Horse Training Ideas

[sup3rn0th1ng]

Ok, well I figured I would get y'alls opinion on this. I just got hired to train this horse, he is a stallion and is about 3 years old. He has never had any training, he is a very friendly animal, now I had to get the halter on him wow was that a task...I have had a bit in his mouth because he was being pretty tame, but only once. Now The people that want me to train him do not want a whip used on him, they want him completely broken.

I can only work with him every weekend because of my work schedule. He will not lead he will refuse to lead and pretty much a stubborn horse when it comes to that. Now you can make all over him pet him comb him do anything pretty much, but lead, bridle, ride this animal.

I am running short on ideas since I do not use a whip. I have spent the last month working with him thats including putting the halter on him and pretty much getting him used to me.

I do go to there house and they have about 5 other horses 3 females :( they do not have a round pin, and do not want to put one up...

Any suggestions or ideas would be great.

Thanks in advance.

[appychick]

Do you have the RFD channel? I have it on directv on channel 379 and it has traning shows on it. It helped me alot because i have a very stubborn horse that wouldnt lead. I did what the trainers did and now my horse has awsome ground manners.

[cuttingfool]

Ok, well I figured I would get y'alls opinion on this. I just got hired to train this horse, he is a stallion and is about 3 years old. He has never had any training, he is a very friendly animal, now I had to get the halter on him wow was that a task...I have had a bit in his mouth because he was being pretty tame, but only once. Now The people that want me to train him do not want a whip used on him, they want him completely broken.

I can only work with him every weekend because of my work schedule. He will not lead he will refuse to lead and pretty much a stubborn horse when it comes to that. Now you can make all over him pet him comb him do anything pretty much, but lead, bridle, ride this animal.

I am running short on ideas since I do not use a whip. I have spent the last month working with him thats including putting the halter on him and pretty much getting him used to me.

I do go to there house and they have about 5 other horses 3 females :( they do not have a round pin, and do not want to put one up...

Any suggestions or ideas would be great.

Thanks in advance.

Have you trained (or been around) stallions before? If not, I'd caution you to tell the owners to get a professional trainer to start him. But let's assume you've done this before with some success, and you have a problem with what the owners are requiring you to accomplish with the tools available...

You don't need to whip the horse to motivate it of course - a plastic bag on the end of a stick will get almost any horse going in a hurry (unless it has already been used to desensitize them). Between that or a similar aid and a lunge line, there is a lot you can get done. But DO NOT start with forward motion! Anything but that, please. Best, get him to back up - freely and fairly quickly. Then (several sessions later) disengage the hindquarters until he'll pivot circles around you in either direction. Then the some sessions doing the same with the forequarters. THEN start asking for forward motion. If you are not totally comfortable with the preceding steps you should not be messing with a 3 year old stallion - he may be a real sweet boy right now, but very soon he is going to be a single-purpose 1000 pound-plus mating machine. If you get between him and a mare in heat before he's TOTALLY finish-trained (and maybe even then) it is a guaranteed dangerous situation.

Forget about the bit for now - it's just going to confuse him - once he will walk, trot, lope and STOP in a halter, on either a hand signal or verbal command, and do nice transitions between all three gaits - up and down - and stop from any gait (most important) - then you can go back to the bit. At that point, do some ground driving in driving lines and a surcingle (lines first clipped to a halter then to the bit when he understands it all), then add a bareback pad, then a saddle with the lines through the stirrups... after maybe 50 sessions he'll be safe to get on if you've done everything right. That could take two months if you were working him every day. Working only on weekends - you better allow three years.

That's probably not what you wanted to hear, Sup3r, but it's honestly the case as I see it.

Just my $0.02

[cuttingfool]

I should have qualified above - the reason if should take 50+ sessions is because you should QUIT each session as soon as you get one little improvement out of him. That could take two hours or two minutes. Usually a 3 yr old stallion is not good for more than 20 minutes attention span.

If you watch great trainers (like, say, Clinton Anderson) start a totally green horse and be riding it, standing on its back cracking a whip in an hour, don't get the wrong idea. - remember that whoever owns that horse is NOT going to be able to safely get on him the next day and ride off into the sunset - and the trainers will tell you that if you ask. If you want the horse to be REALLY trained, you have to put the time in. There are no shortcuts, only minimized mistakes.