Thank God He Listened to Me!

Chavhorse

Chavhorse

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Last Night I was leading my guy up from the paddock to the yard, suddenly he grew by at least 3 hands, I looked up and could see (I thought it was coming from our car park!) flames and smoke.

I hollared to the people on the yard I think something like "Its a F***ing Fire" at which point they all ran off to the property over the road which by now had flames and billowing smoke coming from it.

One of the big things that my trainer (western Trainer) has drummed into me has been the place of safety for the horse when led and ridden i.e. head down and relax. Thank god for this because the next thing that happened was huge explosions of glass blowing out.

My lad was on his own and obviously scared stiff but when I put my had over his head he automatically put his head down and stood rock still. even when all the other horses in the paddocks took off like bats out of hell. He then let me lead him back to his field even though he was quaking. (so proud of him), and stood whilst I opened the wire and he stood calmly as I put his head down to take his head collar off. Poor chap his heart was going like the clappers.

Happy to report that the horses from the property over the road were safely got out of their stables and brought across the road to our round pen.

Really brought home to me the importance of having a horse that listens to you on the ground something that I think we can be a bit dismissive about as if this had happened 6 months ago with my rude bargy boy as he was then I would have been toast.
 
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Walrus said:
What a good boy! How have you got to that stage with him? What techniques do you use? :)
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Walrus it has taken a while as he used to think that it was totally acceptable to stride out with me almost having to run beside him and if anything worried him it was a WTF jump sideways.

Long and short was I moved him to a Western trainer who took one look said no way am I having a rude horse that drags people around, and proceeded to insist that any pulling was met with a "hey" and a back up until his eye was again just in front of my shoulder (so you can see the horses expression, worried, calm, evil etc) we spent a lot of hours backing up!

Eventually he got it walk calmly next to the person leading you and you don't have to back up all the time (he is a WBX it took a while
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After we mastered this the next step was the “automatic whoa” i.e. I say whoa you stop with your arse tucked under you as soon as I think whoa! (again a lot of hours of backing up) but he got it

Next step was walk on your own four feet you are a big boy and I do not need to hold onto your head you can do that, you can guess what is coming right as soon as he leans on you whoa and back up, as well as me having a session with YO's quarter horse which is like leading a feather no weight in your rope at all so I could feel what the ideal felt like (as at the time I was just happy not to be dragged anymore!)

Head down was taught from the very start and covers everything from head collar and bridle on, and leading (for those oh so wonderful giraffe moments) and also when you want to do something like open a gate much easier if horse is stood still relaxed with head down . We started off having to put pressure on his poll for him to bring his head done (release as soon as he moves down in any way) and have now worked up to just putting my hand over his poll without touching him and he brings his head down. For bridling and head collar as soon as I pick up either he puts his head down until I tell him he can put his head up.

I am proud to say I now have a hulking warmblood x who I can lead with one hand on the end of a lead rope and my thumb and forefinger of my near hand halfway down the rope he is now nearly as light to lead as the QH's. He also stops as soon as I say whoa on the spot rock still and will not move till told he can.

It has though taken a lot of time and patience and I used to moan like hell at the amount of time spent training this and I am sure a lot of people will say "god how anal" but it is times like last night that I am very thankful all it takes is a whoa for him to stand totally still put his head down and wait for the next instruction rather than the old days of drag and tanking off.
 
Thanks for typing all that out, it's really interesting, especially the head down bit. I can understand why you are so proud of how your boy behaved, sounds as if it would have been a disaster had you not done this training with him!
 
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