Solving Problems through Foundation Training

A horse called “Dreamer” was brought into my barn for training. He was a Shire and Thoroughbred mix that was a very pretty mover. Dreamer’s history was that he had been started him under saddle and had began dressage training about three years ago. However, since then he had been turned out into a large paddock area and left there; he not been handled or cared for since.  The current owner, though inexperienced around horses, had a good heart and rescued him. Dreamer was in very poor condition. His teeth had points and hooks and “ramping”. They looked like a washboard. Also, his feet had not been trimmed in that 3-year time period.

While handling Dreamer, the woman discovered he had some dangerous behavioral issues; he had kicked this woman in the face and chest, which caused her to be laid up for several months.

I started working with Dreamer, like I do with all my horses--in the round pen. In the round pen, I taught him the go-forward cue, which is the most important building block for foundation training and inside and outside turns. (For more information on these exercises and others in this article, see Building Your Dream Horse or Starting Baby Jaz for details.) The reason I do these exercises first is to control the horse’s feet because, as I have said before if you control a horse’s feet, it will give you its mind. Once that happens, you are controlling its space. This was especially important for Dreamer because any time you approached him in a stall or put any pressure on him he would turn his hind end towards you to kick. The round pen exercises (inside turns and stopping and giving us both eyes) would teach Dreamer to turn and face me when I gave him a cue. This way when someone did approach Dreamer in his stall, they could give a cue (cluck or kiss) which Dreamer knew meant to turn and face them. If he didn’t give his eyes and turned his hindquarters toward me instead, I would reach through the stall door and tap him on the hindquarters with a lunge whip to get his feet to move and drive away from me until he turned both eyes towards me.

The next exercises I performed addressed Dreamer’s severe pullback issue. Any time you put pressure on Dreamer’s head, it would cause him to back up and pull. Even though I did round pen work with him, if you were leading him and put just a little pressure on the line, he would react by backing up. (Either Dreamer had not learned to give to pressure while on a lead line, or he had learned to yield, but in emotional situations the fear and flight instinct overrode the training to yield.) In either case, I had to teach Dreamer how to give to line pressure by doing the Post Exercise with him. (For more information on these exercises and others in this article, see Building Your Dream Horse or Starting Baby Jaz for details.) I repeated these exercises until Dreamer no longer pulled back under pressure but stood relaxed.

Next, I sacked out Dreamer doing despooking exercises with him to desensitize him and bring his emotional level down. I did this because when an outside stimulus caused his emotional level to rise, he would over react. Because he had not been handled much, he reverted back to his natural state of “being a horse” and was very spooky, nervous and always on edge. (I suspected that Dreamer had issues and that was the reason his previous owner did nothing with him.)

My goal was to put a saddle on Dreamer and ride him. However, for three weeks I did round pen and post work and despooking exercises with him first. I did not want to rush getting on him before he was ready. I wanted to resolve the kicking and pullback issues first since they were quite dangerous. When I put pressure on him, he would rear up and come over the top of me. He did this several times and one time knocked me down. To fix this problem, I worked on shoulder control. When I drove him forward and he tried to move in towards me, I could block his shoulder by tapping it with a dressage stick.

I finally did get Dreamer to the point that when you approached him in his stall you could cluck at him and he would turn and face you. In addition you could lead him now and practice leading exercises with him. I also taught him to lunge and stop on a physical and verbal cue and change direction. This gave the owner a tool to use if Dreamer got upset while leading. These exercises helped me get control of his hips and shoulders and allowed me to back him up to put him in the cross ties for grooming or into the wash area.

Next month, I will discuss how I worked with Dreamer under saddle. If you have any questions or want more details on the exercise I talk about, please visit me online at www.charleswilhelm.com.

 It’s Never Ever the Horse’s Fault