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Once the horse is comfortable being touched by the pole and his
attention span is sufficient that he remains curious and is "with me," I'll
make some direct contact with him. I'll start by using a long handled counter
brush that can be found at any hardware store. This type of brush is safer
as I can keep my hand away from the horse at first, generating less "body pressure"
on him and also keep my hand clear if he stresses and tries to strike the brush.
At this point many horses will tolerate a close approach and use of the brush
without restraint. Our case study horse needed some reinforcement so I applied
a safe, sliding neck loop. (You can read complete details on this process by
going to the Sliding Neck Loop feature.)
OBJECTIVE: Make the transition from pole to direct contact
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My first objective is to get the horse curious about me being a wee bit closer
than before. I may be able to simply work my way closer as I rub him with the
pole. With Lucky I needed to apply the sliding neck loop to limit his lateral
movement. (With the loop he could still walk forward or back up if felt he needed to.)
First I will let him get used to having the rope over his neck. Then I'll
put the loop together. What I absolutely don't want is to emulate a cowboy
with a rearing wild horse at the end of a rope.
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Rope across the back
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Once I have the horse comfortable with the rope, I will approach at the shoulder
and see how the horse responds. If he can't go sideways, he'll likely shift his
weight forwards or backwards, letting me know which way he intends to go if the
pressure is too much. I'll try to counter this tendency by placing myself slightly
forward or aft of the shoulder, creating a little bit of "counter pressure."
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Lucky, being a "forwardaholic," also needed some visual reinforcement by means of
the longe whip with the string tied off which I would move gently up and down
in front of his nose to keep his attention and discourage forward movement.
I used the exact same approach with the brush as I did with the pole, the only
difference being that I could rub back and forth with the pole, but naturally had
to stroke the horse with the brush. The same logic applied with respect to
finding "safe zones" and working my way out from those areas into new territories.
I also did not feel that it was appropriate to take the brush down this particular
horse's legs on the first session. Lucky was handling the situation darn well
considering his normal state of mind, so it was more important to keep the activities
pleasant and reduce the number of stressful encroachments that I attempted
as his attention span waned.
Once he was good from neck to rump with the brush, I touched him with my hand.
Lucky, like some horses, flinchd at anything new, so I treated my hand like every other
"tool." Also some horses like being scratched and some prefer being rubbed. Lucky
preferred short rubbing strokes which is how I worked him.
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Brushing the horse
Touching with the hand
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Now comes the time where the "rubber meets the road." Can the horse tolerate
being brushed and touched without any restraint?
If I have used approaches that did not threaten the horse, and if
the pace at which I applied these approaches generated more curiosity than fear, then I
should be able to remove all restraints and again make contact with the horse.
As one can see from the photographs, lucky stood to be brushed and to be rubbed
by hand with nothing attached to him. (I did continue to hold the longe whip at
first to keep his mind off the idea of creeping forward, but eventually put it
down.) The reader should note that while Lucky started forward and bumped into
the whip a couple of times, I would simply stroke his nose with it and
at no time did I ever strike him with it.
This entire sequence took about an hour. We may have to repeat it all over tomorrow
and it may take nearly as long, or he may remain comfortable with being closely approached
and I may have my hands on him in a couple of minutes. How that goes
is up to Lucky and the amount of background stress that he is packing. The important
issue is that we can make contact without generating a "flight or fight" response and
the horse actually likes most of these encounters.
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Brushing the horse
(No neck rope)
Touching with the hand
(No neck rope)
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Part 5 deals with some safety issues and provides some background on how we prepared Lucky
for the activities shown in this feature.
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KBR Horse Training Information, © 1997 Lamm's Kickin' Back
Ranch and Willis & Sharon Lamm. All rights reserved. Duplication of any of this material for
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