Horse Training

[Poncho]

I would be cautious on yanking on the halter as a correction method, as it is a violent action that would tend to make the horse head shy and difficult to halter. The halter is meant as a tool to guide, not a tool of correction.

The posts concerning taking to a trainer is the best advice here, particularily for novice horse owners. As someone else said, untraining can be very dangerous.

 

[cowboydoc]

<font color="red">The halter is meant as a tool to guide, not a tool of correction </font>

If used right the halter can be a great tool for correction. If you look at almost all of the top trainers out there they use some sort of corretion halter. Monty Roberts probably has the best one. When used the wrong it can cause the problems you mentioned but when used correctly it can be used to help with a number of problems.

Before I threw a horse in the roundpen I would make sure I knew what I was doing. You have to be very specific as to what you want the horse to do to make the roundpen effective. Many people just throw a horse in there and make them run. That doesn't teach the horse anything.

 

[NoTrespassing]

<font color="red"> I would be cautious on yanking on the halter as a correction method, as it is a violent action that would tend to make the horse head shy and difficult to halter. The halter is meant as a tool to guide, not a tool of correction.
</font>

I agree with Richard here.

<font color="red"> The posts concerning taking to a trainer is the best advice here, particularily for novice horse owners. As someone else said, untraining can be very dangerous. </font>

I think it depends on the horse and the behavior. Just taking care of a horse can be relatively dangerous. These people are already horse owners and probably understand that. I would think that anyone could hire a trainer if they have the money but I'm not sure thats the advice they were looking for.

People are hurt on tractors all the time but we don't always recommend that they hire out the landscaping, hole digging, loading, etc. to a professional. We offer the best advice we can and try to let them know of any inherent dangers.

Kevin

 

[cowboydoc]

I agree with you Kevin on not hiring a trainer. I believe that with the step by step videos out there now, and I think Clinton Anderson has the easiest to understand, you can get more accomplished with a $100 set of videos than you can spending $500/month on a trainer. A horse is no more or less dangerous than a tractor.

 

[Poncho]

I was a little quick on the reply... and I do agree the halter can be used as a correction tool when done correctly. But, any tool video/book you pick up will tell you if you have control of the horse's head... you have control/direction of the horse. My thought is if the horse is fighting the halter as stated by Fl Cracker, yanking on it is not the appropriate action. I do believe hiring a trainer to supplement owner training is still a good way to go. A horse is a domesticated animal that once roamed wild, and they still have the essence of a wild horse in them.

Good luck with the training, the friendly interaction with a horse is wonderful. It's funny how a lot of people who are unfamiliar with horses don't realize they have unique personalities like dogs do.

 

[Youare]

I had a Mustang for 14 years got her as a 2 year old from a family that adopted her from the BLM. She was right out of the wild when they got her. After seeing her energy they turned her out with another old horse and just feed her.

They told me one day if you want her take her away, she's yours. She had a habit of nipping which was her way of kind of playing but more importantly she was trying to establish her rank in dominance.

Just after I got her I attended a weekend event on training put on by John Lyons. He covered bitting and said it was one of the most dangerous things a horse can do. There was a three second rule in dealing with a bite. You basically have three seconds right after the bite to make the animal think it is going to die. No hitting with sharpe objects or hitting on the head but whatever means you have get all over that horse for three seconds.

Then let the horse calm down for a second or two and gently talk to it and stroke it until it is over the fear you just put into it. I had to do this only two times and my horse never even gave any indication she was going to bite. She would lick my arm but never put her lips in a way that made me think a bite could follow.

That worked for me. John told stories of people loosing thumbs and chunks of flesh from a horse bite. The longer you allow it to happen the bigger the problem to correct.

BTW that Mustang was the best horse I ever had, I was riding her 2 months after I got her and no one had sat on her back before. She never bucked once to get me off any time I rode her. People would ask me if I broke her, I would say nope we just have an agreement to be friends.

Randy

 

[zekeman]

FL_CRACKER
I also think Clinton Anderson is one of the most easiest
trainers to understand and use his techniques. there are three ways to view his methods.
1) He sells training videos
2) He has a weekly show on RFD-TV, if you have Dishnetwork (channel 9409 ) or Directtv (channel 379) on Tuesday nite 10pm eastern.
RFD-TV
3) Attend a 2 day weekend tour he gives in person in your area
March 12-13 2005 in Gainesville, GA.
December 17-18 2005 in Tampa FL
Tickets when On Sale are $25 for three days ( Friday evening optional - covering colt starting)
I have attended his weekend clinic and came away much improved in my training using his methods, I highly recomend his clinic. Access to Clinton to ask questions one on one is the part that surprised me, he makes himself availiable during breaks and after clinic each day.
Clinton Anderson
click on his 2005 Wahl WalkAbout Tour

Ron

 

[FL_Cracker]

Thanks to everyone for all your help. We have a good start. It will take us a while to work all these suggestions into our weekends.

Again, thanks,,,,

Charles /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[readytogo]

I have to agree with the Clinton Anderson videos. ~ pat parelli and John lyons are great but I feel they are for the more advanced horseman.
I have tried Clinton's techniques on my 3 yr old ~ who had a respect problem ~ as does your mare.
And they worked well, safely, and quickly.
best of luck!
I recommend "longeing for respect"

 

[cowboydoc]

When people ask me why I recommend Clinton Anderson over the others it's very simple. If you like fluff and want to play games with your horses then John Lyons and especially Pat Parelli are who you want to get. If you like all the bull crap that goes along with it you'll get plenty of it with these two.

On the other hand if you want training techniques and you want zero baloney then Clinton Anderson is your guy. The others are 90% rah rah and 10% training. Anderson is 10% rah rah and 90% training. All depends on what you want to do. Anderson also gets you down deep into the technical side of exactly how to make a lead change, exactly why you are doing flexing exercises, etc. The other guys rarely get you passed the roundpen until about 10 videos into their system.