Re: Presenting a horse so as to maximize possibilties for BC

[K S Swigart <katswig@deltanet.com>]

On Tue, 16 Jun 1998, Joe Long wrote:

> On Tue, 16 Jun 1998 14:12:38 EDT, <Trishmare@aol.com> wrote:
> 
> > How does one go about training their horse to not rub his head on the
> vet
> 
> Let's hope someone else has a suggestion on how to teach your horse to
> not do this?

The first thing you have to do is teach your horse the words "no" and
"okay."  Not all that unlike what you need to teach a dog.

Then, when the horse rubs its head on you (or any other human being) you
say, "no" (like you mean it).  When it is okay for them to scratch their
head on you, you say, "okay" (and point at  your butt:) so they know where
to rub. :)

Additionally, it helps if while you are teaching them this, you give them
some other way to scratch their face...which itches (and, I don't know
about you, but when I have an itch...I want to scratch it).

So...if they stop rubbing on you, THEN you scratch their face for
them....or you point at a tree and let them know that they can scratch
there, or they can rub their face on their own leg....or whereever.

And sometimes...they have to show a little self discipline and just let it
itch.

All these things need to be done in small enough steps so that the hors
can meentally handle it (which varies from horse to horse).  But the
general philosophy behind the training is to have the horse learn that
refraining from rubbing on you doesn't mean that they don't get to
scratch.

kat
Orange County, Calif.