as a cue, not as punishment, and use it accordingly.

Tap gently, as often as needed to make the horse move his rump and turn toward you. Even if it’s just a step or he turns his head to look at you, stop tapping. Wait a minute, then cluck again. If you give the verbal cue first, he has the option to turn toward you before you tap. Soon he realizes that after the cluck, you tap him. To make the tapping stop, he must turn toward you — and he’ll turn as soon as you cluck. He learns that if he turns around to face you, he doesn’t get tapped. When he does face you, pat him so he knows he did the right thing.

Eventually, you won’t need a whip to catch him; he’ll turn to face you when you cluck. This won’t make him any easier to catch in a large pasture, but it will teach him not to turn his rump to you in a stall or pen. It will save you the frustration of not being able to get to his head, and it eliminates the risk of being kicked.

The Hard-to-Lead Horse

A led horse should accompany you in a relaxed way. But some horses root, pull, kick, or rear when led. A horse may have become a dragger or a kicker because of the improper way he’s been led. Now he resents being pulled on and reacts by lugging into the halter.

Lead Loosely

It takes two for a tug of war. If you pull on your horse, you are inviting retaliatory behavior; his reaction is to pull back and move away from pressure. Soon this becomes habit. Pressure exerted to slow him should be intermittent, not continuous. Well-timed short tugs are much more effective than a long, hard pull. Teach your horse to respond to pressure by releasing it when he reacts properly. Start with slight pressure, and give him a chance to respond to that before repeating with firmer pressure.

Use a Nose Chain

If a horse drags you faster than you want to go or won’t heed commands to halt, you may need a chain. It is used over his nose in the same way that a choke chain is used on a dog. It does not inhibit his movement unless it is engaged either by the horse (by going too fast) or by you (when asking him to stop). Make sure the chain is correctly attached to the halter; it should not be wrapped around the noseband. See pages 109–10 for more on the use of a nose chain.

Do More Ground Work

Some horses, especially stallions, tend to rear when being led. Because they are impatient, they rear in an attempt to avoid restraint. A horse may rear when he’s afraid or if you ask him to do something he doesn’t want to do, such as approach a trailer. The solution is more ground work on leading (see pages 130–35), so the horse learns to move forward rather than up on his hind feet when his security is threatened.

For the habitual rearer, put a chain over his nose, and be prepared to use it. Give a sharp jerk with it before he actually gets off the ground. If he starts to rear before you have a chance to halt him, allow him to complete the rear. A sharp jerk while he is going up or at the peak of a rear may cause him to throw himself over backward or sideways in his attempt to avoid pain. It could also cause him to strike at you. It’s better to halt him just before he gets off the ground or to wait until he’s starting back down. Split-second timing is crucial for effective correction and for good control. With proper training, most horses stop this dangerous habit.

POSITION YOURSELF FOR

GOOD LEVERAGE

When leading a horse who pulls or rears, always stay in the best leverage position — to the side, where you can bend his head toward you. Never be in front of him, and never pull down on his head. Try to anticipate a rear. If the horse starts to go up before you can correct him, move back farther on the lead rope, toward his hindquarters, and pull his head around to the side. This forces him to move his hindquarters over and makes it more difficult for him to rear.

The Hard-to-Bridle Horse

You may come across a horse who is hard to bridle because of a bad experience, such as a painful bit, pinched ears, clanked teeth — something that left an unpleasant memory. The horse has made up his mind that bridling is traumatic and is in the habit of trying to avoid the bridle. The nervous horse owner, remembering (like the horse!) previous struggles, is worried about the bridling, and it becomes another bad experience each time. This habit is hard to correct — resolving it is more difficult than preventing it would have been in the first place.

Every horse is different, and not all react the same way to the same kind of handling. Some have an individual problem (extrasensitive ears, an old injury, or some other physical problem that causes them to be evasive) and personality quirks that require a different technique. A problem can start innocently, worsen, then become chronic.

Ordinary bridling methods don’t always work for a horse with a problem. He may have been startled or upset when bridled the first time or rushed into it before he was ready. When you encounter a horse who’s difficult to bridle, you must figure out why he reacts the way he does, then work around his particular hang-up.

Lure Him

A horse who refuses to open his mouth for the bit can usually be retrained if the bit is coated with something that tastes good. If he likes molasses or honey, smear some on the bit. With patience and sweetening, he may change his mind and willingly take the bit. If he is apprehensive, don’t even try to bridle him. Just hold the bit in your hand, without trying to raise the head-stall, and let him lick off the molasses. After a few times, he may lose his fear, and you can go ahead and bridle him, still with molasses on the bit.

If the horse becomes spoiled and won’t take the bit without the treat on it, and if he’s lost his fear, you can gradually make the transition to normal bridling using other cues such as pressing your thumb or finger into his gum to persuade him to open up. If a horse has a serious mental hang-up about it—which is rare—just keep using the treat; that’s a better compromise than fighting with him.

Consider His Ears

Some horses don’t like having their ears handled. You may have to use a head-stall that can be unbuckled at the side and put on without going over the ears. If necessary, dispense with browband and throatlatch and just loop the head-stall over his head behind the ears, without touching them at all, and buckle the side after the bit is in his mouth. An ear-shy horse usually is not bit shy; you can bridle him if you find a way to avoid touching his ears. Patient ear-handling sessions without a bridle can calm the horse and make him more comfortable with gentle handling of the ears. Most ear-shy horses improve over time if bridling causes no pain.

Check for Physical Problems

Check the bit and headstall for proper fit. If they are not causing pain, the extremely head-shy or ear-shy horse may have a physical problem. Consult your veterinarian. To examine his mouth or ears she can tranquilize him or use a twitch — a tool that calms the horse by twisting and putting pressure on his nose, thereby triggering the release of endorphins. The horse may have a wolf tooth irritated by the bit, a tooth problem, a cut tongue, or a sore poll or ears. Even slight soreness over the poll, from bumping his head, for example, could cause him to try to avoid bridling. Ear ticks, warts in his ears, or infection also may make his ears sensitive.

If a horse has a physical problem, it will take time to correct (get rid of ear ticks, treat the warts, fix a tooth), and it may take even more time to overcome his anxiety about bridling. Well after the physical problem has healed, the horse will remember bridling as a painful experience and may still try to avoid it.

Changing his attitude will be a gradual process. Handle his head and mouth frequently without actual bridling. Gradually work toward the sensitive areas until you can gently touch the spots that bothered him before, letting him realize you are no longer causing him pain and that there is no reason to be head shy. When he finally accepts handling of his ears and placement of fingers in his mouth, try a bridle again — carefully and gently.

Break Bad Habits with Firmness

If a physical problem has been ruled out, the hard-to-bridle horse may be evasive from habit: in some cases the horse knows better but has learned that being difficult to bridle can delay going to work. He might even get out of work completely if he can bluff the rider. A horse ridden by inexperienced people or small children often develops these tactics. In this case patience and gentleness are not the answer; the more you pussyfoot around, the more it confirms to the horse that he can keep you from putting on the bridle. The solution for this problem is firmness. Once the horse realizes you are going to bridle him, he’ll usually give in.

To foil an old, gentle, kid-spoiled horse who merely raises his nose out of reach to avoid being bridled, put your right arm (with the hand holding the top of the headstall) over his head to remind him to keep his head down as you slip the bit into his mouth with your left hand. Or tie him for bridling so that he is confined to a workable space and can’t swing his neck and head around or raise his nose to the sky to avoid the bridle. Tying for bridling should be done only with a horse who ties well. Many horses should not be restrained while being bridled. Never tie a young, inexperienced horse who is uneasy about bridling, because he will definitely set back. It’s better to teach the horse to lower his head on cue, thus making it easier to halter and bridle him (see pages 160–63).

Some horses need a middle-of-the-road approach of firm gentleness. You can’t be too forceful or they react adversely, yet you must insist on good bridling manners. For a horse who raises his head and clenches his teeth, grasp the head-stall midway (not at the top) so you can use that hand to press on the bridge of his nose as you hold the headstall. This keeps him from raising his head too high as you use the other hand to slip the bit into his mouth. Then use a finger in the corner of his mouth to press on his gum or tongue to make him open his mouth.

You don’t want the horse to be successful in avoiding the bit or raising his head, or he may become slier in the future, gaining boldness from his success. Avoid his devious action with gentle firmness, keeping his head under control. By pressing on his face between nose and eyes, you thwart his head raising and can get him bridled without a struggle.

TYING TIP

When tying a well-halter-trained horse for bridling, leave a little slack in the rope for freedom of his head and neck so he won’t feel claustrophobic but not so much that he can hold up his head out of reach as you try to bridle him.

Unbridling

A horse should lower his head as you remove the headstall, open his mouth, and let the bit drop out. If he raises his head, the bit will hang up on his teeth. A horse who’s had his teeth bumped during unbridling may throw his head in the air in an attempt to avoid pain, and this makes the problem much worse; it’s harder to get the bridle off with the horse’s head in the air.

One way to get him to relax and lower his head is to rub his forehead. If he has on a halter under the bridle, hold him gently by the halter as you remove the bridle, encouraging him to keep his head low. If he’s not wearing a halter, loop the reins over his neck to gently hold his head in a lowered position. If he has a serious phobia about unbridling, take the time to teach him to relax and lower his head on cue (see pages 160–63). You may want to develop a special cue, such as rubbing his neck or his forehead, even if you have to use a treat in conjunction with the cue at first.

The Hard-to-Saddle Horse

Some horses are evasive and grouchy about saddling. There may be a physical reason such as a sore back or pinched skin if the cinch was tightened too quickly. If a horse becomes hard to saddle, check for a physical problem. You may need to change to a saddle that fits the horse better, one that doesn’t make his back sore. Always girth up gradually, and check for pinched skin.

Go Back to Basics

If your horse is in the habit of fidgeting when saddled and is being evasive from habit rather than pain, go back to fundamentals: Teach him to stand still. More tying lessons, to teach patience, also may be helpful, along with additional ground work on Whoa and standing still. He needs more basic handling to learn that he must stand quietly when you ask him to.

The Hard-to-Mount Horse

Some horses won’t stand for mounting; they run off before you have your foot in the stirrup or fidget and make it difficult for you to mount. First, make sure you’re not irritating the horse during mounting. If you notice that you bump his rump with your leg, bump his mouth with the bit, or poke your toe in his side, alter your movements to avoid inadvertent annoyances. If discomfort is not the cause, some trainers use hobbles to retrain a horse to stand still (see the box on page 423), but usually, you can correct the problem with patient work.

Go Back to Basics

Refresh lessons on Whoa — leading or longeing (see pages 131 and 152, respectively) — so your horse knows that the command means to stop and stay stopped. When you apply this to mounting, do some lessons when you don’t actually have to get on and ride. Start over as with a green horse (see pages 235–41), and insist that he stand still while you prepare to mount, even if you need a helper to hold him steady at first. Put your foot in the stirrup, and insist that he stand. Do a lot of mounting and dismounting without going anywhere. Each time you ride, make a habit of having your horse stand a moment and relax before moving off. He must learn not to move until asked.

ELIMINATE THE SOURCE

OF THE DISCOMFORT

Sometimes a horse tries to evade mounting because his back hurts. If the saddle shifts as you put weight in the stirrup, for example, it may put pressure on tender areas or on irritated skin. If mounting pulls the saddle to the side, this also can cause discomfort. A rider may create back pain plunking down into the saddle. If your horse’s evasiveness is caused by pain, allow his back or girth time to heal if there are tender areas, use a saddle that fits better, or use a mounting block so you can get on without shifting the saddle.

If your horse is bad about taking off during mounting, conduct the lessons in a small pen or a box stall, so he realizes he can’t go anywhere. If he swings away from you, position him next to a fence or wall. It may take several sessions, but if you have redrilled him on Whoa and he isn’t being ridden anywhere, he’ll resign himself to standing still. A horse who tries to buck as you mount is not just impatient — he’s trying to keep you from getting on. In this case seek professional help to break this bad habit.

The Horse Who Won’t Tie

A horse who sets back when tied is dangerous to himself and to you. This bad habit needs diligent attention. Methods described in chapters 4 and 5 — use of a body rope, tying to an inner tube (see page 94), or using a long rope looped around a post so you can give and take until the horse loses fear of restraint (see page 93) — will work for most horses when retraining them to stand patiently as they are tied.

Tie High

Try tying your horse to something above his head such as a strong tree branch or a beam in the barn. Secure a sturdy rope to the tree branch or beam, with a solid metal ring tied or braided into the end that hangs down, and positioned where you can reach it for ease of tying. Then you can tie the lead rope to the ring. Your horse won’t be able to get much leverage to pull back and usually can’t hurt himself. He’ll stop pulling eventually.

A tall post will work, too — a sturdy post about 8 feet tall is best, so he can be tied higher than his head. For retraining a puller, use a well-set post (buried 4 feet in the ground, set in concrete below ground level) in an open area (no fence to crash into if he fights). A metal pipe also works well for a tie post. Attach a swivel at the top (such as a truck axle hub) that moves in a complete circle. Secure to the swivel a stout chain with a sturdy metal ring at the end of it, hanging where you can reach it for tying. Your horse can walk around the pole without getting the rope wrapped around it. Use a sturdy halter and rope, and secure with a quick-release knot.

A sturdy tie post can be made from a tall metal pipe. The pipe is 12 feet long, with a diameter of 4 inches. The bottom 4 feet is set in concrete, with the top surface of the concrete well below ground level so it won’t hurt the horse’s feet.

The Biter

Biting must never be tolerated. A horse who tries to bite as you put on his halter, pick up a foot, or saddle him is showing poor manners and can also be dangerous.

There are several reasons a horse might bite. He may simply do it in playfulness; this is how he interacts with herd members. He may bite if you cause pain; perhaps a saddle pinches him when it is cinched up. Biting may be indicative of a bad attitude or lack of respect. It could also be an expression of masculinity — a stallion’s nature is aggressiveness, and he uses his teeth to reprimand other herd members or to establish dominance. Most stallions must be taught, when young, not to bite humans.

Some nervous horses bite when they are frustrated or bored; confinement can lead to irritability, and they take out their frustrations on the people who handle them. A horse who is bored in confinement needs more exercise as an outlet for his energy, more riding and less grain, or a lot more turnout time. A horse may bite because he does not accept the human as boss. Horses also bite when they are upset and when something bothers them. Whatever his reason for being cranky, biting should be quickly halted.

FIND THE CAUSE OF DISCOMFORT

If a normally well-mannered horse bites, it’s usually a sign that you are doing something wrong. Check equipment to make sure it fits. Establish whether anything you are doing is causing discomfort.

Is He Spoiled?

Most nipping can be halted. A horse’s habits and manners are a product of his reaction to people and to the way he’s been handled. He’ll do whatever he’s allowed to do in reaction to a specific human action; he forms habits from these interactions. Horses with an aggressive personality take more training effort, but most can be trained not to bite. Often the worst biters are not outlaws but merely pampered pets that had their own way too often and were spoiled by easygoing handlers. If you are not firm and consistent in handling the headstrong horse, the horse feels no need to respect you.

Discipline Him

A young horse who is nippy must learn more respect. He needs firm and consistent discipline every time he tries to nip — just as he’d get in a herd situation from an older, more dominant horse. Some youngsters are rough and aggressive in their playfulness and are hard to handle if this is allowed to continue. Often the best cure is to put the youngster with an older horse who won’t tolerate his pranks. The swift discipline he gets from the older horse makes the youngster understand that he can’t be the boss or do as he pleases. A youngster who grows up with other horses is usually much easier to handle than one that has been isolated, with no herdmates to discipline him (see page 45 for more on herd etiquette).

Correction for bad actions like biting should be given as the act is happening or about to happen—not afterward, or your horse will think it’s a game. He may keep trying to bite in order to see if he can be quicker than you are. For best effect, correction should be instant and self-inflicted; that is, his mouth should meet something unpleasant each time he tries, such as your brush handle, a hoof pick, or an elbow instead of your arm. If you stay alert and catch him every time he tries, he’ll grow tired of initiating his own discomfort.

Don’t swat at a horse who bites. He is faster than you and can nip and jerk his head away quicker than you can hit him. Trying to hit him on the nose will only make him head shy or, if he thinks it’s a game, more sneaky. Meet his nip so he is punished in the act. For the persistent and aggressive biter, conceal a nail or hoof pick in your hand while grooming or saddling; allow him to run into it instead of your hand. Don’t jab with it (he can be fast enough to jerk away and you’ll miss); just set him up a few times so he runs into it while trying to bite.

Every horse is different. A disciplinary action that causes one horse mental trauma may be ignored by another. Tailor the severity of your method to the individual horse. If he is persistent about biting, make the discipline more sharp until he makes the connection that his own action causes him discomfort. Stallions, especially, may take harsher methods, as biting is part of their normal expression of masculinity.

As you work with the nipper to rehabilitate him, discipline him consistently every time he misbehaves, but don’t forget to reward him with kind words and a gentle pat when he does well. Let him know when he pleases you. With proper timing and consistency, the punishment-and-reward system will cure most biters.

DON’T TAKE RISKS

Any horse who insists on biting, in spite of harsh and immediate correction, is dangerous. If your horse comes to meet you with teeth when you catch him, you cannot adequately discipline him, and he may make catching or haltering a perilous game. He has a bad attitude or is taking out his frustrations on you. He needs a change of environment (living with a dominant horse to teach him manners) or of handler (a trainer who can deal with this vice) — or he should be sold. An aggressive, biting horse can inflict serious injury.

The Kicker

Some horses kick at other horses or at people. Horses who kick with intent to hurt need retraining by a professional horseman or should be sold and potential buyers warned about this vice. Horses who kick when startled or upset are more easily retrained. This is part of the fight-or-flight response. When a horse is afraid or uncomfortable and can’t flee, his response is to kick or fight. Most are nervous or sensitive and can learn to tolerate situations that cause them to kick. A kick at a human is generally an expression of nervous fear or self-defense. A horse who kicks must be reconditioned to stand still and trust his trainer.

Most horses give a warning before they kick. They lay back their ears, roll their eyes, present the rump, clamp the tail, lift a hind leg, or back toward the intruder. Be alert to these warnings. A startled horse may suddenly kick explosively, but usually, you can avoid a kick if you are alert to your horse’s mood.

Desensitize the Sensitive Horse

When rehabilitating the nervous kicker, go slow and easy to gain his trust. Always stay in control of the situation. The first priority is caution: Don’t get hurt. The second rule: Don’t hurt the horse.

A touchy, kicking horse needs progressive desensitization. He must be adequately restrained so he can’t kick or get away from the lessons. Then gradually expose him to touching, bumping, and brushing his hindquarters until he realizes that these actions don’t hurt him. The key is to go slowly and stay beneath his panic level.

Some trainers use hobbles to aid in retraining to keep the horse from kicking, but you may not have to resort to them. Position your horse against a fence or wall so he can’t move away from you. Stand at his shoulder. You may need a chain over his nose for control. Once he understands he is restrained, use a folded feed sack or old saddle blanket — something with a familiar smell he won’t be afraid of — to desensitize him. Let him smell it, then start rubbing it along his back.

Gradually rub it all over him, under his belly and over his hindquarters, retreating to his back again before he has time to protest. Praise him when he stays calm; scold him if he tries to move or kick, but don’t yell at him.

HOBBLES

Because the kicker won’t like the desensitization lessons, he may need to be restrained so he can’t hurt you or himself or get away. A hind-leg restraint or three-way hobbles can help. Three-way hobbles consist of a regular set of hobbles for the front feet and a foot strap for one hind foot. Hobbles should be soft and strong; the hind foot strap should have a heavy cotton rope attached, which can be tied to the front hobble ring with a quick-release knot. If you haven’t had experience with hobbles, get help from someone who has. Don’t work with the kicker by yourself. Carry a sharp pocketknife in case the horse gets in trouble and you have to free him quickly.

Three-way hobbles, with a hind foot hobbled to the two front feet, can prevent kicking.

Pole Him

Another way to teach your horse to allow you to touch him on the hind legs (while staying out of kicking range) is to use a small, light “pole” 4 or 5 feet long, such as a broom handle or a whip. (Poling was used by old-time harness horsemen for getting green horses accustomed to the feel of shafts and harness before hitching them to a cart the first time.) Let the horse smell the broom handle, then rub and touch him with it on his sides, rump, and flanks. Don’t raise it or wave it. Let him relax about it, rubbing gently. When he’s comfortable with it on “safe” parts of his body, slide the pole down around his hind legs, then between his legs. Use several sessions to convince him that having his hindquarters and legs touched is nothing to worry about.

Use a Blanket, a Raincoat, a Newspaper

After your horse is used to the pole, and the sack or saddle blanket has been rubbed all over him, it’s time for another lesson in desensitizing. For this lesson, have someone hold him. It’s best to work with the horse held, rather than tied. If he’s tied by the head, he’ll feel trapped and is more apt to panic and resist the lesson. Rub the blanket more quickly, and let it flop against his body and hind legs. If he flinches or jumps, slow down to a tolerable level of rubbing. You want him to relax, not explode. Gradually try other things like a newspaper and a plastic raincoat. Get him used to these on both sides, under his belly, and around his legs. This may take several sessions with a skittish horse. You can speed the process considerably with the use of a Stableizer; this relaxes the horse (see page 116 for details).

As part of training, move a large-diameter soft cotton rope over your horse’s body and legs. Let it dangle and touch his legs. Slide a loop around his legs until he’s relaxed about it. This will be helpful if he ever gets tangled in a longe line or driving lines or in a snarl of wire when you are out riding.

Start each lesson with something your horse is at ease with; progress to new experiences only as he is ready for them. Over time, you can gradually desensitize him to something bumping his hind legs.

A horse may kick not from fear but because he’s headstrong and doesn’t want to cooperate. Your horse needs to learn that the human is boss. He must respect your status and learn never to kick you, just as he would never kick a more dominant herd member. The first step is to establish authority so he doesn’t test you. Once he respects you, proceed to lessons to halt kicking. Stand at his head, controlling him with halter and lead, and give him touching lessons with a whip. If he tries to kick, tap him below the hock. Don’t whip him; just tap smartly. You don’t want to create fear or enter into a battle.

The Turnout Terror

Some horses have bad manners when they are taken out of their stalls, put out at pasture, or turned loose after work, and a trainer may foster a horse’s bad habits by letting him have his way. Often a person is unaware of this negative influence, which could result from inconsistency, timidity, lack of discipline, or inappropriate discipline. If a horse runs off bucking and kicking the instant he’s unhaltered, the handler may try to quickly unsnap the lead while hurrying through the gate, hoping the horse will continue on through and go a few steps before starting his obnoxious — and dangerous — behavior.

But a timid, undisciplined approach leads to less control of the horse and more trouble. If your horse becomes a problem, analyze your body language. Are you nervous? Are you timid? Are your methods of correction ineffective? You must create a clear distinction between acceptable and unacceptable behavior.

Stay in Control

To prevent misbehavior, think ahead and stay in control. This means using a halter and lead shank when taking a horse to and from pasture or paddock, no matter how gentle or well trained he is or how short the distance. Lead only one horse at a time. Pay attention, and have a calm and confident manner. If you always keep him under control while leading, he won’t get into the habit of impatience when you take him “home.”

To prevent charging at turnout time, have your horse stop and relax before you let him go (see page 15). Loop the rope around his neck before taking off his halter; in this way, he can’t rush off when he thinks he’s free. When he’s calm and relaxed, quietly walk away. With persistence, you can retrain a horse who charges off at a gallop.

Barn Sour

Some horses are cooperative on the ground but have problems under saddle. Some don’t like to leave the security and comfort of the barn, pen, or pasture when ridden. They don’t have enough trust in the rider, and don’t feel confident away from home and their buddies. At home, they are normal, reasonable individuals, but if you try to ride them away from their herdmates, they become panic stricken, upset or angry, unwilling to listen to you. The barn-sour horse may be afraid because he remembers bad experiences out there, or he may just want to stay in a familiar, secure environment. He will not relax until the two of you return home.

A horse can become barn sour if he is ridden infrequently or taken from the barn only to work. A rider may unwittingly contribute to the problem by routinely rewarding him for returning by unsaddling and turning him back out with pasture buddies or into his stall. It’s important to break this pattern of being comfortable at home and having to work when taken away. Take your horse on an outing just for the fun of it. This way, he’ll have pleasure outside his stall in addition to comfort within.

Emotionally Insecure or Spoiled?

A horse may have a serious phobia about leaving home and will do everything he can to avoid it. He may rear, run backward, whirl, or buck. His fear is stronger than normal self-preservation instincts; he may not care what he crashes into in his efforts to stay in the barn or pen. If a rider becomes apprehensive about this and rides the horse less frequently, it makes the situation worse. The horse resents even more these sporadic intrusions into his comfort and security and becomes more determined not to budge. He may not actually be as fearful as he was the first few times, but since he got away with the evasive behavior, he has made it a habit and does not want to leave home. His mind is made up, and he does not want to risk leaving the place where he is comfortable and secure.

If a rider in frustration resorts to force and punishment for the bad behavior, the problem is compounded. Your actions confirm that a ride is a bad experience, to be avoided at all costs. Do not give your horse more reason to fear leaving home.

Rehabilitate Him

If your horse has a serious problem, the best way to overcome it is to plan a retraining program. Allow within the training many days of patient work. Start slowly and progress gradually. Bring your horse out of his stall or paddock several times a day, just to groom him, lead him, let him graze a little grass as you brush him, or do some easy ground work. Make these sessions varied, pleasant, and nonconfrontational. As your horse gains confidence and is more tolerant of what you are doing with him, gradually increase his time and distance from “home.”

KEEP HIM GUESSING

Each time you take your horse back to the barn, immediately leave with him in another direction. Keep him guessing, so he’ll never know whether he’ll be put away or ridden more. Instead of riding a long way and having to struggle with him until you return, make many short trips. Thus, you can take a several-mile ride without getting more than a quarter of a mile from home.

Head down a road, lane, trail, or pasture, and come back before your horse starts to get upset (the actual distance depends on the horse); then go out another way until you’ve ridden back and forth in all possible directions. Once he can leave and return confidently at that distance, start increasing it. Ride in a different sequence each time or return another way. Now your horse won’t be able to anticipate what he’ll be doing next.

If his phobia flares up only when he is ridden away from home, give him daily or even twice-a-day short rides near the barn or pen. Keep a calm attitude; you’ll impart your relaxation to your horse. Convey calm through your reins and body cues.

In your early attempts to rehabilitate your barn-sour horse, you may want to ride with a friend on a calm horse when you want to take him farther from home. Insecure horses will go with another horse more readily than by themselves. Eventually, though, retraining must include solo work; you don’t want your horse dependent on a companion.

Ride Him Farther from Home

Ride in slow easy circles, gradually moving farther from his stall or pen. If your horse starts to get nervous or upset, don’t use force. Just make the circles smaller again, closer to home, until he can relax. Once he is comfortable with circles, start making short rides away, stopping him at the first signs of nervousness. Don’t go so far that he explodes in temper or panic; stop him and relax. Take his mind off his fears with a reward, if necessary. Ride him a short distance from the barn, dismount, and let him eat grass. After a few sessions like this, your horse will view leaving the barn as something pleasant.

If he is fractious about being mounted again that far from the barn, lead him back. Soon he’ll enjoy being ridden away from the barn to get his treat of grass, and you can ride him farther to earn this reward. If your destination is a comfortable place where you let him rest, relax, and graze — or give him grain you brought along — the idea of a ride will be more appealing to him.

Once he loses his fear of leaving home, you won’t have to continue the grazing or grain reward. Keep taking short rides. If your horse ever blows up or gets overeager on his return, halt him and make him stand until he is calm again, even if you must ride circles in place to take his mind off his anxiety, frustration, or anger. Never let him move toward home in an uncontrolled frame of mind. Wait until he is calm. If he’s not listening to you, make sure he’s working against himself and not against you (see The Horse Who Rushes Home, page 430).

If your horse balks on the trail and tries to turn to go home, put him to work doing circles and serpentines, sidepasses, and other maneuvers. When he needs a rest, ride forward beyond the spot where he balked and let him relax. If he discovers that every time he balks he gets put to work, he’ll soon realize that going forward on the trail wherever you ask him to go is to his advantage.

Ride a little farther each session. Talk, sing, or hum to your horse to keep him relaxed. This is very calming for a nervous and insecure horse, giving him something to focus on beside his fears. Stop now and then, both going and coming, to let him stand quietly. Always go past home a short distance before returning to put him away. Ride back and forth past the barn or pen so he’ll know he isn’t always going home to end the ride. “Home” should not be synonymous with the end of work. Many horses who rush or try to bolt home acquired that habit because they expected to be put away as soon as they arrived back at the stall or pasture. Working your horse hard at home and going away to let him relax will make him rethink his bad habit.

Some horses who explode into evasive and threatening behavior when you try to leave home or leave their buddies are not afraid but merely continuing a bad habit because they’ve been allowed to get away with it. This type of attitude is more difficult for the novice trainer to deal with. A horse who puts you at risk in order to get his way (rearing, whirling, rushing backward, or bucking to avoid leaving home) needs more forceful reprimands for his dangerous actions. This may be a job for a professional trainer, to avoid risk to you and the horse.

Vary the Routine

Ride on by the barn many times, dismount in a different place every day, tie your horse for a while before putting him away, do a schooling session in the stable area before you end a ride. Keep him guessing. You must be the one to decide when the ride is over; your horse must learn to accept your decisions. With consistent, patient, and regular sessions, during which you strive to get him to relax, the barn-sour horse learns that leaving home is not traumatic and he doesn’t need to be in such a hurry to return.

Prevent Barn Sour

Some horses become barn sour because of a frightening experience away from home. This can happen when a green horse is exposed to new situations prematurely. Give the youngster training sessions before you ride. Safely acquaint him with the big wide world before you try riding away from the barn. Spend time leading him, with an assistant if necessary to follow and encourage, and accustom him to new sights and sounds until he is comfortable with new situations and obstacles. Walk around the neighborhood to get him used to what he will encounter.

If the horse is quite insecure or wants to rush home during his first rides out, have a helper walk along with you, prepared to snap a lead line onto your horse if needed (see page 259).

Dealing with the Spoiled Bluffer

Some horses discover that if they create a scene when leaving home, a timid rider may decide not to continue. The horse gets rewarded for bad behavior by not having to work. If your horse won’t leave the barn area, don’t force him. Just put him to work right there in the barnyard, doing circles, gait changes, figure eights, and backups. Set up an obstacle course with cones or buckets, and make him weave in and out among them.

THE GATE-SOUR HORSE

The gate-sour horse is like a barn-sour horse: when working in an arena, he always wants to return to the gate because that’s how he gets back to the barn. If he hurries going toward the gate and you have to urge him when going away from it, work on this just as you would with a barn-sour horse. Make him work hard, in small circles and other vigorous movements, when he’s near the gate, and let him relax and rest at the other end of the arena. After a while, he won’t be so eager to go to the gate.

Give him more work than he’d have on an easy ride away from home. Don’t punish him; just work him. When he seems ready for a rest, work some more, then ask him again to leave the barnyard. If he does, ride a short way, then let him stop and relax. Ride back to the barn, and head out again in a different direction. If he resists, again make him work hard in the barnyard. Keep this up until your horse realizes that the place where he gets a rest is actually away from the barn.

The Horse Who Rushes Home

Sometimes a horse leaves home willingly but is a handful when you turn around to start back. He’s so impatient to return home that he doesn’t pay much attention to the rider. In such a case, use diversion. Head in the other direction for a while, make circles, or do figure eights or serpentines so he must concentrate on something else. He’ll soon realize that you’re not yet going home.

If a horse tries to hurry home, turn him in a tight circle to slow him to a walk again, then continue on a loose rein.

Do Circles

A rider may react to the horse’s impatient behavior by pulling or jerking on the bit, but this makes the horse more upset. He may become angry and frustrated and react by bucking. Don’t try to hold back a horse; the more you pull, the more he’ll pull against you, and you won’t win this battle. If he starts to trot, turn him around in a tight circle — this will slow him from a trot to a walk — and continue on with a loose rein. If he breaks into a trot again, spin him in the other direction. Stay relaxed; let him have a loose rein again. Rather than fighting, you are asking him to make a nice spin and continue on at a walk.

Conflict will make your horse more insecure or may fuel his anger into fighting harder, bucking, or rearing. When a horse is trying to rush home — especially one that might buck if he isn’t allowed to bolt — circle him when he becomes unmanageable, and repeat the process as many times as is necessary to keep him under control. Making him trot in circles gets his mind off bolting home.

Bend the Neck

If you’re on a narrow trail where you can’t circle him, bend his head and neck a little to one side, without force, to slow him. Use reins for the neck bend and your inside leg to keep him going straight. When he drops to a walk, immediately cease rein and leg pressure. If he starts trotting again, bend his neck the other way. This works better than pulling equally on both reins, which would give him more to brace against, and makes it uncomfortable for him to continue rushing forward. If each time he slows to a walk you release the rein, he’ll soon get the picture.

Back Up

Another tactic that may help with some horses who only want to head home involves turning the horse away from the direction of home and then backing him up toward home as far as he will readily back up. This may be 20 feet or even 100 feet. Once he’s backed up for a spell, ask him to move forward again, away from home. When he’s relaxed and walking nicely, try walking toward home again. If he starts to rush again, fighting you to go faster, halt and turn him around, and repeat the backing up session. This takes his mind off his hurry.

Because backing up is more effort than walking forward, a horse who likes to rush home eventually realizes it’s easier just to comply with the rider’s wishes and walk. He discovers that rushing is what puts him into the position of having to back up, and that’s not what he wants to do.

Diversionary tactics are always more effective than punishment. Punishment creates an adversarial relationship, which aggravates the problem. Avoid a fight; any argument defeats your purpose in training.

HELP HIM EXPEND SOME ENERGY

Trot to settle down your horse. If he can’t walk home on a loose rein and starts rushing, turn him around, and head away from home at a fast trot. When he settles down, let him go in the direction of home. As long as he walks on a loose rein, he can continue toward home. This works for some horses, but others won’t walk until they’ve had a lot of riding.

Another version of this method is to anticipate his impatience and alternate trotting with walking. If you know your horse wants to trot, ask him to trot before he breaks into a trot. In this way, you avoid having to correct him after he breaks and thus can maintain his good attitude toward you. Trot a short way, then slow to a walk. Walk a short distance, then ask him to trot. If you alternate gaits and keep him under control, he’ll relax and walk more. If you stay a jump ahead by asking him to trot before he breaks, you stay in control.

Stay Relaxed

The calmer you are, the longer your horse will stay relaxed before worrying about going home quicker. Talk to him or sing, keeping his mind interested, focused on you, and receptive to your cues. Once he tunes you out in eagerness or panic to get home, you’ve lost the game. You must do some circles or other diversionary tactics to settle him down again.

Enlist the Help of Another Horse

A horse is usually most determined to get home quickly when he hasn’t been ridden regularly. During first rides after a winter vacation or layoff, even a secure horse may be more difficult to handle. After several rides, though, he’ll settle down and be more willing to listen to you. To reduce frustration on those first rides and to make a potentially dangerous ride a pleasant one, invite along another rider on a calm horse. Another horse to keep yours company will ease his mind.

With a companion horse, he is less apt to work himself into a tantrum or try to buck. Daily rides can take the edge off his explosive homecoming exuberance, and he will be more content to pay attention. After a few rides with another horse and by gradually getting back to your regular work routine, a horse who was a handful will become manageable.

The Herd-Bound Horse

A herd-bound horse may not want to leave the security of his herdmates or riding companions and will throw a fit if you expect him to leave the other horses. The horse is calm and content as long as he’s with buddies, but he doesn’t like getting behind and doesn’t want to leave them. If you split off from the group, he goes into a panic, whinnying and trying to get back to them. Even in a riding arena, he won’t pay attention to you when doing solo work; he’s always trying to move closer to his pals.

Some herd-bound horses are merely insecure and apprehensive when separated from their buddies; this isn’t as difficult to deal with as the individual who rears, bucks, and otherwise throws a temper tantrum when asked to separate from the group. The insecure, panicky horse can usually be safely ridden by a firm, patient rider who can keep him steady and heading in the proper direction. The angry horse is more of a challenge. You must keep him under control and obedient without getting bucked off or having him go over backward during his fit of temper.

Distraction

If you get into a dangerous situation, distract the horse. He can focus on only one thing at a time. If he’s angry, give him something else to consider so he can’t think about bucking or rearing.

Spin your horse in a circle. Use your direct rein firmly to pull him around and your outside leg to make him turn. Keep spinning him until he gets his mind off his anger and starts paying attention to you. This should defuse a potentially dangerous outburst and keep your horse under control. If he has to make a tight circle, he can’t buck and he can’t rear.

If your horse needs this kind of handling, use a snaffle so you can direct-rein him (see page 177). If he’s trained in a curb or is inclined to buck when he becomes angry, use a Pelham (see page 188). You can keep his head up and keep him from bucking with the action of the curb yet still be able to direct-rein him with snaffle reins to spin him. If he is well trained to neck-rein and also responds to leg pressure, you can spin him adequately without the snaffle.

Be Patient and Work Him

Punishing your horse for screaming and whinnying when you leave other horses is counterproductive. Horses who need the security of other horses are highly emotional and will continue to scream in spite of punishment; it just makes them jumpy or head shy. Allay his fears with patient work and miles of riding. Long daily rides are usually the best therapy for the horse who is insecure without companionship.

Once a horse has been ridden regularly enough to take the edge off his emotional insecurity — that is, he now displays resigned acceptance when leaving other horses or working apart from a companion — his reactions to other horses he hears or sees in the distance will be more predictable, and he will also scream less. Be patient; eventually you’ll notice a change in his attitude.

The best cure for the herd-bound horse is lots of work — daily rides, to impress on him that he can function and listen to you without other horses around. Cattle work is ideal, as the horse must focus his mind on following or checking cattle instead of on other horses or on rushing home.

Give Him Special Lessons

Take a trip in open country or along a jeep road. Have two riders go with you so you can continually change positions with them. Take turns trotting ahead, slowing to a walk, and letting the others pass. Continue this walk-trot leapfrog of riders, adjusting the distances to the comfort level of your horse and increasing distances as he becomes more manageable.

CONDITION HIM GRADUALLY

One way to overcome the problem of the horse who loves company is to part ways with other riders during some planned lessons. Go a short distance from them, but travel alongside them, gradually riding farther apart each day. After several sessions, you can split up to meet again at a designated area. A horse may never cease looking and watching for the other horse, but he’ll become better behaved and calmer while he is alone. He may be upset until you are clear out of sight of the others, then settle down and pay attention to you — until, of course, he meets the other horses again.

If your horse wants to trot to catch up with one ahead, don’t hold him back. Ask him to walk, and release pressure when he does. Maintain your body rhythm at a walk, using all your cues to keep your horse relaxed and walking. Whenever he breaks gait, ask for a walk. If he won’t walk, have your friends make the distance gap smaller until he can. You can do this leapfrogging lesson for miles, and gradually, your horse will be at ease even though his buddies are farther away.

Use His Buddy as Motivation

This is an arena exercise to calm a herd-bound horse. Station a friend on a buddy horse at one end of the arena, leaving room between the buddy horse and the fence (enough space that you can easily ride between that horse and the fence), while you ride back and forth in the arena. When you go to the far end, halt your horse so that he is facing the buddy horse. If he wants to go to his buddy, let him, but when he gets there, make him work — trotting or cantering circles around the buddy horse — until he decides he’d rather rest.

Ride him to the opposite end again, then ask him to turn and stand with a loose rein. Allow him to rest, and pat him. If he wants to go back to his buddy, let him, but make him do circles again. When he realizes he must work when he’s with his buddy and can rest at the other end of the arena — with you for security — he’ll start to rethink things. Once he calms down and can relax a moment at the far end, ride him quietly back to his pal, let him stand there a moment, then ride back to the far end. You want him to learn that he can be comfortable away from his buddy but that you aren’t trying to keep them apart all the time; he must be able to come and go as you direct.

With patient work, his level of insecurity will change. He’ll find he can tolerate and even be content working apart from the other horse, especially if he starts to trust you as his working partner. You become his security. This is why patience is always better than punishment: your horse must come to trust you and find his security in you.

The Head Tosser

Some horses toss their heads because of a physical problem — a sore mouth aggravated by bit pressure, for example; a poorly fitting bit that pinches; or a bit that bumps wolf teeth. If head tossing begins or continues in spite of good horsemanship, check your horse’s mouth. Make sure the bit fits and is adjusted to rest comfortably on the bars. A bit too narrow or wide that is sliding around or a headstall that is rubbing the corners of his mouth because it’s too tight or is clanking against his teeth because it’s too loose could be the cause of his fretting.

Even if you can’t see a problem, it’s a good idea to have your veterinarian check the mouth, in case there’s something farther back inside the mouth that you cannot see. The veterinarian can use a speculum to hold the mouth open and a light to check the cheeks and molars for hooks at the back that may interfere with proper head position when the rider is trying to get the horse to flex at the poll and collect. Or he or she may more closely examine the area where a bit may be causing pain. A broken-off wolf tooth, for instance, may not be visible but may be very sensitive when touched by the bit.

If the horse is tossing his head because he has been rushed in his training and does not fully accept the bit yet, the solution is to go back to the beginning and start over. Do some ground work with the horse in a bitting harness (see chapter 8) until he is comfortable with the bit and is no longer trying to avoid it.

In other instances, the horse tosses his head because of impatience or annoyance. It’s frustrating to ride a head tosser who’s always pulling and rooting at the bit. An overeager horse may root in reaction to a rider trying to hold him back. Another frets and tosses his head when following another horse because he is afraid of being left behind. Still another tries to get more slack in the reins to keep his mouth from being bumped by a rough-handed rider. Once a horse has the habit of tossing his head, it takes time and patience to correct it.

Three types of horses are particularly prone to head tossing:

The overeager horse. When a horse tries to go too fast, the rider’s tendency is to hold him tighter, to stop the prancing and head tossing. Unfortunately, this usually makes the horse fight the constant restraint and toss his head even more. Under some riders a nervous or overeager horse is never able to relax. The rider is upset and frustrated, and these feelings are transmitted to the horse through tight reins and the rider’s tension.

The horse who frets at being left behind. Many nervous horses don’t like to follow another horse, especially if they get a little bit behind. They root at the bit, trying to go faster and catch up, tossing their heads. If the rider gets frustrated and tries to make the horse stop prancing, the horse tosses his head even more.

• The annoyed horse. Sometimes a horse is well trained but his rider doesn’t know how to handle the reins — perhaps bumping the horse’s mouth with the bit or keeping the reins too tight — so the horse gets into the head-tossing habit. Though the horse is always under control and always at the right gait, he tosses his head or grabs the bit. He is protesting the manner in which his mouth is being handled.

Improve Your Signals

To rehabilitate your horse, you need better communication and must fine-tune your cues. Communication is through hands, bit, leg pressure, and weight shifts. Calm hands can relax your horse and keep from irritating a sensitive mouth. If a horse performs poorly, it’s usually the rider’s fault. If you can’t get him to do what you want or to settle down or he starts tossing his head, don’t automatically blame your horse. Look at your own horsemanship to find the communication gap. Some riders resort to a tie-down or a martingale, but with good hands you can prevent or halt head tossing without such crutches.

Frustration is catching, but so is relaxation. If you are relaxed, your horse will feel it. Try to communicate relaxation through your fingers and your whole body (see pages 288–90 for more on this technique). If you stop pulling and use give-and-take actions on the reins, he will stop rooting.

Most head tossers pull at the bit and throw their heads up as a reaction to being pulled at or bumped in the mouth. If you don’t pull with the bit or bump his mouth, your horse won’t toss his head. If you aren’t pulling, he won’t. It’s as simple as that.

MAKE WALKING THE EASY CHOICE

A horse can be talked out of prancing and jigging by asking him to do other maneuvers besides just going down the trail. If you request turns and changes of direction, he will eventually figure out that these require a lot of effort on his part and that it would be easier just to settle down and walk.

Too much restraint creates more head tossing. You and your horse must develop better rapport so you won’t need much restraint with the bit. This takes time and patience. Eventually, you’ll reach the point where the horse can relax, knowing his mouth won’t be pulled. If he starts to toss his head again, give him more slack, leaving his mouth alone. He should settle back into a relaxed gait, having learned confidence in your light hands. If he trusts you, he will be content to stay at the gait you want. He won’t toss his head unless you bump his mouth or hold him up too tightly.

Horses Who Resist the Bit

Most horses start resisting or avoiding bit pressure because the bit has been overused (see The Jaw on page 320). The best way to prevent or overcome this problem is to use the reins as lightly as possible. Never rely on reins alone as signals, even just for slowing and stopping your horse, and never use reins to recover your balance.

Ride well balanced. Give cues through your legs, your seat, and weight shifts to augment or reinforce prompts given with the bit. This combination helps to ensure that you won’t exert excessive bit pressure. Perfect your riding so you can go through all gaits and back to a walk and halt on a loose rein, signaling more with your seat and legs than with the bit. With light hands, you can cue with slight checking actions while still on a loose rein. It may take time to retrain a horse who resists the bit, but once he realizes that he is not abused by it, he will get softer in his responses and will learn to relax his jaw.

The Hard-Mouthed Horse

Communication is thwarted if a horse doesn’t respond at all to the bit. He keeps doing what he’s doing, rooting into the bit or tightening his jaw and neck muscles, so a pull on the mouth is ineffective. A horse who lugs or pulls on the bit becomes dangerous when he defies control if he becomes a bolter.

Lack of responsiveness to bit pressure is usually a sign of insufficient training or improper training and can result in a spoiled, headstrong horse. He has been allowed to get away with bad actions and now does them out of habit.

Some horses become hard-mouthed because a rider was careless. A green horse, or any horse who hasn’t learned how to collect when ridden, travels heavy in front and pulls against the bit; the rider must be careful not to use too much bit pressure. Harsh action with a bit causes pain and can damage the nerves in the bars of the mouth (the toothless space where the bit rests), deadening the feel and creating an insensitive mouth. These are the most difficult cases to retrain.

Other horses travel heavy in front due to poor conformation of the neck and back; they cannot flex very well. They seem insensitive to a bit because it is difficult for them to collect and respond properly. These horses often become hard-mouthed.

An insensitive mouth or a bit-grabbing horse is frustrating to ride. There can be no precision or fine-tuned control of his actions if you can’t communicate at all with his mouth. It is almost impossible to make him supple and responsive.

Use Caution

The hard-mouthed horse can be dangerous, because he won’t respond properly when you ask him to slow or stop. He may discover he’s stronger than you are and become a bolter or a runaway. If a horse bolts just once, because of a frightening stimulus, he should be forgiven, not punished. Halt his flight, and try to determine the cause of his fear. If it is something he may have to encounter again, see if you can acquaint him with the worrisome stimulus under calmer circumstances. Go back to the spooky rock or the clothesline flapping, and halt. Let him stand, relaxed, at a safe distance until he wants to check it out.

He needs to realize his flight was unnecessary. Deal with the situation in such a way that his run-first, think-later reaction won’t become a habit. A horse who bolts out of fear needs reassurance and patient training. But if your horse charges off whenever he becomes frightened or upset, he needs extra work on control so that you are the one in charge of the situation. He must become disciplined and trusting enough to accept your direction and control.

Dispense with the Bit

For the truly hard-mouthed horse who lugs into the bit when asked to stop or clamps his teeth on it so that you have no control, either change bits or use a side-pull for a while. You need some means of control during the retraining process. You don’t want your horse bolting or pulling at the bit while you are reschooling him; you must change tactics and start at the beginning.

DON’T GIVE UP

Most hard-mouthed horses or bolters can be retrained to be more responsive to the rider’s hands. Remember, though, that each horse is different. The habitual bolter may need a more forceful remedy than the honest horse with an insensitive mouth. It’s up to you to figure out the correct retraining procedure.

Another solution is the mechanical hackamore (see page 198). With this aid, you can control your horse without using his mouth at all. It has a headstall like a bridle but lacks a bit. Pressure points are his nose, chin, and poll instead of his mouth. The mechanical hackamore allows you to leave his mouth alone while you teach your horse to respond more to your body and leg aids.

Reschool Him

Your goal here is to get your horse to respond to all cues — to your whole body and its signals — and not just to a pull on the reins. If you learn to control him with subtle cues, you can depend less on bit pressure and thereby circumvent his problem. He’ll also become more responsive and less inclined to try to avoid bit signals.

Your horse must pay attention to what you are telling him—to speed up or slow down, to collect and extend, to come to a stop — just by the feel of your body language, weight shifts, and subtle movements, which should always accompany the bit signals. The way you ride gives him clues about what you are asking him to do. Only the inexperienced rider relies mainly on a bit. Cues given with a bit should be refined and varied, not just a yank or a steady pull. You can go back to a bit again after your horse responds well — as long as you continue to control the horse with your whole body.

Start Over

If the horse has an unresponsive mouth because he has never been trained properly and thus ignores bit pressure, go back to the basics. Teach him to respond to leg pressure and how to flex, collect, and extend. Soon he’ll find that the bit is just part of the total communication package. In the process, he will learn how to respond to a broadened application of the aids and also to the bit.

When giving signals with the bit, be gentle. This horse is accustomed to being pulled at and pulls hard in response. If you use a hard, steady pull to slow or stop, he may clamp his jaw. He’ll pay more attention to a softer touch, especially if the bit moves around or vibrates in his mouth. A soft give-and-take is more effective than a strong steady pull on the reins. Pull and slack, and he’ll pay attention. When he responds, reward him with relaxation of pressure. He’ll learn that obeying your signal to slow or halt brings instant relief, and he’ll start to relax his mouth more.

It may take a lot of time and patience, and your horse may revert to pulling into the bridle or trying to bolt if he becomes startled or upset. If he misbehaves in the company of other horses and pays more attention to them than to you, do a lot of quiet training with just the two of you until he demonstrates good patterns of response.

Improve Your Riding

To prevent or correct a hard mouth, always make sure you do not bump or jerk the mouth unintentionally. Learn to follow the horse’s head and neck movements without losing contact with his mouth or jerking it. Move your hand(s) in response to the horse’s balancing movements; his head bobs at each stride at the walk and at the canter and gallop. Your own balance must be excellent so you never “catch him in the mouth” accidentally.

Better horsemanship can help you retrain a hard-mouthed horse, developing his ability to respond to all your cues — legs, voice, weight shifts — as well as to subtle touch on the bit. A good mouth is the result of careful training, encouraging the horse to accept the bit willingly with no fear of being hurt.

The well-trained horse accepts bit contact with a relaxed and yielding jaw because he has confidence in your hands. To retrain the hard-mouthed horse (and thwart the bolter), you must start over and teach him the basic responses, encouraging him to become more pliable and maneuverable. When he learns or relearns how to respond to your whole body, you won’t have to rely so much on the bit. As you develop more subtle communication, this may improve your own horsemanship, eliminating the conflict and confrontational situations that earlier resulted in a tug-of-war stalemate between you and your horse.

The Bolter

One way to counteract bolting is to spend a lot of time riding miles at the walk, day after day, until your horse becomes more relaxed. He may still bolt a few times until you get further along in his rehabilitation, so be prepared to keep him under control. The confirmed bolter may need a firm hand to break him of taking the bit in his teeth and doing whatever he pleases.

But remember, your horse is stronger than you are. If he gets up speed and you can’t stop him, the worst thing to do is to pull straight back on his mouth; he’ll just lean into the bit and keep going. A racehorse runs leaning into the bit, so bit pressure is not what you need to stop a horse.

To stop a bolting horse, brace one hand against his neck and take a short, firm hold on one rein with the other hand. Then, with a quick pull, take the horse’s head away, bringing him around in a circle so he has to stop.

The best way to control a runaway is to pull his head around to the side. This can be accomplished with quick give-and-take actions on one rein to bring his head around before he has a chance to set his jaw and neck muscles against your pull. Use your legs and body weight at the same time to make your horse turn and circle. You don’t want to keep him running straight and blindly with his head pulled around to the side. Once he’s circling, make the circles smaller and smaller until you can stop him.

Use a snaffle bit so you can direct-rein him to pull his head around (see pages 177–83) or try a Pelham (see page 188) with four reins, which has the action of the snaffle as well as the curb. For a bad runaway with the bit in his teeth, you may have to take one rein in both hands and pull him around. Reach well forward on the rein, and holding it low, give a series of quick, strong pulls with both hands to bring him around.

If your horse has made a habit of headstrong flight, make it unpleasant for him so he won’t want to bolt. If he gets up speed and doesn’t want to stop, pull him around and make him keep going in a controlled circle until his desire to run has worn off and he is quite willing to stop at your signal. A few sessions of making the bolting into an enforced work session will do much to persuade your horse that there’s no future in running away. In the meantime, keep up the reschooling sessions to develop better communication and responsiveness.

Keep in mind that a habit like bolting is very dangerous. Rehabilitating this kind of attitude is not always easy or safe and is not appropriate for a beginning trainer to tackle. If you are at all unsure about your ability to control the horse, your best option is to take the horse to a professional trainer. It takes time and experience to develop the ability to handle a dangerously spoiled horse safely and confidently, and the wise thing to do is to have an expert deal with this situation or sell the horse.

The Balker

Some horses refuse to go past, over, or through an obstacle because they’re afraid to deal with anything beyond their range of experience. Others balk at things they associate with earlier anxiety. They won’t go near a creek because they were yelled at and whipped in an attempt to make them go into water. They balk at a jump because of an earlier failure or insecurity.

You need to determine whether your horse, in trying to avoid the task at hand, is acting from fear, inexperience, apprehension, bad memories, lack of confidence, or overwork. Is he truly afraid or merely reluctant? An inexperienced horse needs a different training approach from that of a spoiled, confirmed balker. The frightened horse needs reassurance. A recalcitrant horse may need some different incentives.

KNOW YOUR HORSE

Know your horse and have an idea why he is balking so you can approach the problem from the proper direction. Force may work for a stubborn animal, but it won’t be successful with the truly fearful one. Tactics that might work for one balker may not work for another. Never use force in a contest that you might lose or the horse will realize he is in control, and he will balk again.

Patience and Persuasion

A young or inexperienced horse may be so unsure of a situation such as crossing water or stepping over a log that he won’t even try it. Whenever there’s a problem, always try patience first; this tactic can persuade most horses. Occasionally, however, you encounter one that reacts stubbornly to anything he perceives as difficult or impossible. With this horse, you may have to use enough coercion to prompt him into the water or over the log so he can learn that what you asked was not the terrible, impossible request he perceived it to be. He discovers that he can get his feet wet and that he can step over the log without its biting him.

Coercion

If you must resort to force, it is essential to do it wisely. Use only the amount necessary to persuade your horse, then immediately reward him when he complies. Talk gently to him and pat him as he nervously stands in the water, or praise his accomplishment after he has stepped over the log. Repeat the action. Go over the log or through the water again until your horse gains confidence in his ability and loses his fear or apprehension. Repeating the activity a few times will reinforce his change of attitude.

With the horse who balks because of insecurity, using incentive (persuasion) and reward (praise and letting him relax) after he performs the required action will usually solve the problem. He’ll see that the situation is not as terrible as he thought and will find that the coercion ceases as soon as he complies.

Work Gradually

Often the best way to overcome the phobia of a balker is to acquaint him gradually with the obstacle so he can lose his fear. If the situation is something he had a bad experience with, however, gradual rehabilitation may be in order. Start with a similar but smaller obstacle. When he learns to deal with it, then build up his experience and confidence. Go back to ground work if necessary. This system works both for training the jumper and for retraining the jumper who balks. Lead him across poles on the ground (see page 375), and build step-by-step from there.

Sometimes it helps to have someone follow your horse as you lead him over a pole or log, to gently encourage with a whip if he balks. Once the obstacle loses its scariness, go back to mounted lessons. If your horse still has a hang-up, resort to a previous aid or cue, such as the touch of a whip or a following helper, that your horse associates with an earlier success. He learns that he can do it without confrontation.

Now gradually work back up to the original obstacle that caused the problem — the puddle, perhaps, or a log or jump. If you take rehabilitation one small step at a time, building on previous successes, your horse’s confidence level will increase until he can tackle what was once a frightening obstacle. At this point, he knows he can do it.

Be Creative

If your horse’s problem is noise at a show, have friends make applauding sounds. If he balks at certain jumps, create obstacles that are really easy to hurdle. Success breeds success. Make the jumps so low that your horse can do them easily, no matter what position he tries to get into. After he jumps, praise him, even if he jumps imperfectly or runs off afterward. Make the jump a positive experience in his mind, even if you have to lower the obstacles. To ensure success, put the pole clear down on the ground for a while.

At first, slow to a trot so your horse can get a better look at a jump if he wants to, but once he understands he must go over it no matter what, work at normal speed. If he tries to avoid the jump, use the reins and your legs to keep him facing it. Sidepass back and forth or back him up, but keep him facing it. Don’t turn in a circle to make a new approach. Your horse must learn he can’t have a second chance to look at the jump; he has to take his best shot the first time. He can’t escape that responsibility by balking or running out. He’ll soon find that evasive action only makes it harder because he’ll have to jump from a standstill.

Don’t force him at jumps too much, however; you are trying to build confidence. You don’t want his fear to override your commands. Try to stay in tune with your horse’s attitude so you can encourage him but not push too hard. Always praise his accomplishments. Your goal is to train him to want to jump rather than avoid it by balking; he must trust you and gain confidence in his ability.

Reasonable Expectations

Don’t expect more from your horse than he can perform. Don’t destroy his confidence by pushing him into something he’s not ready for. If he balks, whether out on the trail, over jumps, or in some other aspect of training or work, it’s up to you to find the cause and correct it. Respect his fears and phobias, and together you can work through them. Patience is key. Don’t lose your temper when things go wrong or the horse will remember the conflict and be reluctant to try the obstacle again. A balker is often created by the rider.

The Rearer

Rearing can be more dangerous than bucking. Usually, when a rider is thrown, the result is a few bruises or a broken bone or a concussion, injuries that are serious enough. But if a rearing horse goes over backward, the rider may be crippled or crushed unless he is agile or lucky enough to jump free.

To reform a rearer, you must determine the cause. Horses rear in an attempt to avoid something. Always eliminate the possibility of a physical problem before looking any further; if it’s a physical problem, your horse is trying to avoid pain. If a horse starts rearing for no apparent reason, have your veterinarian check his mouth and teeth for injury or soreness. If he’s ridden in a curb bit, check his lower jaw to see if the curb chain or strap is too tight or is rubbing him. Examine the corners of his mouth. If he has a mouth injury or the bit is causing pain, don’t ride him in a bit until it heals.

Fear, Frustration, Emotion

Rearing may be caused by fear of something in front of the horse or along the trail; he’s trying to avoid going closer. Rearing can also be caused by frustration at conflicting demands — for example, the rider asks him to go forward with strong leg aids but restricts forward movement with the reins.

A REARER MAY BE IN PAIN

A horse may start rearing when he experiences pain that is aggravated by forward movement, from ill-fitting tack, perhaps, or a sore back. He rears to avoid going forward. An old back injury or some other problem may cause pain if a saddle puts pressure on it.

Rearing may be an emotional response to something the horse doesn’t like; he refuses to perform a specific maneuver because he has been drilled too much or has had a bad experience with it. Occasionally, a horse will rear due to fatigue and overwork; it’s a way of protesting and telling the rider he’s not going to go forward anymore. If the horse finds out he can avoid a situation or maneuver by rearing, it may become a bad habit.

Another cause of rearing is the horse’s learning to get behind the bit in order to avoid control. Most horses who learn this trick have been overbitted and rushed in training. They may have been put in a curb bit before they had mastered the fundamentals in a snaffle.

Some rearers are caused by trainers who work too hard at setting the horse’s head instead of trying to achieve true collection. They think they can collect a horse by working his head, collecting him from front to rear instead of the other way around. They pull on the bit instead of pushing him forward onto the bit. A horse who is behind the bit has not learned how to respond to the rider’s legs or reach for the bit, because the trainer has taught him only to back off the bit (see page 196). Some horses follow that to the ultimate degree and start rearing.

Improve Your Riding

The most common cause of rearing is a heavy-handed rider who tries to make up for her own insecurity by using a severe bit. A timid rider, confronted with a high-spirited horse, may be afraid to let the animal have its head for fear of being bucked off or having a runaway, so instead the rider keeps a tight rein. She may even switch to a more severe bit if she has trouble controlling the horse. In self-defense, the horse starts rearing to escape abuse of his mouth. If the timid rider is frightened by the rearing and doesn’t know how to regain control (and is basically letting the horse take control) or dismounts hastily, the horse soon learns he can avoid an unpleasant situation by rearing. If this happens more than once, it could become habit.

The Barn-Sour Rearer

Other horses rear when upset and insecure. The barn-sour horse doesn’t want to leave the security of stall or paddock, and when a rider tries to force him to leave his familiar place, he may start rearing. Or he may leave reluctantly but be in a hurry as soon as the rider turns toward home. The horse may be so frantic to get home that if a rider tries to hold him back he starts to rear.

Other horses are not happy unless they are with their buddies or in front of the pack; these horses get upset if the rider wants to stand still, especially if his pals are moving away. Because the horse wants to go with them or to be out in front, he may throw a tantrum and even resort to rearing.

NIP REARING IN THE BUD

It’s easier to thwart rearing the first time a horse tries it than to stop it once he has begun using it as an evasion tactic. After it becomes a habit, the horse tends to do it automatically whenever he is confronted by a situation that causes him frustration.

Prevent Rearing

To prevent rearing in the first place, use a mild bit. Don’t rush the horse in training. Build on the basics, and don’t progress to more difficult work until he is ready. Many rearers are the result of trainers’ being in a hurry; the horse starts rearing when he is confused or resisting the rider because he is incapable of performing what is being demanded.

Never “reward” a horse for rearing by getting off and ending the ride or he will use this tactic to avoid work. If a green horse rears because of fear and insecurity, have another rider on an experienced horse go with you to “babysit” the young one out on the trail a few times until he gains confidence in new situations.

If he rears because he doesn’t want to leave the barn, ride around the barn or in the barnyard awhile — continue the ride so you can end on a positive note and with you in control. Then figure out a way to prevent a repeat performance on your next ride.

Never ignore a rearing episode, even if it’s the first time a horse tries it. Determine the cause so you can prevent recurrence and head off this evasive action before it becomes a pattern. Was he reacting from pain, stubbornness, fear, anxiety, frustration, or because he was confronted with something he didn’t understand and didn’t know how to cope with? Knowing the reason for rearing gives you a starting point for how to deal with it and how to prevent its happening again.

Alternate Methods

When working with a habitual rearer, remember that a horse “on the aids” (see page 62) cannot rear unless you make him do it. Being “on the aids” begins by being on the bit; this should be your first goal, especially with a horse who has learned to get behind the bit or one who has been abused with a bit.

Work with him on the ground. A safe way to start retraining the rearer is to longe him in a bitting rig (see pages 146 and 177, respectively). Adjust the side reins so they are just snug enough for your horse to feel the snaffle bit while doing a medium trot but not tight enough to make him flex at the poll. Make him trot freely. If he balks or tries to rear, use a longeing whip to make him move briskly forward against the light pressure of the snaffle. Give him some breaks, walking with the side reins loosened, but don’t let him stop.

Continue these lessons in making him go forward against the bit until your horse accepts light bit pressure quite well. The next step is to ground-drive him in the bitting rig. Gradually shorten the side reins, and ask for a little more flexion and a firmer hold on the bit. If he’s reluctant to go forward, encourage him with the whip. Ground-drive your horse in circles and spirals — this keeps his neck slightly flexed toward center. In this position, his hind feet make a slightly larger circle than his fronts, which puts more weight on his forehand and makes it more difficult for him to back off the bit.

Ground-drive him this way for several days, until he’s relaxed and no longer afraid of bit pressure. Then drive him from behind, and ask him to halt. Don’t demand an abrupt stop, and don’t pull on the lines. Just give the verbal Whoa, fix your hands (don’t pull), and gradually slow him down as you slow down yourself, and let him feel the bit. Each time he slows, give slack as a reward, then fix your hands again. Once your horse has stopped and is standing quietly, praise him. If he throws his head up or tries to back off the bit, you’ve been too heavy-handed. Go back to driving him in circles and spirals until you both relax.

Work with him under saddle. Go through these movements mounted, using a mild snaffle. Ride with fixed and yielding hands (no pulling), and develop your horse’s responsiveness to leg aids. He can rear only if he is standing still (even if momentarily) with his legs well under him or if he is moving backward. If he’s responsive to leg cues and you can urge him forward, he can’t rear. If you handle him with consistent firmness and no abuse, he’ll forget about trying to rear.

Substitute an alternative action. Correcting the rearer can also be accomplished by substituting an acceptable movement for rearing; that is, you train him to do another action in place of it. A good alternative is the turn on the forehand (see pages 174 and 175), which puts his weight forward and on his front legs, a position from which he cannot rear.

Teach your horse this movement from the ground, cueing him to move his hindquarters away from pressure. Then do the lesson mounted, teaching him instant obedience to the leg cue. Ask him to keep his front legs in place, using firm rein contact, and use your leg — the one you want him to move away from — to ask him to move his hindquarters over. Then ask him immediately to move forward again. Ask for the turn on the forehand whenever you feel your horse shift his weight backward to rear.

By not confronting the horse and using a trained maneuver to defuse a potential rear, you can win the battle without a fight. The key to reforming the horse is to develop trust. It’s possible that by simply inspiring trust and a feeling of security, you can reduce or alleviate the instances in which your horse feels threatened enough to rear.

The Bucker

Horses buck for a number of reasons, and it’s a dangerous habit. Some will buck if the saddle or rider is causing them pain. Others are stubbornly seeking to be dominant; their first reaction to anything they don’t like is to protest — by bucking. Some learn early on that they can get rid of a rider by bucking. These horses are unpredictable, and you can never completely trust them.

Some horses buck when they are afraid, startled, or annoyed. When you first start a horse under saddle, for example, if he is not at ease with this new situation, he may try to buck off the saddle or the rider. Most horses discontinue this tactic once they are accustomed to the new experience. A few, however, learn they can get rid of a rider by bucking and will keep doing it. A confirmed bucker needs professional training or should be sold, but a horse who bucks only occasionally can be retrained by a good rider.

Be Prepared for Bucking

If you are always alert and in control, you can generally keep your horse from bucking or at least from bucking hard. He must be able to get his head down to knee level or lower to perform a powerful buck; if you have contact with his mouth and control of his head, you’ll be able to ward off a buck.

The best way to keep a horse from bucking is to pull his head quickly around to the side so he can’t get a strong downward pull on the reins. A horse can’t buck while circling. If you’re unsure about your ability to keep his head up, ride with his halter rope tied to the saddle horn. Have just enough slack in the rope to give him freedom of head for traveling normally but not enough to get his head down far enough to buck. Usually, after a horse is continually thwarted in his attempts to buck, he’ll stop trying, but some must always be ridden with extra vigilance so that the rider is never caught off guard.