Introduction
Successfully breaking in a horse relies heavily on a solid foundation of trust and understanding between you and the animal, regardless of its age. When your horse feels secure and relaxed around you, it’s much easier to introduce them to the various tasks and situations involved in the breaking-in process. Additionally, a trusting relationship plays a significant role in keeping your horse calm during potentially stressful experiences, such as veterinary care.
Gaining Confidence for Breaking In
To create a strong bond before breaking in your horse, it’s essential to spend consistent and quality time with them, communicate calmly, and offer a reassuring touch. Familiarizing them with your presence will help establish trust, making it easier to introduce new scenarios and equipment during the breaking-in phase.
Gradual Introduction to Training
When it’s time to start breaking in your horse, begin with simple tasks such as leading them with a halter and applying gentle pressure on their sides. By introducing training exercises gradually, you’ll help familiarize your horse with the sensations and movements they’ll encounter under saddle or during other performance activities.
Encouraging Calmness During Medical Care
A strong bond of trust and understanding also comes in handy when your horse requires medical attention. If you’re present during veterinary procedures, offering comforting words and gentle pats, your horse is more likely to stay calm and cooperate, making the experience much smoother.
By emphasizing trust and understanding, you’ll be able to break in your horse effectively and set the stage for a successful and enjoyable partnership.
Building Trust with Your Horse: Overcoming Fear and Apprehension
Importance of the First Approach
The way you initially approach a horse is essential, as they are naturally inclined to be fearful and apprehensive in unfamiliar situations. In the wild, horses often react to fear or uncertainty by running away from anything they don’t understand or that frightens them. Therefore, adopting a gentle and reassuring approach is crucial when interacting with a new horse.
Approaching a Horse with Quiet Reassurance
To minimize the horse’s fear, approach them while speaking in a calm, relaxed manner. Using a soothing tone of voice will help to reassure the horse that you are not a threat, and it will encourage them to feel more comfortable around you.
Building on the Initial Contact
After establishing contact, gradually introduce physical touch to build trust further. Start with gentle strokes on the neck or shoulders and then slowly move to other parts of the horse’s body. By consistently maintaining a gentle and reassuring demeanor, you’ll help the horse become more at ease in your presence.
Tips for a Successful Approach
- Always approach from the side, avoiding the horse’s blind spots, and never approach them from directly behind.
- Move slowly and deliberately, without making any sudden or jerking movements.
- Pay attention to the horse’s body language, and adjust your approach as necessary.
By prioritizing a horse’s comfort and trust, you’ll create a mutually beneficial relationship that will help both of you enjoy a successful experience as you train and bond together.
Kicking Off Horse Training: Starting Early and Building Confidence
When to Start Horse Training
Many people ask when the right time to begin horse training is. The best answer is: as soon as possible, especially if you’re fortunate enough to breed or own your own horses. Starting early can be advantageous, as it allows you to build a strong rapport with the horse from a young age.
Importance of Building Confidence
The foundation of successful horse training lies in establishing a firm bond of trust and confidence with the animal, no matter how small. Young horses, or foals, are typically quite curious about their surroundings, though they can be naturally wary or scared, especially of things taller than them.
Encouraging Foal Curiosity
To minimize this natural fear, you can use the foal’s curiosity to your advantage. If you stoop down to their level, you become less intimidating, encouraging the foal to investigate you willingly. As they familiarize themselves with you and learn you’re not a threat, their confidence will start to grow.
Nurturing Reciprocal Relationships
Remember, the training process isn’t a one-way street. It should be a reciprocal relationship where both parties benefit. As the trainer, you are responsible for caring for the horse and meeting its needs. In return, the horse serves you by learning and executing the skills you teach during training. By nurturing this reciprocal relationship from a very early stage, the bond between you and the horse will strengthen and thus make the training process smoother.
Early Horse Training: Beginning with Foals and Nurturing Trust
First Steps in Foal Training
The first phase of training typically starts around 48 hours after the foal is born when they are led out with their dam (mother), either from a stable or within a field. Foal handling is greatly facilitated when the dam trusts the person handling her offspring.
Overcoming Protective Dams
Some dams can be exceptionally protective of their foals, making it difficult to touch the young horse during the initial days. In such cases, it’s often best to delay the first handling until the dam feels more relaxed. Alternatively, you can try to divert the dam’s attention to make it easier to approach the foal.
Gaining Confidence through Dam Interaction
- Catch the dam – If you’re confident in catching and holding the dam, one person can do this while another approaches the foal.
- Offer food to the dam – Distract the dam by providing her with a feed; this will help take her attention away from the foal.
- Approach the foal calmly – With the dam occupied, calmly approach the foal and initiate gentle contact to foster trust and confidence.
Establishing Trust in Early Training
It’s crucial to maintain a patient, gentle approach when handling young horses. By working with the dam’s disposition and strategically introducing the foal to human contact, a foundation of trust will emerge between you, the foal, and the dam, creating a positive environment for more advanced training as the horse matures.
Foal Training: Harnessing, Leading, and Observing Cues
Using a Foal Slip
After the first few days, you can start to familiarize the foal with basic harness equipment. Place a foal slip (a type of halter designed for young horses) on the foal’s head. Then, guide the foal to the field daily, placing one hand gently behind its hindquarters.
The Learning Process: Following and Leading
It might surprise you how quickly a foal learns to follow its mother and lead properly. This process relies heavily on observational learning as the foal mimics its mother’s movements.
Observing and Assisting
The person leading the mother, or mare, needs to keep an eye out to ensure the person leading the foal doesn’t fall too far behind. This observance is essential because if a foal loses sight of its mother – say, around a corner – it might freeze and refuse to continue walking.
Action Plan if the Foal Stops
If the foal responds by planting all four legs firmly into the ground or showing signs of anxiety, the leader of the mare should retrace their steps to fetch the foal. It’s all about reassurance and making the foal feel safe until it builds enough confidence to continue the journey comfortably.
Key Takeaways
- Gradually introduce the foal to a foal slip and lead it to the field each day.
- Ensure the leaders of the mare and foal maintain an adequate pace to keep the foal in the visual range of its mother.
- If the foal stops or shows signs of distress, revert back calmly, reassuring the foal until it’s ready to move forward.
Patience and gentle guidance during these early stages will shape the foal’s future training progress and overall confidence around handlers.
Tips for Haltering a Unhandled Young Horse for the First Time
Initial Challenges
The process of haltering a young horse for the first time can be a tough task, especially if it hasn’t been handled since birth. Various circumstances might lead us to this; for instance, a foal that’s been running free with its mother since birth that you’re about to wean, or a youngling purchased from a Mountain or Moorland breed sale, where they’ve been roaming wild on open, unfenced lands.
Moving the Foal to a Loosebox
When you first bring the foal home, it’s usually relatively straightforward to guide the youngster from the transport vehicle (let’s call it a lorry, for example) into a loosebox or pen. The transfer will often need a few extra hands to help guide the animal safely from one location to the next.
Giving the Young Horse Time to Settle
Once the foal is in its loosebox, ensure both top and bottom doors are securely closed. At this point, it’s best to leave the horse alone to settle into its new environment, finding its water and hay.
Utilizing an Adjacent Quiet Horse
Where possible, having a quiet horse in the adjoining box can be helpful. Ideally, the new young horse should be able to see this quiet horse through a window or bars, observing as you handle, care for, and feed this other horse. This exposure can help the newcomer gradually acclimate to human presence and interaction.
Approaching the Newcomer
Approaching the new young horse should be done slowly and non-threateningly. Stand and talk to it, offer a fresh piece of grass — a treat it might not have seen for a while. If the horse is brave enough to take the grass from you, and even seeks more, you’re halfway there!
Handling and Haltering Over Time
With patience and positive reinforcement, over a few days, you should be able to handle its head and neck and apply a head collar (halter). However, not every case will progress this smoothly. If the horse continues to be skittish, retreating to the furthest corner every time you approach, don’t be disheartened. Keep in mind, this horse may have never tasted corn, and unfamiliar feed such as oats might be confusing. Continue to calmly approach, speak soothingly, and offer familiar treats.
The Process of Haltering an Unhandled Animal
Using a Crooked Stick for Haltering
The common method employed by many people to halter an unhandled animal involves the use of a crooked stick. It may need delicate maneuvering, but with patience and consistency, the halter finds its way around the animal’s head.
Leaving a Rope Hanging from the Halter
Once the halter is in place, you can leave it on the animal with a rope hanging down. This rope provides a means for you to gently guide the animal towards you. For the safety of the animal, ensure the rope is knotted securely to the halter. This measure prevents the horse from getting hurt if it steps on the hanging rope.
The Role of the Hanging Rope
The hanging rope can also serve as a useful tool to catch hold of when the animal is still wary of you. Slow and steady wins this race, and with gentle strokes on the neck and face, the young one will gradually yield to being handled.
Gradual Progress and Frequent Visits
The secret to successful haltering is gradual progress. Each time, you will be able to go a bit further with your gentle touches, working your way backwards on the animal before wrapping up for the time being. Frequent visits — around five to six times a day in the beginning— will accelerate the horse’s comfort with your presence and handling.
The Art of “Gentling”
This technique is fondly referred to as “gentling,” a term borrowed from the old days. It emphasizes the process’s gentle nature, which is all about earning the animal’s trust through consistent, friendly, and non-threatening interactions.
Alternative Techniques for Haltering an Unhandled Animal
The Water Bucket Approach
Another, somewhat more challenging approach to haltering involves using the animal’s need for water. This technique requires patience and a commitment to consistently repeat the process to familiarize the horse with your presence and associate you with a positive experience – in this case, quenching its thirst.
Introducing and Withdrawing Water
This approach includes controlling the animal’s access to water by offering it only from a bucket. Give the animal a small drink and then remove the bucket, repeating this process frequently. This repetition encourages the animal to associate you with the provision of water, effectively developing a habit of relying on your presence for its needs.
Gradual Handling Using the Water Bucket Approach
With time and repeated encounters, the animal will become comfortable with you, allowing for eventual touch. Handling begins gently, perhaps as simple as a pat. After the animal becomes comfortable with your touch, you can then introduce more handling.
Introducing the Headcollar
Once you’ve managed to handle the animal’s head well, progress to the next phase. Here, you surreptitiously introduce the headcollar. While the animal drinks, always ensuring to scratch behind its ears for comfort, casually slip the noseband of a headcollar into the bucket of water.
Placing the Headcollar
As you gently scratch the animal’s ears, deftly move your other hand to slip the head strap of the collar over the animal’s head. A helper can be useful at this juncture to take the weight of the bucket, allowing you to focus on this critical step. This careful, reassuring approach should have your unhandled animal easing into the new sensation of a headcollar.
Handling Difficult Cases in Horse Haltering
Using a Rope to Halter the Horse
In tough situations where the usual haltering techniques don’t work, you might need to employ a more drastic — albeit risky — method: roping the horse. Using a stick, you can loop a slip knot over the horse’s head as if you were placing a halter.
The Potential Reactions to Roping
Upon feeling the rope, the animal may panic, plunging, fighting against it, and eventually collapsing out of exhaustion or fear. It’s now that you should quickly slip the headcollar on, ensuring there’s a long rope attached to it for subsequent hauling. Then, loosen the chokehold around the horse’s throat and allow it to rise.
The Risks of Roping
It’s important to note that this method can be hazardous, as the horse in its terrified state can end up injuring itself and anyone nearby. This method should always be treated as a last resort and only used when all other strategies have failed.
Adapting Techniques Based on Time and Achievability
Though I firmly believe in the effectiveness of the water bucket technique, there are circumstances where roping becomes an unfortunate necessity – such as needing to halter a horse within one afternoon when the ideal timeline isn’t an option.
Advancing from Haltering to Training
Upon successful haltering, you can move on to creating a bond with the horse and beginning regular training processes. While unhandled horses might start leisurely, they generally warm up quickly as your bond builds, especially after gaining their trust.
The horse rearers of old times suggested that you need to have one big tussle before the horse becomes submissive. However, not all horses switch to combat mode — I’ve seen quite a few that never put up a fight.
The Importance of Patience and Understanding
While gentleness is always the best approach, we’re all human, and our patience has its limit. Regardless of whether you’re dealing with a young foal or a nine-year-old unbroken animal, understanding their temperament and history is crucial. Older horses, for instance, tend to be more set in their ways, potentially making them more challenging to handle. Nevertheless, with patience and the right strategies, even the toughest cases can be managed effectively.
Debunking Old Training Techniques
Throwing the Horse Daily
Some traditional horse-training manuals suggest an approach that can seem quite severe today – tossing the horse to the ground daily to demonstrate the strength and dominance of humans. This method is believed to establish the man as the master in the horse’s eyes. However, it’s worth noting that I’ve never implemented this method in my practice.
Accidental Throwing during Lunging
Despite not intending to throw a horse, there have been instances where this has occurred unintentionally during lunging. An animal may get tangled up in the lunge reins, especially if it’s a difficult one who struggles or rears aggressively, inadvertently looping its legs over the reins.
The Importance of Maintaining Control
Regardless of the circumstances, it’s crucial not to let go of the reins if possible. If a horse learns that pulling away leads to freedom, it may get the upper hand, essentially “winning” that round of their interaction with you. Maintaining control sends a clear message; despite struggles, you remain in control.
It’s essential to remember though, this isn’t so much about gaining the upper hand in a contest, as it is about establishing a healthy rapport wherein both horse and human understand their roles, ensuring the safety and well-being of both parties.
The Journey of Transforming a 9-Year-Old Mare
The Unbroken Mare’s Initial Beliefs
We once had a 9-year-old mare given to us. She was calm enough to manage but had never been trained. This mare lived life confidently but firmly stuck in her ways, seemingly questioning why she should perform tasks she didn’t want to. After all, she’d spent nine fantastic years frolicking in the fields, with humans providing food when the grass was sparse, essentially serving her needs. So, why would she reverse her life order now?
The Initial Attempts at Lunging
When we attempted to train her in lunging, she showed resistance unless led by us directly. When we tried to get her moving forward with the whip, she became a study in rebellion – fighting, plunging, and entangling herself, me, and my helper in a chaotic mix. This struggle resulted in her tripping over and finding herself pinned down, emitting loud, furious roars.
Winning Over the Obstinate Mare
Despite my daughter’s fright and concern from an adjoining field, I chose to let the stubborn mare stay down. She began to get calm after some time and her heavy breathing eased, indicating a turn in the tides. After reassuring her with kind words and gentle pats, I slowly untangled the lunge rein from her legs and let her stand back up. It was at this point, I knew the first stage of our battle was won, and the mare seemed to know it too.
The Mare’s Transformation and Current Life
From that moment forward, dealing with the mare became significantly easier. Today, I still own her, and she’s one of the best horses for teaching lunging. Despite her tendency to overindulge and gain extra weight in summer, she maintains a beautiful physique in winter, exemplifying the concept of a tough, versatile pony who excels at hunting, jumping, gymkhanas, and more.
While I am grateful for having been gifted this once unbroken mare, she still retains a few quirks. She occasionally kicks other horses, and to this day, vehemently detests being confined to a box. We usually tie her up in the yard, as she tends to fret and sweat in a stable, although she travels quite well in a lorry or trailer. Perhaps this inclination for open space is a leftover trace from her nine years of unrestricted freedom in the fields.
