Creatures, big and small, are all trainable in some form, us included. Think about all the times something, someone, or some animal has trained YOU.
Your child trows a fit in the grocery store, because it wants a candy (…and you buy the candy to make it stop crying) The child thinks: “ah, when I throw a fit, I get candy”.Your dog barks to get your attention, you give it attention to make him stop, so he does it again. When you hear your bosses’ footsteps down the hallway, you quickly close your private email on your computer screen. Your horse kicks the wall at feeding time, so you give him his hay first before the others, so he doesn’t take the barn down. Your dog keeps putting a ball in your lap, and although you don’t want to play fetch, finally you’ll trow it anyway
You get it. I know. I’ve been ‘guilty’ of these things myself one way or another! ( let me tell you, I wouldn’t make a penny as a dog trainer!)
So how does that apply to horse training? Well, I try to turn things around a bit, call it reverse psychology. I can make my horse’s idea my idea and I get what I want and my horse THINKS he gets what he wants. I make him think that he is training me !
Example: My horse wants to back up when I want him to stand still. Make backing up your idea, so ask for backing up, lots of it, give him more backing up then he can wish for. ( do it with a smile- you get a lot of backing-up for free, and you need to work on back-ups anyway at some point, might as well take advantage of his gesture right now, so don’t get mad with your horse-utilize it! ) Before you know, he’ll ask you “can we please stand still now ?” (sure!-you got what you want-he THINKS he got what he wants)
See animals, horses in this case, have such more patience and persistence then we have and they’ll never quit trying.
So don’t let new undesired behaviour become a habit. That stall kicker at feeding time will not quit overnight, because he knows if he stays persistent, you’ll give in. It has worked for him for many years and has any staff member in the barn well trained. But when your horse starts that kind of behaviour, nick it in the butt, don’t let him train you, make him THINK he’s training you. How? When one starts kicking the wall at feeding time ignore him, feed everyone else, but him, until he’s quiet ( it may take 3 minutes, maybe 3 hours) Then feed him. Now he thinks:” that’s interesting, I can make my owner feed me, when I’m quiet”
Think on some things were you can apply the same ideas and post it !
