KBR Horse Net
Training Case Study:

"River"
Part Four

One concern we have with horses that are being gentled is that sometimes they get pretty wound up when turned out with other horses and will run from humans. With River it seemed that my greatest difficulty was keeping his nose out of the camera lens and getting him not to follow me around so I could get some candid shots of him interacting with other horses.

River still has a funny little habit where he wants the lead rope over his shoulder before he sticks his nose into the halter, but he "catches" easily this way so we're not going to worry about it.

Hello, Keno!

But I want to follow you!

Grooming is another domestic horse necessity. River can be pretty much of a wiggle worm and while he will stand for brushing and other grooming activities at the pole, he tends to wiggle and squirm when introduced to new, worrisome things.

River didn't seem to have any problems with the chute so when it came time to introduce him to the clippers, the chute was the logical strategy. The idea here is not to trap the horse, but rather limit his options so that he can consider and get used to the new object.

Sharon and Patty first brushed River in the chute then approached him with the clippers the same as we would if he was on the tie pole, allowing him to withdraw at times and get used to them before putting them on him. Click targeting set the situation up so that he didn't consider clippers to be a threat, and "click-assurance" kept him calm while being clipped so that the process was expedient and painless.

A well groomed mustang!

A legible freezemark

Another thing these horses have to be relaxed about is being around other horses with riders on top. Depending on their past experiences, some of them get pretty freaky when confronted by a rider on horseback. To address this problem we do a thing which we call "horse-on-horse."

Horse-on-horse involves ponying the new horse off of an experienced, calm, well broke horse. It's more than just leading the new horse around. It involves getting the new horse to yield to the pressure of the rope as well as to yield to the presence of the ridden horse getting into his space without getting upset.

We typically start out in the arena and when the new horse does well, we migrate out to the open area and eventually to the horse course.

With River we were outside the arena in just a few minutes. The idea now is to gradually increase the background stress (distractions, presence of grass, scary objects, etc.) but keep the horse's primary attention focused on the horse and rider and respond to the lead. Being young River's attention wandered fairly easily, but he did well with this exercise.

Setting up the exercise

They always want to pull off
Prints' spots

Patty and River on the move

Getting a nice scratch
after a good afternoon's work

Go to River in the Handling Chute

Go to Saddle Up!

Go to River's Gallery Page

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