Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Often we inadvertently train our horses to do things we don't want them 
to do.  The most common mistake in this regard is the unintentional 
rewarding of bad behaviour.  Unless your horse's misbehaviour is the 
result of genuine fear, soothing or gentle words are a mistake.  Horses 
love us to stroke them with our voices so when your mare backs out fast, 
the last thing you want to do is reward her with your touch or your voice.

Set aside a good two hours.  Fully load her as if you were going 
somewhere.  Then unload her.  As she comes shooting out, growl as 
unpleasantly as you can and chastise her with your best disappointed 
voice (think, "Bad Dog!  Bad, bad dog!").  Then load her again.  Keep 
doing this.  If she has any smarts at all, she will realize that loading 
and unloading isn't how it's done and she'll start to look at you to try 
to figure out what you want.  As soon as she does that connect with the 
eyes thing, praise her.  When she's figured out you want something from 
her and that coming out of the trailer coincides with your unpleasant 
voice, she might at first think that you don't want her to unload at 
all.  I've always trained my horses to stand quietly till I give them a 
specific signal to unload, usually a light touch and a soft "Okay" with 
my voice.  If you've done that too, then apply it when she hesitates so 
she'll know you really do want her to come out and at the same time, 
praise her for hesitating and THINKING.  Keep up the in and out till she 
puts together a string of 2 or 3 calm exits, each one rewarded by your 
nicest, gentlest, kindest voice.

It is possible that at some time she had a bad experience unloading from 
a step down (scraped legs or some such) and that she's developed the 
idea that pain and unloading are partners.  If you think this is a good 
likelihood, put shipping boots on her rear legs for the training session.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=