Re: Water evasion

[Lynette Helgeson <helgeson@lansford.ndak.net>]

Nancy,
This is a very good post. This method will establish trust between horse
and rider that will carry through to other scary things. A horse that is
handled like this will be more confident going down the trail. He does
not have to worry about anything hurting him, because the rider is
looking out for him and he knows it. 

This method may take more time then using stud chains and whips, but you
will have a calmer, more confident horse if you take the time and do it
this way. 

JMHO
Lynette 
It is in the 20's and 30's this week! Good riding weather. 



 
Farafix@aol.com wrote:
> 
> When training my stud colt my dressage trainer's "wait-em-out" technique
> worked very well with water.  I had worked with the colt on the ground; he
> would follow me thru water or I could ride him if another horse led, but he
> really didn't like a nearby stream crossing.
> So I would ride him down the trail until we got almost to the point where he
> was going to stop & I would ask him to halt just before he was going to anyway
> (that way it was my command to halt).  Then we would stand & stand & stand &
> stand . . . Since I had stopped just before the point that he was going to
> fight me, he was at a comfortable distance, & didn't make much effort to turn
> away. If he did, I just made him face the stream.  Since I had used this
> technique on other scary things, he knew that if he wanted to ever move again
> in his life, it was going to have to be forward,but I wasn't going to force
> him go forward.  Finally, after he got sooooo bored, he took a step forward,
> and we waited & waited & waited until finally he got soooo bored he took
> another step forward.  After an eternity he finally inched himself up to the
> stream & in it.  Once in, he went across with no problem.
> The next time we went out, it still took a lot of waiting for him to inch his
> way into the stream, but not as long as the previous outing.  Each time we
> went out, he got a little better & a little faster about crossing the stream.
> This technique took almost more patience than I had, but it avoided a big,
> potentially dangerous fight that I would probably lose.  The horse stayed
> calm, the horse figured out for himself that his choice was to stay standing
> before the scary obstacle for the rest of his life or confront it himself.
> Now when my stallion sees something he's not sure of he'll stop, look for a
> minute, give me a look over his shoulder & go on.  He knows that I will
> (usually) give him the time to check something out, so he doesn't get all
> upset at something a little scary.  It's much safer for me.  Now that he's
> older, I will ask him to go by/over something he's not sure of if time is of
> the essence, & he usually trusts me enough to go.
> 
> Nancy (Md)
> & Tempo, who crossed the Shenendoah