They say the eyes are are the gateway to the soul. When it was said, they were referring to us humans. But the truth is, it also refers to horses.

Many horse owners don’t understand the importance and usefulness of the horse’s eyes while training. That being so, let me share with you some things you may find useful - some you may know…some you may not.

First, there’s the eye which reveals a little about the character of the horse you’re working with. It may have a kind eye. A kind eye indicates the horse will be agreeable to train and will readily respond to your aids while training.

One way to tell if the horse is nervous is by noting his eyes. Horses can be very expressive in their looks. And you can tell if a horse is a nervous horse by the horses eyes appearing sort of “worried like.”

Obviously, this nervous horse would require more thoughtful handling than would a non-nervous horse.

I have a horse that would get mad after a while of riding. She used to get what I call mad eyes. Her expression was actually a sort of angry expression. Mostly, the expression came from her eyes. Here eyes would get red after a while.

Jesse Beery, a famous horse trainer from the 1800’s, talked a lot about the eyes of the horse. Even those many years ago he knew about the horse’s eyes. Beery discovered there were four different disposition types of a horse. Certain characteristics of the eyes would tell you much about the horse’s personality and how much work it would be to train the horse.

Berry’s classic disposition type 3 was most interesting. Beery said “Where type #2 will allow you to do all the work, type 3 will do all the work for you. You only need to control its movements.”

In all my training experience and many things I’ve read, I concur with Beery’s discovery. The eyes play an enormous role in horse training.

To read more about Beery and his methods, you can go to this web address:

http://www.horsetrainingandtips.com/Jesse_Beery_etips.htm

There is still more to know about the horse’s eyes.

For one, when you work with a horse, it’s advisable to look him in the eye a lot. Why? Because horse’s an extremely observant animal and they study their surroundings. If you’re in their surroundings they are studying you too. If they see you looking at them in the horses eyes it sends a message to them about who is in control.

If you’re working with a horse that’s cunning and known to run over people then you rarely want to lose eye contact with this horse. Sometimes when you look away for just a second he knows it’s his chance to charge at you. But keeping eye contact helps minimize that possibility.

Although a horse’s ears are part of the plan. the eyes are how the horse interprets his world. The horse gladly desires to approach an object or person that has caused him pleasure. Likewise, he runs from objects or persons that cause him pain. (Pain could be a number of things like work, misuse of aids such as spurs, being talked to in an abrasive manner, etc.)

Lots of horse owners get discouraged with their horse because they develop bad habits. One particular habit is kicking. I once read a great book on horses and it said this about kicking:

If a horse kicks at a man and sees he inspired the man with fear and makes him draw back, he will remember this and kick any man who goes near him whom he fears or has the memory of displeasure with.

Note the author said “…and see he inspired the man with fear”. The point is the horse “saw” the man was inspired with fear. The horse used one of his greatest tools…his eyes. If a man shows no fear and knows how to handle a kicker, the horse will “see” he cannot inspire fear in the man and be less apt to kick (although, if confirmed in the habit of kicking, it may require several training sessions to eradicate this from the horse’s memory).

In short, the eyes are the mirror of the horse’s mind. Quiet eyes indicate quietness and sincerity. Quick and lively eye indicate vivacity. Restless eyes turning in all directions indicate suspicion and show the horse is studying all around him and may perhaps be preparing some freak of self will. Turbid eyes indicate fear or anger.

There’s a proverb that tells us not to trust the horse that shows the white of his eyes. Perhaps it’s because the white shows when he’s looking sideways and he’s intent on seizing the moment when no attention is being paid for escape or attack.

I could go on about the eyes but this hopefully gives you a great idea as to how important the horse’s eyes are. Make it a habit to continually watch the horse’s eyes. Learn what he is thinking by learning his eyes.

Technorati Tags: Aids, Discovery, Enormous Role, Expression, Horse Owners, Horse Trainer, Horse Training, Horses Eyes, Jesse Beery, Kind Eye, Lot, Many Things, Personality, Training Horses, Truth, Type 3

It’s been weeks since you went riding. Now you have time to ride this afternoon and there ain’t no one gonna stop you. Excited, you saddle up your horse and get on him. You get about 50 feet from the barn spoiled horse and your horse turns around and goes back ? and you can’t stop him. Why? You have a barn spoiled horse. This is a common scenario for novice horse owners.

Here are the top three tricks to solve the barn spoiled horse sour problem.

Teach your horse that you have control over him. Once your horse gets it in his mind that you can make him do what you want him to do, you have control over him and can thus make him leave the barn. One way to get control over him is to use a training technique called doubling. When you double your horse you teach him you can control him.

It doesn’t take long before your horse will know you can control him. Be careful when doubling though. If you do it too much at a time you can over do it. Your horse could get so sensitive to you doing it that he may try to anticipate it. If he sees your hands making the slightest movement that looks like you’re about to double him, he may double himself. Thus, just double him four to six times a day on both sides. He’ll quickly learn you have control.

The next thing you can try is this: Make it dang hard to do the wrong thing ? and make it real easy to do the right thing. Here’s what I mean. A while back my horse didn’t want to leave her buddies or the barn. We’d get about 100 feet away and she’d turn around and bolt back. She’d stop in front of the barn expecting me to get off, remove the saddle and tack, and put her back into the corrals.

By my barn is two hay stacks. There is a space between them big enough to go through and do figure eights around the hay stacks. So every time she’d go back I would make her work, and work, and work at running figure eights around those hay stacks. Then I would test her to see if she had enough and would leave the area.

The first seven times she ran back. Each time we came back to the barn we’d run more laps around the hay stacks. I could tell she was getting tired. But the eighth time I walked her away from the hay stacks I noticed she went quite a ways before turning to go back.

When we went back again we ran more figure eights. Only this time I could tell we didn’t have to do too many. I walked her out and away from doing the figure eights and I suddenly had a horse who decided that it was sooo much nicer going for a walk away from the barn rather than doing a bunch of crummy ol’ figure eights. We had a nice ride that day and she was in no hurry to get home.

The last thing to do is this: Ride. Ride a lot. Don’t wait for weeks or months in between riding. Try to ride at least once per week for three or four hours. Preferably, try to ride at least twice a week for a few hours at a time. (Ideally, you should ride everyday. But that’s hard to do with today’s time constraints) Doing that your horse will get in his brain that you’re going to ride and he’s going to leave the barn and there will be no argument. In fact, if you want to have a great horse the biggest secret is this: Ride the heck out him!

So if your horse is barn spoiled you can try doubling him to show you are in control. The next thing you can try is making the wrong thing difficult and the right thing easy. Make it dang hard for him to go the wrong thing and very pleasant to do the right thing. And lastly, ride your horse often. Two to three times a week if possible.

Technorati Tags: barn spoiled horse, Buddies, Control, Corrals, Do The Right Thing, Feet, Figure Eights, Hay Stacks, Horse Barn, Horse Owners, Novice, Running, Six Times

by Andy Curry.
As you likely know already, horses have at least 10 times our strength. If they also had our intelligence, they would probably be riding us humans. Fortunately, horses cannot reason like human beings and therefore will never have superior intelligence.

Since they don’t have reasoning abilities, horse training becomes a challenge because you now have to understand how their intelligence works. You have to know what works and why to really be effective.

The biggest secret that makes it so we can train a horse is the fear of pain and/or punishment that our creator instilled in their mind. We can use that built-in fear to our advantage and teach the horse what we want him to do.

The trick is to not push the horse too far with his built-in fear. We must never abuse this knowledge because it will backfire. Once it backfires then we will have problems with the horse we’re training.

How does it backfire? Let’s take a novice horse owner who fulfills his dream to have horses and train them. Unless he’s studied a horse’s nature he will probably get into big trouble with his horse because of the delicate balance of the horse’s built-in fear.

For instance, the very first lesson you must teach your horse is to have confidence in you. If your horse doesn’t have confidence in you, he will neither trust you. Both are enormously important to horse training.

Think of confidence in this way. If you’re a child who’s just seen a scary movie on TV you probably want to sleep with Mom and Dad for the night. They’ll protect you. You’ll be safe with them. Hopefully, you know these things to be true because you have experienced it with your own parents.

But if you didn’t feel like they’d keep you safe you wouldn’t have confidence in them, would you?

A horse’s thinking is similar to that. He must have confidence in you when you’re working with him.

A horse can be taught confidence in different ways. I prefer to the Jesse Beery confidence lesson.

Jesse Beery, a famous horse trainer from the 1800’s, uses his confidence lesson as the beginning place of training his horses. He said, “This is the most important lesson of all.” To learn more about Jesse Beery go to:

http://www.horsetrainingandtips.com/Jesse_Beery_etips.htm

Interestingly, it’s also the easiest.

How nice it is that the most important lesson is the easiest to do.

Essentially, the confidence lesson takes advantage of (but never abused) the horse’s built-in fear. In a way, the fear is harnessed and carefully used to get the horse’s confidence in you. It’s akin to getting a child to watch a scary movie and being there to protect him or her when they get scared.

When the horse experiences the fear, you’re there to save the day. You make it so he depends on you to be his superhero.

When the horse gets fearful, you have to be there to tell him everything is okay. You do that through petting him. Talking to him in a soothing manner. Using a pleasant tone of voice.

I have a friend, Gene, who loves his horses but when they don’t do certain things he think they should do, he punishes them. (By punishing, I don’t mean he hits or whips. A horse can feel punished just by a threatening tone of voice for example)

Anyway, I rode with a group of people one day and Gene was in our group. We came upon running water. You could call it a small river or a big creek. It was about 30 feet wide and varied in depth from a foot to three feet.

Every horse crossed the water but Gene’s. Gene got so upset that his horse wouldn’t cross that he began booting his horse in the ribs. That poor horse wanted to comply with Gene’s request but the running water scared him. The horse was spooking.

The horse paced back and forth, occasionally sniffing the water but never crossed it. The whole time Gene’s legs were wildly kicking the horse trying to get him to cross - yet the horse remained spooky.

What Gene didn’t realize is the horse was fearful and needed his help. Anytime a horse is fearful of a place or a thing he should be reassured with pleasant, soothing voice sounds and/or petting him.

If you do what Gene did, you just gave your horse another thing to fear. Not only does that horse fear crossing running water, now he fears he’s going to be punished for it. And it’s likely that anytime the horse comes upon running water both fears will crop up and Gene will have a horse that would like to comply but his instincts are so powerful that he probably won’t (unless Gene figures out what to do)

Think of it from the horse’s point of view.

You’re a horse that cannot reason and you’re instincts are self-preservation. What keeps your self-preservation in check is the built-in fear. Fear makes you run from danger. Fear is what keeps you alive. If you don’t understand something you fear it even more.

Now knowing all that, imagine you’re the horse and you’re standing at the edge of the river. You won’t cross it because you think there’s danger in it somehow. On top of that, someone is on your back, pissed off and kicking you in the ribs because you won’t go forward.

Not only are you scared of the water, but now you’re getting kicked in the ribs and feeling punished. You want to be obedient and go forward but your instinct is too powerful and tells you not to.

It would be like telling a scared child who just saw a scary movie that he had to sleep in his own damn room.

But what if Gene had understood his horse was scared? What if he helped his horse deal with his fear.

How would he do this?

When Gene and his horse approached the water he could have spoke to his horse in a pleasant, soothing manner. When the horse was getting scared Gene should have recognized it as fear and not as disobedience.

He could have petted his horse to reassure him all is okay. He could have talked to his horse in a pleasant manner. He could have let his horse sniff the water and check it out on his own.

Instead, the horse was now confused, scared, feeling punished, less trusting of his rider, and who knows what else.

But if Gene would’ve recognized the fear in his horse then he could have helped his horse overcome it. Gene lost the awesome opportunity to gain a significant amount of the horse’s confidence and friendship in that river scene. Too bad too. That’s a beautiful paint horse.

Technorati Tags: Big Trouble, Confidence, Curry, Delicate Balance, Different Ways, Fear Of Pain, Horse Owner, Horse Training, Horses, Human Beings, Intelligence, Jesse Beery, Mom And Dad, Nature, Novice, Parents, Reasoning Abilities, Scary Movie, Sleep

by Andy Curry.
I get a lot of horse training questions about stopping a horse from kicking. The kicking habits of these horses range from the horse kicking at virtually anyone to kicking at only the husbands.

It’s a daunting problem that lots of people have no idea how to cure. That being so, I want to share some insight to horses kicking.

First I want to relate some causes of horses starting in the kicking habits. Because a horse kicks is no reason to think he is naturally bad or unmanageable. I don’t think there is a horse alive that is “naturally” vicious. In fact, they’re made that way due to bad management or ignorant handlers.

Admittedly, there are some horses that inherit the characteristics of their ancestors. But one should never start to break a horse without first taking into consideration the nature, disposition, and understanding of a horse.

For instance, there are some horses that are naturally predisposed to have a “not so good” disposition. There are certain physical characteristics you can spot on a horse that indicate what his disposition is like.

Jesse Beery, a famous horse trainer from the 1800’s, was brilliant at deciphering a horse’s disposition. He even wrote extensively about how to do it. You can read about it at http://www.horsetrainingandtips.com/Jesse_Beery_etips.htm.

Anyway, now we can handle the horse according to its disposition. We can get it very nearly equal with a good dispositioned horse. All the difference in the world is due to the management and training of the colt. A horse with a “not so good’ disposition will require more patience and thorough work.

All animals in nature have a self defense of some sort. A horse’s self defense is kicking. After all, if you work with a horse that gets badly excited by some cause (such as ropes or chains coming in contact with his legs and those parts of his body aren’t broken) his first inclination is to kick it out of the way.

The trick is to break a horse in a way that the habit never occurs in the first place. Too many people think a lesson will be enough to educate the horse to be ready to go. But if you’re driving your horse and he gets caught under the tail or the cross pieces of the shaft touch his quarters…and those parts are unbroken, it would likely frighten and excite him enough to cause him to kick.

And the worse part is this: Once started, there is an increased inclination to go on kicking until confirmed in the habit.

So the cure is prevention. You must make all parts of his body submissive to sensitivity of his extremities. One way to do this is using a technique called poling. Essentially, you take a light pole and start at a horse’s nose, rub it over the mane, back, belly, quarters, and sensitive parts of the body, until all muscles become relaxed.

But what if you have a horse confirmed in the kicking habits?

If that’s the case, I can give you three possible answers.

One is to sell the horse. If you feel it’s not fixable then it’s not a good idea to keep the horse around. You’re going to get severely injured if you’re not extra careful.

Two, get a professional trainer to help you. A trainer will charge anywhere from $400.00 per month to $900 per month. Is that worth it to get your horse to stop kicking? Only you can decide.

Third, you can learn to do it yourself. There are solutions out there that are pretty good. Jesse Beery, which I mentioned earlier, has a permanent solution to stop it.

Technorati Tags: Ancestors, Animals, Bad Management, Chains, Colt, Curry, Dispositioned, Etips, Horse, Horse Kicking Habits, Horse Trainer, Horse Training, Horses, Inclination, Insight, Jesse Beery, Kicking Habits, Legs, Patience, Physical Characteristics, Ropes, Self Defense, Taking Into Consideration

By Andy Curry.
There is a dangerous problem that horse owners should be very aware of. It’s when a horse stands up on his back legs. It’s called “rearing.” This problem can be quite dangerous and cause severe injuries to the rider and/or horse.

Horse Rearing is perhaps a horse’s most effective defense against the rider. It is dangerous in that the horse can fall over backward onto its rider. Because of a horse’s enormous weight this can cripple and even kill the rider. Thus, it is good to know why, if possible, a horse rears. But even more importantly, how to stop it.

If your horse ever does rear with you on him, there isn’t much you can do. If he rears suddenly, he could lose his balance and fall or he could rear so explosively that he can throw himself back to the ground with the rider under him. If you’re on him while this is happening and you use the reins to pull on to keep from falling, you’re likely to pull the horse over.

Although it’s not one hundred percent infallible, the best way to protect yourself when a horse rears with you is to lean forward immediately and put your hands forward so you have loose reins. If you have to, you could even put your arms around his neck, let go of the reins and slide off. For my money, there aren’t any other safer ways to deal with a horse if he suddenly rears.

Why do horses rear? There are several reasons why. Here are some examples.

I’ve read where a rider was on an obedient horse while trail riding. They came upon cows and it scared the horse because the horse was not used to cows. The rider tried to get the horse to go toward the cows to get it to learn that cows are not spooky. The horse obeyed and went forward but finally became so frightened that it reared up, lost balance, and fell on its rider. The rider suffered numerous broken bones.

The rider later understood the horse felt trapped. The horse obediently went forward even though it was frightened. As it got closer, fear overpowered the horse and it had nowhere to go but up.

Some horses rear because as colts they were too young to be ridden. Another reason rearing happens is because training may confuse the horse. The horse may be asked to do too much at one time and not know what to do.

Sometimes a horse will rear if it is forced to yield to the bit. Other horses may rear if you try to get them to put out more energy than they can. On the opposite end, some horses may rear because they want to go and you don’t let them.

So how do you stop a horse from rearing?

First, let’s take a look at the anatomy of a horse while it rears. A horse cannot rear while running. A horse must stop (or be barely moving) to be able to rear. If a rider has had enough experience on a horse he can feel when the horse gets light in the front. In a way, it would be a bit like sitting in the middle of a teeter-totter where you can feel one side getting light.

So, if a horse has to stop to rear up then it makes sense to keep the horse moving so it cannot rear up. Thus, if you feel your horse getting light in the front then you move him forward and do it with meaning. Not just a patient “cluck” from your mouth. Do it like you mean it. And it’s also important he has a place to go forward ? don’t have him blocked in by anything.

If your horse rears up and you weren’t ready for it then lean forward and give your horse loose reins. As soon as your horse’s feet are almost back to the ground then make your horse go forward. Let the horse know, with no doubt whatsoever, to go forward. Boot the horse “hard” into going forward. When your horse has gone forward a little ways then double him and drive him forward out of the double. Then double him the other way and drive him forward from it also. Then bring your horse to a stop.

What does it mean to “double” your horse? Essentially, you will pull his head back one way towards his hind quarters. The moment he is committed to the turn then boot him forward. This impresses upon your horses mind that you can control him.

Other so-called “schools of thought” to stop rearing are to hit a horse over the head with a two-by-four when he rears up. I’ve even read where people break beer bottles over the horse’s head. Some people use the handle end of a riding crop. Not only are these inhumane ways to stop rearing, they are rarely, if ever, effective. They don’t teach a horse anything except to fear the rider. Hitting a horse over the head when you are trying to build a trust relationship will destroy all you’ve worked for.

As is almost always the case, the best way to get a horse to do what you want is to use psychology of the horse. Get him to move and you can accomplish miracles.

Technorati Tags: Broken Bones, Cows, Curry, Dangerous Problem, Horse Owners, Horse Rearing, Horse Riding, Horses, Infallible, Legs, Loose Reins, Money, Rears

By Andy Curry.
The other day, I was invited to see my friend’s new horse. He had her for about a month before I got to see her. When I arrived at his house, he met me outside and said, “C’mon? let’s go see her.” We stood at the fence and marveled at how beautiful she was. Excited, he asked, “You wanna pet her?” “Sure!” I said. So my friend grabbed the halter and went after her.

As I watched him chase her I was reminded of those silent movies where everyone is moving comically fast with the music in the background. As I chuckled to myself I heard him ask aloud, “Why does she keep running from me?”

That was a good question. Lots of people have that trouble. There are lots of reasons horses run from their owners. One reason is fear. Horses are the epitome of fear. If they sense their life is in danger they’ll run.

If a horse is comfortable with their herd, even if its one or two other horses, it can be uncomfortable for him. His entire DNA speaks loud and clear to him that the herd is the safest place to be. Therefore, if he leaves the herd it could mean his life is threatened ? at least?that’s his thinking.

One of the biggest mistakes I see are new horse owners that make their horse work almost every time they go to see them. Picture it. You’re a horse standing there with your buddies. It’s ninety-four degrees out side, the flies won’t leave you alone, and you were doing fine just standing there doing nothing ? thank you very much. And because you are enormously alert due to your innate fear, you quickly spot your owner coming to you holding that weird looking, not-so-good-fitting rope thing that goes on your head.

The last 400 gazillion times your owner walked toward you with it in his hand, he accidentally jabbed your cheek while clumsily jerking it on your head. Then he made you leave your friends and go run in circles for thirty minutes. Boring!

Rather, the horse owner should alternate working and pleasure for his horse. In other words, one day walk to your horse with the halter in your hand and pet him. Talk to him. Tell him how beautiful he is. Take your halter and rub it on his body as if it were a brush. Get him thinking that the halter will give him pleasure so when he sees it he’ll feel good about it.

The next day, with halter in hand, go see your horse and pet him. Talk nice. Then put his halter on. Pet him again. Keep talking nice. After a few minutes, take the halter off and rub his body with it. Then walk away.

Now your horse is starting to think, “Great! That’s all he wanted.” For a while, alternate when you ask your horse to work versus not work and take your halter with you each time to keep him guessing, “Is he gonna pet me and tell me I’m purty, or are we going to work a little? I’m guessing he’ll pet me so I’ll stay put.”

Other reasons horses run from their owners is they may lack good training. Another reason is maybe the horse is getting positive reinforcement at the wrong time. How can that be? A horse could learn to run from his owner - and if he does he gets a carrot or some kind of temptation AFTER he runs.

So how do you stop the running and catch your horse?

It depends why the horse runs. If your horse is fearful then you need to get his trust back. You do that by doing positive things with your horse. When you catch him, don’t ask him to work. Get out your brush and groom him. He’ll like that. You want him to think of being with you as a pleasant experience ? one that he wants when he sees you. This is especially crucial if you’re going to take him away from his buddies in the herd.

Because the horse feels safe being with his buddies in the herd, you must make him feel safe being taken out of the herd. Thus, when you catch him you can groom him and give a good experience to make him feel safe.

A good practice is to put your horse in a small pen and go up to him. Teach him that it’s good to be with you. This will give you a good foundation to catch him later when he’s in an open field.

Another nifty trick you can do is use lunging to teach your horse to come you. Don’t simply run him in boring circles. Have him change directions, go over and through obstacles, etc. Make sure to praise him when he does well and give him rest. Don’t run him into the ground. If you do, he’ll go back to thinking you’re going to make him work real hard.

As you’re lunging him, use commands to get him to do what you want him to do. As you and he get good at this, he’ll respond much better to you in the open field.

A mistake many people make is chasing the horse to try and catch him. You simply can’t do it. They’re too fast and agile. Not only that, it tends to reinforce a horse’s instinct of being preyed upon and they need to get to safety?which means?get away from you.

Sometimes you can use another horse to help you catch a horse by being buddies with the horse you don’t want to catch. If you go to pet a horse it can sometimes draw the horse you want to catch. He may want petted too.

Be sure to never punish a horse once you catch him. First, he won’t know why he got in trouble. And second, it’s a great way to get him to NOT want to be with you. If he doesn’t want to be with you, he will evade you often.

Technorati Tags: Buddies, Cheek, Circles, Curry, Dna, Epitome, Fence, Flies, Four Degrees, Gazillion Times, Good Question, Herd, Horse catch, Horse Owner, Horse Owners, Horse Work, Horses, Innate Fear, Pleasure, Rope, Silent Movies

There are lots of ways a horse can go lame. Perhaps the most common cause of lameness is a result of Navicular Syndrome. The fortunate thing is that it can be treated where the horse gets complete, successful recovery if diagnosed and treated in it’s early stages. Here’s what you need to know about Navicular Syndrome.

First, there is a small bone between the coffin bone and the short pastern bone called the navicular bone. This bone is important in that it distributes the horse’s weight between the coffin bone and the short pastern bone. The result is that it reduces the stress on both the coffin bone and short pastern bone when the foot lands to the ground and weight is put on it. (Even though the rear feet have navicular bones, it is the fore feet that are most often affected)

The navicular bone also works with a tendon called the “deep digital flexor tendon.” This tendon flexes the coffin and pastern joints. It also absorbs shock when the hoof strikes the ground. When the flexor tendon moves, it slides over the cartlidge-covered navicluar bone which lowers the work load of the tendon when the foot moves.

Thus, when the horse’s foot lands to the ground there is a lot of force on the navicular bone. As the horse’s weight is transferred over the foot, the bone is pushed against the tendon. When this happens repeatedly, then damage to the navicular bone and the tendon can occur.

One thing that can happen is the cartlidge can lose its slippery surface and friction can develop between the navicular bone and the tendon. Then the tendon can become rough and make the sliding motion on the navicluar bone even worse. This ultimately leads to pain for the horse and worse, lameness. Worse, the blood flow to the navicular bone and the tendon could be decreased and it may not heal.

How can you tell if your horse may have navicular syndrome? One is he may not want to change leads. He may lose his suppleness or perhaps have a stiff and jerky gait. As this gets worse the may show lameness where you may see short stride in one or both front legs. The horse will purposely try to step on his toe portion of the foot because the pain will be in the back of the foot. Thus, you will see his toe is worn more than any other part of the foot.

This condition will more easily show up in hard-working horses. It also is more apparent when a horse works in tight circles. When he is moving in a straight line it is not as apparent. The lameness seems to almost disappear when the horse is at rest. It will reappear when it is working hard again.

How do you treat navicular syndrome? First, begin early. The horse owner is responsible for recognizing there may be a problem. If there is a problem, then the veterinarian and the farrier should be called so treatment can begin. The treatment consists of corrective trimming and shoeing, pain relieving and inflammation decreasing drugs, and carefully controlled exercise.

Interestingly, treatment for navicular syndrome may be quite different from veterinarian to the next. They will not necessarily prescribe the same treatment.

Exercise is one of the most important parts of the treatment because it increases blood flow to the horse’s foot. But remember that the exercise has to be carefully done.

What horses are the most likely to have navicular syndrome? Hard working horses like race horses, cutting, reining, calf roping, and barrel racers. They are especially more likely to get navicular syndrome if they work on hard surfaces and have poor conformation.

Navicular syndrome is most common in horses with upright pasterns. Navicluar syndrome is also common in horses when the hoof and pastern slope at different angles.

As a horse owner, you should know that improper trimming and shoeing can also cause navicular syndrome. If the farrier trims a heel too low on a horse with an upright pastern it can increase the pressure where the flexor tendon and the navicular bone meet.

Thus, be watchful of your horse. If you see something out of the ordinary when you ask your horse to work hard you may begin by looking for navicular syndrome since it is the most common cause of lameness in horses. As always, consult your veterinarian for diagnoses and treatments.

Technorati Tags: Blood Flow, Bones, Cartlidge, Coffin Bone, Flexor Tendon, Friction, Joints, Navicular Bone, Navicular Syndrome, Pastern Bone, Rear Feet, Shock, Slippery Surface, Stress

Imagine being on a horse and he bolts. You pull those reins to slow him down but it’s no use. He resists and the fence posts go whizzing by you as you panic and pray he doesn’t shift his body weight and you fly off his back into a post.

It’s scary to be on a horse that runs on his own volition and can’t be slowed down. Many people will sell their horse because they’re so scared of that happening again. How do you keep a horse from bolting like that?

There is a way to temper your horse even if he spots something that scares him and he wants to run in fear. I call it, “Installing a horse emergency brake.”

This is done on the ground while you’re doing ground training. Every time you work with your horse you should spend a few minutes doing this ? even if you know your horse “gets it.” It simply cannot be done enough.

What does it look like when you use the emergency brake on your horse? While you’re riding, you reach down to either rein. You tightly grab the rein, slide it up your legs along the seam of your pants up to your hips. At the same time, you are loosely holding the other rein. As you do this, your horse’s nose will be pointing back towards his rear end.

Why does this work? Ever try to run forward while looking backwards? Need I say more? (There are exceptions. Some horses are so limber they will run forward with their nose buried in their sides ? but not many)

But you can’t simply get on your horse and expect to pull his head back if he takes off. You must do some ground work first. And here’s what you do.

Put a halter on your horse and hook a lead rope to the halter. Stand on the left side of your horse. Stand by your horse across from his back leg. Take your right arm and put it over his rump. Next, pull the lead rope towards you and rest your left hand on his back.

At this point your horse will resist some. If he pulls his head forward you hold the lead rope in place. Eventually he will move his head back towards you and give into the pull you have on the lead rope. The second he moves his head back towards you then you release the lead rope tension and praise him. In other words, when you see the lead rope has slack in it because he moved his nose back towards you, then release.

Eventually, you want him to touch his nose to his body. That’s the goal you’re shooting for because the more his head comes around the better control you will have. Also, there’s a second goal you’re shooting for. When you pull the lead rope around to bring your horse’s head back, you want it to be where you don’t pull. He moves his head back for you. As you pull on the lead rope his head moves back with no exertion from you. His head follows. It’s called being responsive. This is important because when you’re riding your horse and you have to pull his head around you don’t want to have a tug of war while you’re riding a bolting horse. You want him to automatically do it.

At first your horse won’t be able to touch his nose to his body. So you start with small successes. At first you pull his head back towards you until you get resistance. When you do, hold the lead rope tension. Don’t make the tension more or less, simply hold it there. The second he looks back toward you more and creates slack in the lead rope, you give him immediate relief and take the tension off the lead rope completely. Then you tell him what a good boy he is. Pet him too. Let him know that’s just what you wanted.

As you do this, you will want him to bring his head farther and farther back until he begins to touch his nose to his body. Don’t try to get him to touch his nose to his body within the first one or two ground sessions. That’s rushing it and you likely won’t make it happen. This takes time to get your horse to understand what you want him to do.

Remember to do this on the other side of your horse too. What your horse can do on his left side, he should be able to do on his right side.

When you have your horse touching his nose to his side, then you’re ready to get on him and test his emergency brake. Get on your horse and go for a test ride. If he starts to run and you don’t want him to, grab a rein and pull his head around. Don’t jerk the reins?pull. Then boot him into a circle. When he slows down or stops like you want him to then release the pressure. Remember to do it on the left and right reins.

If your horse doesn’t easily touch his nose to his body while riding him, then you need to have him practice it more. Also, before you go riding have him touch his nose a few times on each side with the bit in his mouth. Doing these things will cinch your riding into a pleasant experience.

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I’ve been around many people who try to lead a horse by controlling their head with a lead rope. They end up pulling or jerking the lead rope and the horse will typically pull back or push around the person with the lead rope.

Ultimately, you want slack in the lead rope while leading your horse because you don’t want to pull or jerk him. If your horse moves incorrectly while leading him then you can stop and correct him by making him move his body.

To really be successful in Horse Control, the secret is having control over your horse’s body. How do you do that? By controlling his feet by making him move his rear end away from you. (Also known as “disengaging the hind quarters) Why this works so well is it alleviates stiffness and tension and almost magically forces your horse to focus on you.

There are few ways to get your horse to move his rear end away from you. Much of the time, you can stand facing his shoulder and point to his hip. If he doesn’t move keep pointing and cluck at him. If he still doesn’t move, twirl the end of your lead rope at his hip and cluck. If he still doesn’t move tap him with the lead rope while clucking at him.

At any time he moves, take the pressure off him immediately. Give him a pat and a “good boy” and ask for another move. Repeat. Then ask for more steps. Remember to do this on both sides of the body too. It won’t be long when you will simply point at his hip and he’ll move them for you. Do this every day for a while to get it in his mind that you are in control.

Okay. Now that you moved him, turn your body to walk forward while holding your lead line. Something magical happens right here. Your horse suddenly focuses his attention on you. He’s very aware of your movement and what you’re doing. If he messes up because he was distracted or something scared him, all you have to do is move his rear end again. Eventually your horse will start gauging your pace and keep up with you at the same pace you move.

If your horse starts to get ahead of you while leading, move his hindquarters. If he’s lagging behind you, move his hindquarters. If he goes off into La La Land, move his hindquarters.

Having good control leading your horse is perhaps the most basic training technique there is. But it is also the way we get horses in trailers, moving them around, bathing them, and even riding them. This will help teach your horse to be soft and responsive. And if you have a soft responsive horse while you are on the ground, then you will more likely have the same kind of horse while you’re sitting in the saddle. And that is the ultimate goal.

Technorati Tags: Cluck, Control, Focus, Good Boy, Hind Quarters, Horse Control, Lead Line, Messes, Pace, Rear End, Rope, Stiffness, Tension

To the uninitiated horse owner, there are timely facts about horses they should know. In fact, when someone first gets a horse these timely facts should be studied and learned.

These timely facts come from the Jesse Beery horse training manual. Jesse Beery was a famous horse trainer from the 1800’s. Interestingly, Beery’s training methods are as powerful today as they were when Beery was alive.

Timely Fact #1:

Make your horse your friend, not your slave.

Timely Fact #2:

Almost every wrong act of the horse is caused by fear, excitement or mismanagement. One harsh word will increase the pulse of a nervous horse ten beats a minute. Hoses know nothing about balking until forced into it by bad management. Any balky horse an be started steady and true in a few minutes. I never found one that I could not teach to start his load in fifteen minutes and usually in three.

Timely Fact #3:

Intelligent horsemen have learned that kickers, biters and balkers are natural results of abuse, that not one horse in a hundred is vicious until made so by cruelty; that whipping a horse is as mean and senseless as whipping a baby, and that the most useful, obedient and long lived horses are those treated from birth with kindness and common sense.

Timely Fact #4:

The whip is the parent of stubborness, but gentleness wins obedience. There is no such thing as balkiness in a horse that is kindly treated, and that gets an occasional apple, potato or sugar from his master’s hand.

Timely Fact #5:

When a hose is afraid or excited, quiet him by kind words and caress. An excited horse is practically crazy and to whip him is dangerous, foolish and cruel. I have known a single blow of the whip to balk a spirited horse. Whipping a balky horse is barbarous and only increases balkiness.

Technorati Tags: Bad Management, Biters, Facts About Horses, Fifteen Minutes, Gentleness, Harsh Word, Horse Care Books, Horse Owner, Horse Trainer, Horse Training, Horse Training Manual, Hoses, Jesse Beery, Kickers, Maxims, Mismanagement, Obedience, Spirited Horse, Stubborness, Timely Facts, Whip