This bit, in the wrong hands, is abuse

Question: Hello I have an 8 yr. old reg. quarter horse and he is the most wonderful, trustworthy horse ever!. But the problem is throughout training  him (since he was 2) I have had problems with his listening to a bit or hackamore. I have everything from a snaffle to a severe curve bit. Same for the hack – I have a hack that has a metal band and a snaffle bit on it and he does listen but I hate it! I feel like it is abuse :(. Im at my wits-end its to the point that I don’t want to ride him sometimes and will pick one of our other horses. I need some new advice if you could help me I would love it. Thank-you

Answer from April Reeves, Horseman’s U.com: You have good gut instincts, as the harder the bit, the tougher the horse is going to be, and some of the equipment you have is abusive, even in light hands. There are very few harsher bits that have any purpose being near a horse, and they must have some result that is acquired without heavy handling.

Horses that do not respond to tougher bits and equipment are not bad or insensitive. They are a result of improper training.

Problem is, humans resort to harder bits because they don’t want to take the time to train the horse properly. The horse just gets use to the pain and pressure, which causes the bit to stop working, so the human seeks a harder bit, and so the evil process proliferates. Some humans don’t care about the horse’s well being either. This is life.

Whenever you get a tough mouthed horse, lower the harshness on the bit – find the softest one on the market and use it. Why? Horses will fight pain. They will become resistant and irritated, and that always plays out in “bad” behavior (human’s interpretation). The behavior is not bad to the horse: he’s just trying to protect himself. When you take the pain away, you give the horse a chance to work for you. A happy horse free of pain is a horse that will work harder, learn faster and bond with you better.

I have some great articles for you to read through that will help you with your problem, plus give you some additional training to work on.

You have come this far with your gelding, so don’t quit now. He can become responsive and light, with your help, but it will take longer than a green horse would take because you now have to undo the damage and start over. From what I can tell, you have missed a big part of his foundation, and will have to go back and redo it. Don’t worry though – this is the fun part! It’s so rewarding to rebuild a horse! And how many people get the experience, or even know how to!

Here are the articles. First one is on basic groundwork (you may or may not need this) and leads into riding and foundation training. It does not expressly contain hard mouth horses but the techniques involved do help with fixing those ‘holes’.

http://aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/groundwork-saddle-work-herd-bound-horse/

Here are the ‘connection’ and ‘collection’ articles for helping your gelding work softer. The exercise for Vertical Flexion will help your horse. It will be a bit harder for you as he is insensitive, but don’t give up or give in. Follow the exercise carefully. If done right, you will eventually see the difference.

http://aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/how-to-collect-horse/

Question: We have a colt pony that is approx. 18 months old.  He ran the pasture with our 2 geldings and mare for the last 10 months.  He is starting to act like a stud naturally.  We plan on gelding him. But in the mean time how do we keep him from getting so hot headed around the mare.  We have built a wood fenced area for him because when we pasture him separately he just walks through or jumps the fence to get to the mare.

We tried to pasture him with one of the other geldings and they just constantly bite and harass each other. (they also do this when they are all together) Is this just playing or him trying to be the boss because he is a colt?  They remove chunks of hair and skin.

He is becoming hard to handle, throwing his head, pawing the ground and getting pushy.

I know it comes down to training, but I don’t want to do the wrong thing and make him worse.  Any advice would be very helpful.

Answer from April Reeves, Horseman’s U.com: Your attempts to alter your colt’s behavior by changing his surroundings and pasture buddies will not work in any way, shape or form.

Colts (uncastrated males) have a deeper sense of ‘being’ in this world than a gelding does, simply because he has hormones that a gelding doesn’t. It’s that simple, yet we humans still try to ‘correct’ these bad and unwanted behaviors as if the horse was able to communicate like a human. They can’t.

There is only one solution: castrate him now. What are you waiting for? Call your vet the second after reading this. Nothing will change until you do – that may not be correct advice – he may change: he may get worse.

Putting a mare in with him could eventually lead to several things:

1. The mare could get pregnant – I give it an 80% chance.
2. The geldings could get seriously hurt – I give it an 80% chance.
3. The little guy will get very seriously hurt trying to get through a fence.
4. You will spend more in time and money trying to alleviate his behavior than the vet fee to castrate him.

We (humans) cannot alter what Nature has given the Stallion. We can soften the nature by teaching him obedience, but the underlying ‘currents of resistance’ will always be there. Colts are guided by this impending urge. If he walks the paddock now, he will run it soon.

He will need some ground manners though, regardless of what you do with him. I am going to give you a link to a very long but very useful article on groundwork and basic saddle work. I know you are not interested in riding him at this point, if ever, but there are good basic training tips in the entire article that will give you some insight into the mind of the horse.

This groundwork will help your relationship with him, and since he is a colt, you will have to do this work daily in order to keep him obedient. Stallions are a great deal of work, which is why so few people should own them. They take dedication and time. They also take a different approach to training. You are now working with ‘the raw material’. There are very few mares who get aggressive around breeding season, although I have seen one that could break out of anything she was put behind – and nasty. Geldings are great – they like girls, they just don’t know why.

Have fun reading through this article, and I hope you get on that ‘parts removal’ issue asap:

http://aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/groundwork-saddle-work-herd-bound-horse/

Good straight legs

Question: I have a 4-year-old, 17HH Dutch Warmblood mare that’s got an odd angle to her back legs. When she stands, there is a straight line from hip to hock, but then it dives in.  I want to use her for jumping, but something tells me (gut instinct) that those back legs may not take the work involved. Everyone at the barn tells me that her legs are big so there is no problem, and that I should be riding her by now. What do you think? Can I breed her?

Also, what exercises can I do to strengthen them without having to go over fences?

Answer from April Reeves: Good instincts. This appearance of a sharp angled hock is called ‘camped out’ or ‘sickle hocked’. If you were to stand the mare so that her back legs had a vertical line from top of hock to bottom of pastern, you would find that line would be pushed out behind the point of the hip. Some sickle hocked horses just stand with their back legs up and under, and some (camped out) stand with their back legs out. Sickle hocked horses tend to have too much angle to their hock joints, while ‘camped out’ back legs sit back from the hip line, with the angle more pronounced through the gaskin.

Slightly 'camped out'

A good leg has a straight line from hip to hock to pastern. Although there is more to a back leg than the side view. How straight does the horse travel in the back? I have seen some nasty looking side views that traveled perfectly straight, and some perfect side views I would not have in my barn. In my years, I have seen straight travelers remain sounder than their counterparts.

It’s not something I would breed, unless you were dead sure the stallion threw perfect back legs, and even then it’s a crap shoot. Also, it’s cheaper to buy a three year old right now than to raise one of your own. The odds are better too.

When will people understand that more bone does not mean stronger legs? It just means that you have more bone to fix when something goes wrong. No breed or color of horse will grow and solidify their bones faster than another breed or color. None. But humans still live in the human mind, thinking that their ‘big’ horse can start earlier and do more. Nothing is further from the truth.

Yes, there are horses with crooked legs that have been started early and are still going sound at 20, but I prefer to call them lucky, not smart. Why risk doing that to a horse, when you can take an extra year or two and create better bone (through exercises I will list below) and a sound mind? If you have put all this time and energy and money into a horse, why blow it now?

Sickle hocks

Ever wonder why horses in the wild don’t suffer the same leg problems as their stalled cousins? When foals are born, they stand and go all day long. They move over rocky terrain and travel for miles, every day, all day long. Their bones develop strength and size. But we take foals and stick them into stalls and confined areas for several years. Then we take them, break them and ask that their bones remain strong and sound. It’s a fifty-fifty chance.

At 4, you should be able to start riding her, and with those legs, it’s not a bad idea, especially if she stands around in a stall and small paddock. Horses that are out running and playing all day long will have better, stronger bone, feet and organs. Through exercise, the bone has a chance to strengthen and thicken. As you slowly increase pressure by soft concussion, the cells tell the bone “hey, we had better react to this, so lets add more bone to compensate” (I’m keeping this example simple).

The same rule applies to blemishes and unsoundness, such as splints and bog spavins. They are simply a sign that there was an abundance of concussion at that particular point, and the cells reacted, creating the excess calcium build-up on the bone. Unfortunately, many bog spavins and bone injuries develop in joint areas, often rendering the horse useless for life.

When my Arabian stallion was weaned, I asked the vet what I could do to strengthen his bone and feet. He had the skinniest legs and tiniest feet I had ever seen. He told me to walk him, every day, down the road and back, and each month, increase the length of the walk. So I did. I walked the horse on the pavement until he was a yearling. Then we started to add jogging. When he was 2, I jogged him every day down the pavement, slowly (I’m a wimp of a jogger) and not only were his ground manners impeccable, his legs and feet were like iron. What was happening is that I had created a very soft impact every day, and as the bones grew, they responded. He had bigger feet than my quarter horse today, and through his entire life, he was never shod (other than back slider plates), reined and worked cattle for years, showed and went into the bush for days at a time. When he died, he still had perfect, unblemished legs.

The other advantage of this exercise is that the horse moved in a straight line during the exercise. I find too many owners take their horse out of the stalls and lunge them. The horse rarely knows the benefits of moving in a straight line for any distance, where his skeleton gets a chance to lengthen and ‘pull free’ from contracted, tight muscles. A horse must be able to move straight before he can perform good circles.

While you may find trotting your mare down the road for 10 minutes a day is time consuming, or you don’t have a safe road to do this, there is another way to train a horse on a lunge line to go straight. All my horses can do this exercise, and it’s a great workout for me too. It’s a good alternative if you don’t have driving equipment.

As the horse gets better at staying out while lunging, I slowly begin to take a few straight lines by bringing my leading hand up (encourages the horse to move forward) and walking (or jogging) a few strides straight. As the horse gets into this, you can add more length. Eventually, you can move around an entire arena, going straight down the sides. It has built up my stamina also to where I can now follow the horse at the canter down the long side – the ‘side’ benefits to this work, ha ha.

When you first begin, you may get tired quickly. If you do, just stop and ask the horse to keep moving in a circle around you until you catch your breath. Then move the horse back out on the straight line again. I use the intermittent circles to enhance the horse’s balance. Once you get into the swing of this exercise, you will find that the corners give you a resting place, as you can park yourself for a second while the horse finishes the corners.

I also find that this exercise really helps their minds, as they have to focus on the next move you make. Mix it up so they don’t get into a routine. Change directions and do transitions often. The two of you will be in fine shape by the spring!

One other side thought about lunging – when you ask for a circle, stand still. If you want perfect circles you have to quit moving around or your horse will only know the egg shaped circle. Perfect circles are created by you standing still. When you decide to come off the straight line into a circle, plant yourself. Grow roots.

Standard Cavaletti

You can add obstacles, Cavaletti and jumps to the mix. Have fun.

Once she is safe under saddle, Cavaletti are a great way to engage and strengthen legs, muscle and bone. Start with one until she gets the idea, and over the weeks, add one more until you can do a line of 4. Doing a line of 6 is for horses with lots of experience with Cavaletti. If you try using too many too soon, the horse can get tangled half way and scare itself. Let the horse adjust slowly and gain strength. Cavaletti takes strength and precision to do well. It’s also good for back muscles. If you have used them during lunging, the horse will have a head start, but still introduce them slowly, as she will be learning to balance you as well.

Stacked Cavaletti

Word of caution: don’t use round poles on the ground for Cavaletti. If a horse misjudges and slips on one, they can damage shoulders and tendons. If they catch the pole as they are placing their feet, they will slide on that pole. Use square poles or build proper Cavaletti with the supports at each end. That way if the horse hits it, it won’t move. The proper Cavaletti has advantages – they can be raised or lowered. You can start at the lowest point and as the horse gets stronger, you can raise them. They also stack for jumping.

'In Hand' work over cavaletti

Cavaletti work should give you some indication as to whether those back legs will hold out. If you go slow and your horse still comes up unsound, it’s a good indication she may not be the world’s next big jumper. If she stays sound, she will build bone density and muscle strength to be able to perform the movements you ask of her in a year or two.

Question: I had a question about building stalls, I don’t have a huge barn but its a pretty good size so I wanted to know what would be the smallest but safest size stall to build. I have four horses and we just moved and this barn doesn’t have them already built so we were going to but I just don’t want to make them too small. They would only be stalled at night and turned out in the day.

Also I have a four-year-old gelding who has never really been ridden but we’ve had him since he was born and is just as gentle and respectful as he can be. When we get on him he just stands still. I know he just doesn’t know what ‘giddy up’ means yet but how do I teach him that? What about lunging him -  how do I get him to go in a circle and not backwards? Thanks

Answer from April Reeves, Horseman’s U.com: In regards to the stalls, the smallest I would put a horse in (under 16 hands high) would be 10 by 10 feet. At 16 hands, 11 by 11 or 12 by 12 (best). A horse must be able to move around in a circle, and when a stall is too small, the horse ends up rotating on his hindquarters. Any repetitive movement to the joints and skeleton will eventually end up in pain and discomfort, leading to an unrideable horse. The horse also is not a cave dweller, so the larger the stall, the better mind you will have on your horse. I’m not an advocate of the tie stall – I think they are cruel. Horses should be able to lie down where they choose and move around.

Your 4 year old gelding has several options to learning the leg commands. Let’s not teach the “giddy-up”. Instead, lets teach him to simply move off pressure.

Have a handler on the ground with you as you get on the gelding. Once your feet are in the stirrups, keep your legs off and away from the horse. You are going to teach the horse that the instant he feels the legs move into his sides, he is to move forward.

Timing is important here. You and your handler must do this at the same time. Cluck to the horse no more than twice, and at the same time, close your legs on the horse for one second, then off again. As your legs begin to close on the horse, the handler must walk the horse forward.

It’s simple, but simple is often the fastest way to train. You will have to do this over and over again, for several days in a row, for about 15 minutes at a time. You can alter how long you let him walk; sometimes for one or two strides, and sometimes for 20 to 30 strides or around the ring or pathway. Repetition teaches, along with consistency. DO NOT alter the way you ask. DO NOT squeeze harder. Continue to do exactly the same thing over and over.

The minute you change the smallest detail, you are asking the horse a different question. This is one of the most valuable things to know in horse training.

While you do this, you also need to teach him to stop. Whoa and Go are the two basic elements of training. Again, timing between you and the handler is important. Pick up on the reins at the same time the handler stops the horse (you will be wearing the halter under the bridle). As the handler asks the horse to stop, say the word “ho” in a very short and abrupt style (much like the ‘sound of a halt’ would sound). At the same time, pick up the reins and without pulling hard, just make contact with the horse’s mouth so that he can feel there is a difference.

Pulling hard will accomplish nothing positive. The softer you work with a horse, the more sensitive he becomes and responsive. The rougher you are with a horse, the more the horse will tune you out.

As you take up the reins and make contact, immediately release the contact as the horse is stopping. If you continue to make contact or increase it, the horse won’t understand the lesson and begin to move through you every time you pick up the reins. You want that horse to associate the increase in rein pressure with the action of stopping. This will transfer into faster gaits, where you will increase or just pick up the reins to ask the horse to slow down or stop.

(We often teach our horses bad manners through poor training methods. This is a classic example of a horse that moves forward when you pick up the reins. He has been taught to do this by his owner, unconsciously.)

Try not to move your body forward when doing this. Keep your body position either upright or just slightly behind. Moving forward means go and will confuse the horse.

So you now have 2 things to train the gelding – whoa and go.

As the horse begins to understand your signals, have the handler walk with you on a lead, but carry the lead very loose. You are now going to see if the horse is beginning to understand or not. You are going to test the horse by asking him to go with soft legs and a cluck, and have the handler stand still until you move first. Once that is established, have the handler take the lead off the horse. Test again to see if the horse will move off of leg pressure and a cluck. Once he does, the handler can slowly move out of the way until you no longer need him/her.

If you find the horse is not getting this, it is you, not the horse that is having the problem. This is one of the easiest and simple training methods around, so if you are not consistent, then the horse will not be learning the lesson properly.

Another way to train a horse to go is to use a roundpen. As you are walking quietly around the pen, on the horse, use the ends of your reins to ask the horse to go forward. Continue to flip them from side to side in front of you, watching that you do not scare the horse, but encourage him to move forward. Cluck at the same time. Once the horse goes, you stop the rein activity and sit quietly. If the horse goes back into a walk, use the reins again to encourage the horse to move forward and stay in the trot. Your legs are not in use while doing this exercise. Once the horse learns to move forward, you begin to incorporate legs and seat (weight). You teach horses by adding one lesson at a time. As they learn, you begin to add more requests (aids).

This is for advanced riders as it requires timing and confidence. The horse can get a bit bucky and unpredictable with this method if you are not good at timing and listening. I added it because it’s valuable to know more than one method of training. All horses are different.

Once your horse is moving forward into the walk without problems, you can use this technique to get him to trot up. Again, use the cluck and spank him quietly with the rein ends. If you don’t have rein ends, find a longer piece of leather, about 4 feet, and use that. Cluck, spank and use your legs softly once, on and off. Continue to spank until he moves into the trot. Stay quiet, keep your legs off, and ask him gently to walk by picking up on the reins and saying “ho”.

If you run into problems, it’s best to send the horse out for 30 days to get a good basic foundation on him. These are crucial times of training and done poorly will only hurt the horse. I see beautiful horses in the slaughter pen because the owner did not have the tools to train properly and did not seek help.

For the other problem of lunging, I am going to refer you to an article I have on ‘sending’ the horse:

http://aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/groundwork-saddle-work-herd-bound-horse/

It is also a comprehensive article on basic foundation work that you may want to read over and try. It will answer the next set of questions I know will pop up for you.

Question: I have a problem when I tack up my horse, Thea. Bridling she is fine, placing the saddle on her is fine, but doing up the girth is not. She turns around to bite you so I have to either have someone holding her or I have a long rein one side that I can pull on. After the girth is done up she pulls back and does a mini jump in the air. She doesn’t have a sore back and I’m sure her saddle is ok [vet confirmed], I think its just behavior. How can I resolve it?

Answer: Answer from April Reeves, Horseman’s U.com: Good for you Mel – you’ve diagnosed the problem correctly. Most people never get there. Just so you know – the solution is easy.

I have rehabbed hundreds of horses with this problem, and I will tell you that the horse never gets to the place where he’s happy to be cinched up. What we are going to do is to alleviate the discomfort for the horse, get the horse to accept the process with obedience, and learn something new about training horses.

When I tack any horse up, whether the horse is older, unbroken or even happy about being cinched (they do exist), I never draw up the girth tight at first. I will do it up so that if the horse were to move, the saddle won’t fall off or fall under the horse. Then I go about bridling and whatever fussing I need to do before I move the horse away from the area of saddling. I will walk the horse for about 5-10 steps, then softly draw the girth up again, but not to where I will ride with it. Then I walk the horse again, and finally softly snug the girth up to where I need it. I use this process for all horses, regardless of their like or dislike of being cinched.

I never do the girth up tight. I use saddles that fit the horse, so I don’t need to crank it. You may want to ease up on how tight you are cinching.

Once I have the girth where I need it, I will gently bring each front leg up and stretch it, giving the skin a chance to unfold from underneath. Some horses get pinched and irritated. In all my years of riding, even for days in the bush, I have never had a saddle sore or a cinch gall.

You will use the same technique as I have described above, and you will be adding one more training tip – how to keep the horse out of your space when you are saddling.

Horses should never reach around to you unless invited. It’s a sign of disrespect and disobedience. It can lead to being dangerous if you own the wrong horse.

Let’s establish the rules of space – we are going to teach Thea that when your hand comes up, her head gets out of the way. We will begin on the ground with a halter and lead. If you have a rope halter – that’s best, otherwise the thinnest one you have and a long lead line and long crop or dressage/buggy/lunge whip.

We often get into the habit of pulling our horses around us because it’s just easier that way, but what you are saying to the horse every time you do that is “please walk on me and by the way, it’s ok if you invade my bubble. Trouble is, it’s not ok. So for the next while (the rest of your life with horses) you will lead Thea away from you. You will walk into her space and she is expected to move away, even if she has to sit on her haunches and swing around. Those are the rules for life.

Begin in a large ring or space that’s flat. Walk her as you normally would, staying between her head and shoulder. Don’t hold onto the lead rope tightly. Keep slack in it and don’t add pressure at any time (unless she runs away). As you move forward, you will now turn to the right, meaning you are going to walk into her head. Make a large circle at first, and as you ask her to turn away from you, hold the end of the whip in your hands up higher that her head will ever go, and hold your hands up to her eye. Gently pulse with both hands in a rhythm at her eye, and if she makes contact with your hands, let it happen. She is hitting you (as opposed to you hitting her) as she is in your way. This is what you want. Don’t back down or drop your hands if she doesn’t comply right away, just let her keep bumping her head into your hand. Your hands are a brick wall, not a soft sponge. Don’t panic if she hits your hands either, just keep them high and in a rhythmical pulsing motion.

Mares have a tendency to not like this exercise very much, and can get quite sticky. They often throw their heads up as high as they can and back up, so keep the end of the whip really high and let her hit it on her own. Having a horse swing its head over you is a sign of dominance, so we are going to change the rules forever. If she backs up, move quietly with her as far as she wants to go. Just keep following her with your hands at her eye and the whip end up. The whip won’t hurt her; it just makes you appear larger and taller than you are.

Your hands need to follow her eye wherever it goes. This is important.

When she finally does submit even just a little bit, and moves away from you, praise her a lot. This is really tough work for a mare. This is one of those things‚ few mares are ever good at naturally.

Keep working at this for about 3 days. If you are doing it consistently then you will find a difference in the first day. While she may still challenge you each time, she should eventually submit over time.

Don’t change how you do this work if she doesn’t submit quickly. Keep it up and be consistent. This is the key to training horses. Too many horse owners get emotional and quit too early. Think of it this way – hold a piece of string between your two hands. The left hand represents the start of the training, and the right hand represents the end of the training; where you want the horse to be. Your training at this moment is somewhere on the timeline‚ of this string. But you don’t know where that place is exactly on the string. It could be at either end. So, don’t give up. It may be at the right hand.

A good trainer always believes he is at the right hand, even if it takes longer than expected.

And the smallest try is a very big thing to a horse.

Ask Thea to move about a step at a time at first, then a quarter turn each time as she progresses, and always praise her. The moment she lowers her head and moves away, love on her as much as she will take. Lowering the head is a huge sign of submission. You are almost there! So, ask her to move a step, and when she does, move forward a few steps, then ask for another step away from you, move forward, and eventually ask for more steps away from you. Build up the process.

For the first day, keep this up for as long as it takes and when she is submitting somewhat (or if she is submitting well) take her to the saddle up area. Begin to saddle, and keep the girth loose but safe, in case she moves. Keep a watch on her reaction at first to the girth. Get the bridle and everything else done, then move her from the area. Stop again, tighten about one notch or hole, and move her again.

Try not to tie her up. Keep the lead either on the ground or draped over the post. I never tie up a horse tightly. I train them to ‘want’ to stand and stay, and if I do have to contain a horse I don’t know, I will drape the lead around a post for one turn, so that if the horse pulls back they can get free. I am fortunately faster than they are, and can grab the lead. You want her to have the freedom to express her dislike, and you want to set up the situation where she can learn the lesson. Tying her will only restrict her from learning.

If she turns her head to snap at you, bring that left hand up as fast as you can to match her speed. Let her bump into it, and when she does, and she moves away again, just stand quietly with her and let her soak in what just happened.

Then try to bring the girth up one more notch. Move slowly but confidently. Again, repeat the process with your hand up and let her smack into it. When she puts her head back again, praise her and stand quietly to let her soak this lesson up.

If Thea does her little hop and jump routine after the girth has been taken up one notch, move her away from you in a circle quickly. This will make her little routine uncomfortable, and she will get the idea eventually that every time she hops about and gets emotional, she has to work at something. They come down pretty quick when there’s a job attached to a behavior (this is something to remember – if you want your horse to settle down or chill out, give the horse a job and make him do it quickly). Do not reprimand her for hopping – you don’t need to ever punish a horse. All you have to do is replace behavior you don’t want with behavior you do want.

The process you do with leading and moving her away from you will help you with the saddling issue. We often solve horse behavior problems correctly by teaching them another method. You don‚t have to fix a saddling issue with a saddling solution. Often the solutions lie in other methods and areas. The reason for this is that most problems are a result of a hole in the horse’s training. All we are doing here is going back to groundwork foundations and re-establishing good manners. When confronted with a sudden problem, go back, not forward. Horse issues are always about holes.

Don’t expect a miracle the first week or so. Mares like this will take time to come around. If you are consistent and patient, you will learn something very valuable that horse training often takes a lot of time, but the rewards are so amazing.

Question: Hi, I have a colt 17 mths, I have recently purchased who is sweet and friendly until it comes to feed time, when he becomes very bad tempered. He barges me out of the way with his shoulder with his ears back, and turns his rear to me and kicks out, he has got me once and it hurt. I am now scared of him, which I know is what he wants. If I smack him with the carrot stick it makes him more angry and he reverses to me to kick. If I keep him on a lead short enough so he can’t reach me  I can’t drive him away. I don’t know what to do.

I have rehabbed nervous horses before very successfully but I have never dealt with a dominant confident colt before. He shows these tendencies when I ask him to move away, I think because he has had no education before and doesn’t understand what I am asking.

What should I be expecting of a 17 month old?

Please tell me what I should do. This is usually only round feed time, rest of the time he is sweet and follows me round and is starting to see me as his friend. I have owned him a week. Thanks.

Answer from April Reeves: To start off, what anyone should expect from a 17-month colt is respect and obedience, especially from a colt (uncastrated male) as they have all their hormones and are just about ready to discover them.

Respect and obedience come from you being the dominant herd member (end result). You are at a tipping point for getting there, especially if you want to make the colt a stallion one day. I find that if you want to keep a young horse a stallion, and you know this from the start, the work begins from birth. Otherwise, gelding will help with his aggression (but not his manners).

We will go over training techniques, but there are a few issues I want to address before training, as they are key issues to a horse’s behavior that almost no one asks. Before you begin a long training program, ask these questions first:

Feed: is his food making him aggressive? You can alter the hotter attitudes by adjusting the sugars and carbs in your feed. Oats, sweet feeds and cheap pellets can turn a nice horse into an idiot. Horses are just like us; some are sensitive, some are not. Also, when and how you feed makes a difference. I always free feed hay to my horses. And because of this I have consistent rides and happy animals. You may want to think about this first.

Confinement: How much time does he get to run and exercise? Play with friends? This is social behavior that cannot be ignored. Many horses are not able to ‘blow out’ the steam on a daily basis and can begin to express that frustration through aggressive and unruly behavior. Some horses can handle confinement and some can’t – make sure you know if and how this may affect him.

If both feed and confinement are not part of the problem, then it’s on to training. I am going to send you a link for groundwork that I have on my blog: http://aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/groundwork-saddle-work-herd-bound-horse/

Read that over – it’s full of useful information to get you up and rolling. I also have a great video series from Jay O’Jay on Horseman’s U.com: http://www.horsemansu.com/jay_ojay_video_roundpen Jay works in a roundpen, but many of the techniques work anywhere.

I hope this helps you, and do take a look at the other video and articles. It’s not always easy to read and then try to remember and ‘do’ – you often need a visual to really understand the theory. The video will help you.

Regarding feed times, I just posted an article about why horses get nasty. Here’s a direct link to the article:

http://aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/horse-feeding-aggressive/

Question: I bought a 4yr old tbx gelding 3 months ago and am concerned by his behavior. He was initially very stubborn to lunge (he would rear and refuse to go out on a circle) but I managed to get him going well within a week or two. He was very friendly and easy to handle on the ground. Then I began to ride him (he was only backed at this point). He has been riding really well and learning quickly. I’ve been careful to praise him a lot and have not had much need to scold him. Then suddenly he changed. I rode him and he refused to go forwards, instead cowkicking and bucking whenever I put my leg on. He’s also started to kick out violently when asked to move over in his stable! Out of the stable, he will move over fine! The only changes I have made are bringing him in overnight and feeding him! please help! Im scared of my 17hh youngster!

Answer from April Reeves, Horseman’s U.com: I’ll be honest: this is a problem for a professional that is not scared. From here, it will take a very firm hand, and a very brave heart.

Somewhere in your training, the horse got the impression that the roles between you two had been reversed. You are at where you are because somehow, somewhere, you lost the dominant position. Getting it back may not be easy.

Just a side note – I never start any horse with an English saddle. I always use a western saddle. It is safer and will help you with your confidence when something does go wrong.

Where it may have started is during groundwork. All too often we move quickly into it, and find our horse is pretty good, so we move quickly to the riding, and skip past the groundwork or leave it out entirely. For any horse about to be broke, this is not a great idea, as it often takes many months to secure the relationship between horse and rider from the ground. I will work on the ground for 3-4 months before riding, and when I begin to ride, I add it to the list of the work I am already doing, not replace it. If it’s a horse I intend to keep, I will continue to do groundwork before many of our rides for the rest of our time together.

One of the purposes to groundwork is to ‘hunt for bugs’ – those little quirks to the horse’s personality that will come out eventually. You may not find it in the first few months of groundwork, and you may not find it in the first 20 rides, but it’s there, waiting. Those quirks may not be much at all – a smell the horse does not like; a sound, what ever. Some horses act up for a moment and then get back to brain, while others lose their brain entirely. Just when you think you know the horse, they fool you.

In your case you have found a rather large intimidating ‘bug’ that needs the help of a professional. If you let it go, you will have a horse that could hurt you quite seriously one day.

I had a similar experience not long ago. I rode a horse for the first 10 rides, and everything was wonderful. I thought he was the best little horse going. Then one day, I had to push him. He was always a bit ‘sticky’ (where they won’t move forward quick enough from the leg). One day he was very sticky, so he got spanked.

And the rodeo show was on.

First thing he did was rear (typical of a sticky horse) and then buck. This little horse was not just bucking, but pinning his ears flat back on his head, with a challenge I have not seen in a horse for a very, very long time. Unfortunately the owner did not want the horse to ever know what bucking was about, so she immediately shut the whole thing down. The next day, we only walked around with the owner leading the horse and me riding – big mistake #1. Big mistake #2 was not letting me do the groundwork at the front end, or letting me handle the horse the way I needed to.

When you come across these larger problems, you need to get on them quickly and efficiently. Sometimes it’s not pretty and you have to get after and spank Fluffy, but the horse must know that this behavior is inappropriate, and it must be done right away.

Also, when you pay for a professional to work with your horse, you must trust his/her judgment. They know what to do and what needs to be done. If you choose this route, and I hope you do, please search out a qualified trainer with a good track record.

What will likely happen is the horse will undergo a few days of groundwork to engage the thinking part of the horse’s brain (we have to teach this to the horse – it’s not his natural instinct). In order to get a 17 hand horse over rearing and kicking, the trainer will have to be a bit more forceful than what you may like. During groundwork, the horse must be asked to move – all the time. The horse should be asked to change direction often, and to move out on request. They should get to the point where they become a bit winded, as their brain often kicks in when they are tired, and they surrender to the training.

Once the horse is thinking and listening with obedience (and only then) it’s time to get on. If the horse pins it’s ears and challenges me at any time, we continue to do groundwork until the horse is listening and obedient. For the first ride, the only thing the trainer will do is to teach one single lesson – move forward with obedience. That is it. That will be the whole lesson.

This is about teaching the horse to be responsible for his gaits. You should never have to use leg all the time to keep a horse in a gait. There is no need to do this, but it is a habit that far too many English instructors continue to teach and ride.

For most young horses, they take to this eagerly, but if your horse is sticky and challenges you, it becomes a tougher job. Once the trainer gets your horse moving forward, he/she must keep the horse going. The horse can trot slower or fast, but must stay in the trot gait, not a walk or a canter. If he gets sticky and won’t move forward, and I suspect he will, the trainer will have to get after him without using leg. Leg won’t work – the horse is too young to understand it, and if the horse does not listen by the third attempt, the horse won’t listen to any leg pressure beyond that anyway. I use the reins and slap them behind me on the hindquarters to drive the horse forward. The further back you ask for power, the more power you will get.

This is where it may get rough. Your horse may rise to the challenge, and it will take a good trainer to move the horse out and get the horse out of the sticky pattern he is in. This takes timing and courage.

If you choose to do this yourself, I would suggest you read my article on my blog that outlines in detail, the groundwork and saddle work you need to do for foundation training:

http://aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/groundwork-saddle-work-herd-bound-horse/

As for the kicking out in the stall, you must get on this right away. You will have to either find someone who is comfortable with the timing of reprimanding him, or try it yourself, but you will have to mean business and not nag him, or you will have a worse problem. If the horse uses ten pounds of pressure, fight back with fifteen. When I get a big horse like this, they only kick at me once. I get after them only once, and I mean it. They never forget it. Sometimes you just have to spank Fluffy.

If you work with him in the stall and he kicks, you may get pinned in the stall. I would take him out, do a lot of groundwork with him and make sure you can touch him everywhere. If he even pins his ears and postures to kick, even in the smallest way, get after him aggressively. Do it once and mean business. I will send a horse back on his hind end by using a small dressage whip at his chest, and while it may look rough, I never have to do it twice. I want that horse to stand up and pay attention to me, not wait for the right moment to take me out. You are in control here, not the horse. Once you tie into him and send him back, let him stand for a moment and soak in what just happened. Let the horse move back with all the freedom he needs. I like to let the lead drop to the ground with me holding just the end. This allows the horse to stand free for a moment after the ‘lesson’, much like a reward with a lesson attached. Once the horse is chewing or licking his lips, I will take him back to what I was originally doing. Often they will retest you to see if you meant it. If the horse is just fishing, I usually just have to posture, but with a larger horse, I will send him right back on his hind end again, and let him soak it in for another moment.

Normally I would suggest looking the horse over for any broken bones or soreness, but it seems to be that this is more of a case of an owner not dealing with a problem correctly from the start, and because he is so big, it escalated very quickly.

Big horses are interesting to ride, but they come with challenges that are also larger. In order to deal with them, you often have to become larger yourself and rise to the challenges you may come across.

Another thing you might want to reconsider is his feed. Many horses change their attitudes with specific feeds and grains. Like us, they are sensitive and may have reactions and allergies to various products. You may have to do some research on this. I have a big AQHA gelding and like you, went through an agonizing period of groundwork and help to get this horse’s brain engaged. He was extremely challenging, and although I had help from 3 of the top Natural Horsemen, they all missed one vital ingredient to a horses temperament: feed. I spent a long time researching feed. I now feed this horse extruded (they look like dog food) with ground flax, Triple Crown vitamins and Farrier’s Formula for his crappy quarter horse feet. He is free fed hay, and has become a very quiet, well mannered individual. I like to free feed hay as it takes the anxiety out of feed time, and I always have a consistent ride. While groundwork helped, it was the feed in the end that settled the horse down into what I wanted from the start. To this day, I have never come across a horse as challenging and difficult as this one was, but if you stick to it, you will learn things very few horse owners will ever know, and it is one of the most rewarding experiences you will have. I would never trade my experience with this horse for anything.

I hope you find a professional to help you with the horse. I have outlined a program I use, but it may not be what they will do. However, make sure that the trainer does have the ability and courage to see this through. You can’t negotiate with your horse through kind words. I’m just keeping it real.

Question: Hi there like you I have a reputation for riding and re-training horses that are deemed dangerous untrainable or non ridable however I have just bought a lovely ex-racehorse who is terrified of life. He has been completely checked over from head to toe and there is nothing physically wrong with him however he trembles if he sees his tack, rears when being bridled and has progressed to rearing and going over with his current rider. I am bringing him home tomorrow and plan on riding him as he was great when I tried him out. He did try to rear but got a good boot and a slap on the bum with my stick and sent fowards and then he went lovely.

I believe he just needs a firm hand but am concerned for his well-being mentally as his tack terrifies him and his rearing has already broken bones of his previous rider.

It would be great if you could give me your insight as to the possible cause of his fears and how you would rectify the situation.

He will not be sold on as I believe he has had a rough enough life, so I expect him to work, and after an initial tantrum was a well behaved, well balanced horse. Thanks for your time.

Answer from April Reeves, Horseman’s U.com: When you get a horse like this, unless you dig and ask questions you will never know the history that made the horse what he is today. On the other hand, does it matter?

I try to assess how chronic the problems are. That alone tells me how long the horse has had the problems. And how long it will take to change them.

You have a set of problems that will take skill, but more importantly, time. I’ll start with rearing. I have found that horses rear for a variety of reasons, and some of those reasons are easy to deal with and solve. I just worked on a horse that reared every time the owner went to get on. He was graceful and eloquent about it, with no real intent to hurt anyone. When I got on him, he reared, and promptly got smacked on the hind legs. He shot forward, shook his head, and has never reared again. I can only assess that the horse was ‘trained’ to do this, unintentionally, but the previous owner likely trained this horse to rear without realizing she was doing this.

You however seem to have a horse that rears from fear. This is a long process, and one that I would suggest you spend tons of time with. Not just time in training, but just being with the horse, handling, brushing, walking (I find this a huge benefit, just to walk a horse somewhere) and moving around the barn, in and out of stalls, up and down aisle ways, back up into spaces, you get the picture.

This horse needs to know you will not put him in harm’s way, which is what the history of the horse is, and what has put him where he is now.  Somewhere in his history, someone did something to him on a continual basis to cause enough anxiety for him to fight for his life.

Think of your job, for the immediate future, to be the person who allows him to trust again. Take this into everything you do with him. Do not attempt to do anything that scares him. If he rears to bridle, don’t bridle him. Instead take his halter on and off a dozen times a day until he is comfortable with it. If he hates tack, bring it out and put it on the fence near him, but don’t do anything with it for a few days. Once his eye looks soft when the tack comes out, just put the saddle pad on him every day, on and off, until his eye is soft again.

This is so important to read the horse through all of this. Great trainers are not magic; they just pay attention to these details and work according to them. Training is not in the big things we do, like teaching spins and stops. It is in the way we listen. And when you have a fearful horse, you pay close attention to this, or get injured.

You can speed through all of the training and work you do by listening. If I can offer any advice, this is the most important, especially with this boy. There are the horses I love to work with the most, as they demand that you pay attention and be fair. You can also turn some really damaged animals into brilliant working partners. The speed at which you do this is determined by you. If you are paying attention, the horse will reciprocate.

I never come out with a set agenda each day when working with fearful horses. I let the horse tell me what we will work with next. I always set the horse up for success. This means that should we be walking somewhere, say around the arena, (this is just an example) and there is a spooky corner with a purple jump in it, and the horse’s head shoots up, I immediately turn him around and walk away. Why would I do that? Their basic instinct is to approach and retreat. They will do this several times to see if the purple jump will eat them. Once they realize the jump is dead, they accept, and often move right up to it and investigate.

It is important that you allow the horse this natural instinct with everything you do. When the horse begins to panic, take him away from the source. Eventually he will begin to trust that you will not put him in harm’s way, and you will have a willing partner that few horsemen on this planet have discovered.

When I bring a horse into an arena, no matter how long we have worked in that place, I still walk them around the perimeter first, either on foot or in the saddle – if they are more mature and stable. It tells me a story I need to know before I begin the day with them. If the purple jump could attack at any moment on a particular day, I avoid the area, working in the quiet places, and slowly move into larger circles until the horse realizes the purple monster is still dead. This is how they think: this is how you must think too. I always shake my head at people who force their horses into spooky situations, and then get after them aggressively if the horse panics. You won’t win. If you ask the horse gently but firmly, and the horse still won’t accept, you either need to use the approach/retreat method or go back and get the trust of that horse before you go there again.

As far as fear of tack, make sure everything fits properly. Check for dry spots after a ride; they are not areas where the saddle does not sit – they are areas where the saddle sits and pinches hard enough to block sweat glands, and eventually will erode muscle tissue and atrophy the muscles in the area, which are not recoverable.

I find that once a horse realizes I will not put him in harm’s way, I can do almost anything with him. When most trainers work only on the direct problem, I gain trust and correct all the problems at once. Problems are not singular unto themselves; they are all part of one systemic problem, usually fear or spoiled behavior.

It’s like taking a pill for a headache. Find the source of the headache, fix that, and you will find a whole bunch of other problems disappear also.

I also let fearful horses be just horses; put him out with another buddy for a few hours a day to enjoy a run and eat some grass. When you are stressed, the last thing you want to do is go back to work. Sometimes you need that short vacation to clear your head and refocus. This is one area where horse and human are similar.

I don’t know how old the horse is, but if he is 3 or younger, I would give him at least 6 months off from seeing any bridle or saddle. I believe, with OTTB’s, that they need this time to get their brain back. I have rehabbed many of them, and the time I left them alone turned them into better horses. Call it an ‘extended vacation’.

So, words of wisdom to you – do not push any issue. Take the time it takes. Allow him to set the pace. Pay attention. Watch his eye; it tells the story. Set him up for success. Firmness is not aggressive. Go for trust first before you ride. And – lots of groundwork.

I hope you enjoy him and become one of the few in this world that experience what it’s truly like to connect with a fearful horse. It’s one of the most rewarding things you will ever do.

Question: My horse is mean at feeding time. She pins her ears back and lunges at the hay in my hands. Yesterday she bit me. I can’t even put grain in her stall any more without her attacking me. Help.

Answer from April Reeves, Horseman’s U.com: First, let’s understand the psychology behind why a horse reacts this way.

While it seems like a lack of manners (human explanation), it originates from the horse’s natural instincts and self-preservation. When all the food is gone, the horse does not know if and when the next meal will arrive. If he is behind a fence or locked in a stall, he now has to deal with not only the stress of having no food, but also the stress of how to get out to find more food.

Along you come, hay in hand, and nicely present it to the horse. This is how the human sees the picture.

Along you come, hay in hand – “I must grab it away from this lesser herd member as fast as I can, as I am the dominant herd member and control the food, and if they don’t surrender fast enough, I will have to bite and kick”. That is how the horse views the situation.

When you lay down feed in the horse’s space, you are surrendering your portion of the meal. Surrender in a horse’s world means that they are dominant and you are below on the pecking order. They don’t know you don’t eat hay. They only know that they do. So you, the human, begin a process of ‘training’ your horse (inadvertently) to display ‘bad manners’ (human explanation), dominance and aggression, by dropping the food as quickly as possible and getting out of the stall before you get killed.

So your problem is that you have surrendered your position of authority to your mare. What you need to do is re-establish the order.

Take a long crop with you into her stall, and a very small amount of grain in a small pail. As you enter, stay close to the door (as it may be an escape route if she turns to kick) and when she comes into your space, promptly use the crop on her chest or shoulder to get her to move back. Do it once and mean it. Don’t nag the horse. She may bolt back into the corner. She may barely move at all. If she doesn’t move, you nagged her. You need to get the message across clearly. Once she gets back, stand there quietly for a second or two, and put a small handful of grain in her bucket. Watch her feet and movements very closely, and when she barely begins to move up to eat it, bring the crop up to her eye level. Do not hit her with it. It is her warning to only approach when you are ready to leave the food. This is what a dominant herd member will do. They will eat their fill and leave the remainder to the herd, but until they are ready, they posture with their feet and head. Your crop is your extended foot.

Once she backs up the second time, and you wait another second or two, walk out and let her eat quietly. Once she is finished, take a few minutes and go back in and repeat. Do this a few times until she backs up when you enter with food. She may still pin her ears and look annoyed, but if she is surrendering to the aggressive ‘in your space’ attitude, that may be all you can expect from a mare, especially if she is older. Just remember that what you need to accomplish is that your mare displays subordinate behavior when you enter, and that she stays subordinate until you leave.

When I get a horse to consistently surrender, all I need to do from then on is to bring my hand up, and in a rhythmical motion, ask the horse to stay out of my space until I am ready to leave. If I find the horse gets pushy again, I will bring both hands up and move the horse back. You make yourself ‘bigger’ by doing this.

There are times when you just have to spank Fluffy, so don’t be too upset if this is what is asked of you. Horses are big animals with a great deal of power, and can do serious damage to a human. I have had clients get cornered by their horses, bitten and kicked multiple times before they escaped over the wall or through the door. Horses will attack each other with some pretty tough aggression, so a hard swat once in a while may be the only way to get the message across as one herd member to another.

Horses eat 24/7. They are on the move during this time, searching for food. We restrict both of these natural instincts, and then wonder why our horses react the way they do. In order to understand a horse, you must learn to think like one.

We really have no idea, for the most part, of the stress we put on our horses. Feeding is a basic need in all of us, yet we fail to realize how primitive our equine friends are when it comes to these needs. Perhaps in a few thousand years from now, the horse may be evolved enough to be able to make those judgments for himself, but today, it is up to us to keep his life balanced naturally, and stress free.

Question: I have a Quarab mare and one main bad habit she has, is that she is herd bound. The people we got her from kept her out in the pasture with 6 other horses all the time and so now she doesn’t like it when I take my miniature horse away. She doesn’t usually care when I separate her from my miniature horse, but she cannot stand me taking my miniature horse away. I have been working with her on it, taking my mini horse away and walking her back and taking her farther and walking back, just so Twinkle (my horse) knows I will bring Sophie (mini horse) back.
We have a fence up and Twinkle is separated from Sophie but they can still talk and see each other. We had to recently put up a hot wire fence as well because Twinkle was leaning on the fence and trying to walk it, getting her legs stuck in the fence, which it is also good because she doesn’t freak out, she waits patiently for us to get her untied. I was wondering if there is any possible way I can get her to stop being herd bound? She is getting better but I still worry about the fence and her getting hurt.

I also have recently started riding her english. I want to be able to do cross-country and show jumping with her and if we work hard enough, possibly learn some dressage techniques. One bad thing, is that the previous owners galloped her a lot, so a lot of times she wants to run, run, run, or she doesn’t listen to my leg commands. If I ask her to trot, she will either burst into a gallop or trot for a second then go faster. I would like for her to be a better horse for English. She can be impatient and doesn’t listen well to “whoa” or only a “walk” or “trot” command. I will be getting a new English bit because the one I have for her does not work, she doesn’t respect it, but I would love for her to be a better well-behaved horse. I wasn’t sure if I could help get her to listen to my commands and whether or not I can train her to only trot when asked.

Is there a way I can train her myself, or is a professional trainer a better idea? We don’t have a lot of money for a professional trainer, but her and I having a great bond through english riding and my dream of jumping to happen.

Answer from April Reeves, Horseman’s U.com: I first want to address the fence issue. No fence should allow a horse to get tangled. Although your horse is quiet about it right now, it’s a matter of time when that changes, and you lose the horse from serious leg injuries. I have a saying, “that horse never died before”.

Herd bound issues can only be altered by two choices: 1. Take the horses completely away from each other, or 2. Go through an extensive program of groundwork so that the horse is of the understanding that when she is with you, she is to put her full concentration on you, not the other herd members. This is an issue of trust.

While jumping and cross-country is a great discipline to learn, it all stems from dressage. A horse must have skills under saddle before embarking over jumps as a career, so while you put dressage at the end, it really goes to the front. For instance, when approaching a fence, and the horse is not pacing itself to take that fence nicely, you have to be able to either move the horse out or set him back in order to change his striding for a smoother jump. Dressage training helps you deal with this and other challenges before you consider going over fences.

It sound like you are at the beginning with a horse that doesn’t have a basic foundation. Your job over the next year is to put that on her first before any jumping or dressage happens.

Horse training is like school. You start at home, learning from your Mom and Dad, then on to kindergarten, where you get to interact with other kids and play with new toys and gadgets. Then on to grade 1 and each year, you progress one more until grade 12. From grade 12 you decide what to do with your life now that you have a ‘basic’ education.

Horse training is the same. Your horse is barely in kindergarten right now. Once she has groundwork established, she will be in grade 2. Grade 3 is foundation work under saddle, where she will learn aids singularly, and her response times will improve, until grade 7. Then on to more intensive work, where the aids are now being asked in ‘groups’ and the horse is now showing some sign of what she can do. (We all have plans for our horse, and we ride them in the future, but we miss the point of what our horse wants to do or can do. Show jumping and cross-country is a sport for horses with heart and bone. In order to do it well, they are usually bred for it, if higher levels are your goal. You will be able to learn the process at a lower level with your mare to see if it is something that you will want to continue with. It takes intense work and training 7 days a week, and a dedication to the sport like no other.)

Once a horse is soft and supple, light to the aids and obedient, the horse is at grade 12 and ready to move into a discipline. Regardless of English or Western riding, all horses move through their training program this way. I use the ‘grade’ system as it gets the message across well, but you can call it levels or what ever. The point is, there is a process, and when you miss steps in the process, your horse has problems down the road, as she is not equipped to deal with those problems.

There are many good articles on my blog April Reeves Horse Training (aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com). There are good video’s on groundwork with Jay O’Jay on Horseman’s U (horsemansu.com) also. There you will get a good start on what and how of groundwork and foundation saddle work.

There are good exercises in my blog articles for your problems with her running off, and not listening to leg commands.

When a horse doesn’t listen, it is not the horse. It is the rider not having consistency with the way you ask. This is training you have to get, not the horse. Find a qualified coach in your area and even if you just get one lesson a month, tell the coach you want to be given enough work for that month until the next lesson. I set up lots of students with this method, as many of my students are a days drive away. A good coach can do this for you.

Also, changing bits is not a matter of the horse not respecting the bit. Again, it always comes down to the rider’s ability to send the correct message to the horse. A harder bit is not the answer, and will only serve to make the condition worse. When a horse has problems in a bit, I will move into the softest bit I can find, and work from there. There are many training techniques in foundation training that do not require any bit pressure at all, and they get the responses you need.

So for you, if you truly want to work with your horse, find a coach before you take your horse to a trainer. I believe that people should learn to work with their horses. If you have someone else train her, you will only be wasting money as you will revert back to old habits and lose the training you paid for. You need to learn to ride and use aids consistently, along with timing, plus groundwork for herd bound issues.

Try not to get into the trap of English versus Western when training. The horse does not know the difference (other than the feel of the saddle) and if you get stuck on being ‘English’, you will miss valuable information. Training is training, and if it has value and solves your problems, it does not matter what discipline it belongs to. Do not hesitate to watch top western professionals; there is much to be learned from them for the English rider.

Read and watch other professionals. The internet is full of fools, but if you search for skilled people by first typing their names, then add ‘horse’ to the end of it, and you don’t find their names on almost every entry on the first page of Google, they may not be the best ones to follow and learn from.

These are a few trainers I would suggest, and while some of them are western, the horse does not know the difference. It is the lesson that is important.

Clinton Anderson, Jay O’Jay, Ken McNabb, Raye Lochert (groundwork, western saddle work), Lynn Palm, Julie Goodnight, Jane Savoie (dressage). These people all have good video on YouTube to watch, especially Jane Savoie, who has generously added real value to her video with tips and techniques you usually have to pay for.

I hope you take the time to study and learn horsemanship. It sounds like you have a really nice mare waiting for you to have fun with. Mares are my favorite, as they turn into exceptional horses when you get a good one.