Problem Solving clinic

I was called to the stable of a client I work with when I can get to her area. She had purchased a new horse for her daughter and was having problems with it now. Apparently she had it delivered from a southern state, and had not gone down there to see the horse and ride it. She decided to get the horse purely from what the seller told her, plus observing tapes. This obviously is never a good idea.

They had the horse delivered to them, and the next morning when they attempted to lead it out of the barn and turn it into a paddock  it reared up and they said struck at the father of the child. This frightened her, and now she refuses to have anything to do with the horse. Apparently it has reared when being led several times.

Wen I got there, I watched the horse in the paddock for a while and then went in with the horse. It was slightly  assertive, approaching me (NOT charging me) with his had up and ears back a bit. Since I had help, I decided to let the father asssist, and we led the horse to their round pen in the "cross-tie" method, that is, we each had a lead rope on the horse on each side. We could keep the horse at a safe distance from each other.

I then lightly round penned the horse. I do not believe in exhausting a horse, geting him to "submit" because he is totally subjugated by the handler. I have never had to do this. I did work him until he started to notice me, lick and chew,  and started to ask to come into my space. It took about 20 minutes of walking and trotting. 

When I led him, I worked him in moving away from my space and disengaging his haunches. I made certain that he allowed me to handle him from his side. If he even offered to not move away from me when I wanted or follow me willingly, I sent him out again.

I purposefully did not increase his anxiety or escalate the "discussion". I simply responded to the signals he was giving me. A horse cannot learn if he is tired or frightened. I then "double lunged"  him at the walk. I showed the owners how to desensitize him to the lines. This is usually about a 30 minute process with  a horse. I do not have space to go into detail, but it is very quietly done,allowing the horse to take his time to learn. At the end of this, the horse was lungeing around me both ways at the walk, which was all I wanted. It was evident that he was  now accepting  being led, lunged and worked in the round pen. 

I then rode the horse, but just at a walk with a few steps of jog.He was fine. I had the daughter do the same for just a few minutes. The horse had had a long training session, and had to be allowed to realize that it had done well. The next day the owners went over the same procedure, and the horse (from the latest reports) has not caused them any more problems.

I have to stress that each case is different. It has to be determined if at all possible WHY the horse has the particular behavior. Negative behavior as we know,  is caused by people almost all of the time.

Also, short sessions are usually very productive with horses. If the horse understands and does well, then end the session then. Working the horse for hours is abusive. For this reason, we can all hope that the "Cowboy Breaking" sessions (the winner rides an unbroken horse in the shortest amount of time) soon becomes outlawed.

Summersdressage@aol.com
www.MitziSummers.com