Training your horses to deal with being handled by muppets (in this case me).

[Polos Mum]

I really enjoy the videos of professionals breaking (usually kids ponies) and exposing them to all sorts of weird situations they could encounter.

Throwing themselves on the ground to have a tantrum, cuddling legs, crawling underneath, climbing up things to get on and of cause lots of falling off (usually a dummy attached to string that is pulled off at random times so the pony learns to stop as soon as rider hits the deck).
So creative but so worthwhile

 

[Smooshy]

Thankfully my boy uses half his brain (not sure if being part native helps with that).

Having been on a few yards with a few not so smart people we had to teach him how to not react as such. Also with how spooky his is.
Everything that went wrong was turned into a lesson. From being stuck to fencing and standing on leadropes or lunge lines.
From the beginning I threw rugs on just in case- and have a few times forgotten belly or leg straps to be followed by a side eye and sigh as I undo them.
Scary bags or tarp- we wear them or eat them. Whatever works really.

Best ones are the ones he realised he can't walk out of it so will literally stand stuck and scream at people near by. Once ran through fencing as didn't see it and waited patiently whilst we moved each leg to untangle him.
Another where he was leaping in the air and got his front legs stuck behind the surcingles. Waited to be rescued- more like cow tipped- to be freed. And then promptly did the same thing again

Although teaching him that scary machinary is driven by people (me working with a forklift, and feeding him when he stopped to say hello on the way in from the field probably didn't help with that), but now if there is machinary in the field, we now investigate it. Much to the annoyance of the drivers when he gets in the way.

But to this day, he still doesn't look where is going and will fall over his own feet or kick himself.

 

[Annagain]

We've got a little mare in who has bred a foal and not a lot else - she's now been backed, ridden away, hacked, taken to dressage and clear rounds, all fairly normal stuff.
She has also learned about umbrellas, fake xmas trees, lie size toy gorillas, flappy coats, flappy arms, swingy legs, doors slamming, metal things being dropped, rugs being thrown on and dragged off over her back side, and all manner of stupid things that she may encounter when she's soldl
She has decided that spooking is a waste of time, and learned to roll her eyes!

It's good to know so many horses are going to be gorilla proof.

‏‏١٫١ ألف‏ مشاهدة‏ · ‏‏٦٩‏ تفاعلاً‏ | A few clips from yesterday’s SnowDay ❄️🤠 glad to see it’s all melting today 😂🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🙈 #equestrian #allweather #snowday #horses #christmas #march #horsesofinstagram #horsetrainer #farmlife | Joanna Lowes Horse Tr

A few clips from yesterday’s SnowDay ❄️🤠 glad to see it’s all melting today 😂🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🙈 #equestrian #allweather #snowday #horses #christmas #march #horsesofinstagram #horsetrainer #farmlife.

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[SEL]

A few years ago I was glad I was clumsy with ropes and the big mare was used to me accidentally wrapping lunge lines around her. We were riding through a muddy gateway and she stopped dead. Wouldn't move on when asked and turned to look at me with her best Appy side eye.

She'd walked into a load of baling twine in the mud and got stuck. She was an absolute superstar as I dismounted into the bog and lifted out each leg one by one so she could walk clear.

 

[paddy555]

I realised I had taught mine to come in from the field by calling his name for a reason last week. Turned him out, he cantered off, I realised the fillet strap and tail strap not in position. For any other horse it would have been a bucket of nuts to go and catch him. For mine it was call his name and clap (his call signal) he cantered back towards me, I did the tail stuff and he cantered off again to his friends. Thanks gorgeous boy.

 

[Peglo]

I can take no credit for idiot proofing my horses. They must just look at me and know

forgetting to undo leg straps, (usually use fillet strings) forgetting about the middle surcingle on Rambo rugs, tail getting caught in fillet strings when taking rugs off, dropping lead ropes and ponies standing on them, doing up a head collar and realising the rope is wrapped up in the fastened head collar. The list goes on…

I put my half chaps on my own wrong legs once but I was hungover.

 

[DabDab]

Peglo. Maybe you just know how to pick the right kind of horse for you!

Some of them definitely have a certain level of Muppet tolerance built-in. In the early stages of backing my Connemara (to set the scene she was without saddle or bridle, just a headcollar with reins, I had ripped jean on and was using two plastic milk crates as a mounting block), after a couple of repetitions of step on block, lean over pony, back on block and step down from block, the 'step down from block' section went spectacularly badly. The two milk crates parted company, flew into the air and across the arena, somehow cutting my bare knee as they went, and I ended up spread-eagled on the ground directly in front of the pony's front feet.

1) I don't believe she even flinched
2) the 'U ok hun?' expression she gave me while I lay on the floor will be forever etched into my memory

 

[Auslander]

These toy gorillas?

This is Graham, the gorilla in question - every horse has to spend time with him. When my arena surface was in piles at one end of the arena, I made a beach scene with inflatable palm trees, monkeys, bananas, sharks and flamingos (cheap pack from Amazon) and sat Graham in the middle of it. There was a lot of snorting for a few days, but the horses soon got over it!

 

[Flame_]

My current horse understands this.

A previous horse never could, every time he would pull back violently and make himself sore or break rope. Never realised he could lift his foot. I failed to teach him too.

He also used to pull back tied up (only occasionally but once he pulled he would panic and really pull throwing himself over backwards - it was like a switch of panic flipped - he was rarely tied up and used Idolo ties so didnt injure himself).

Flame was exactly like this. She was one of the smartest, sharpest, most quick thinking horses I've ever been around but if something triggered "pull back" she was damn well pulling back with all her body, mind and heart until the restraint snapped, a wall came down, a door came off, etc... Rather than engaging some thought process such as "try releasing the pulling back tension for a sec, maybe it'll work out better?" ETA TBF, Flame was not keen on tolerating muppets much in general, she was always scowling at me

 

[SilverLinings]

I encourage my horses to be curious rather than scared, and they have quickly learnt that walking up to inspect the scary thing a) shows you it's not scary, and b) may earn you a treat.

The most stupid (me) and potentially dangerous incident though was changing a horse's rug in a field in a storm. He was standing facing the fencing about 4 feet away, and I removed the first rug fine. I threw the second one on, and as I was doing up the second chest strap a gust of wind flipped the rug right over. I ended up under the horse's neck with the rug over me and his head/neck, so we were in a kind of rug 'cave'. What made it even worse was the surcingles had caught on the electric fence behind me/in front of the horse and were making a very loud snapping noise. I trust that horse but was very aware in that instant that he would be completely justified in panicking and could end up hurting us both.

The horse looked fairly concerned but to his absolute credit stood stock still until I had untangled us and fastened his rug in place. I was incredibly grateful that he took it in his stride and let me rescue him. I have to admit that I still change rugs in the field in all weathers, but I make sure the horse is further away from the electric fence, he is facing up-wind, and I make d@mn sure the back of the rug is fastened in place ASAP!

It also reminded me that I am lucky that they are as brave as they are, and that actually a lot of things that I don't think twice about riding past (trains, balloons, crow scarers etc) are actually quite a big achievement for the horse, and I am really grateful they are so good. And all that is on top of putting up with me

 

[Auslander]

Despite all my best efforts, there is one horse on my yard who spooks at whatever he wants to, whenever he wants to...

 

[Tiddlypom]

Yesterday I managed to fit this Transcend double bitless bridle correctly, with the curb correctly clipped up and disabled for use as a single rein sidecue bitless bridle.



Today. Same horse, same bridle. Erm... . Bless her, she didn't bat an eyelid, though I did notice before I did anything with her.

 

[Dasher66]

Our TB ex-racehorse had managed to get a hind shoe half off in the field. DD and I had spent around 10 minutes faffing around picking up the leg and tugging at the shoe before I thought maybe we ought to put a head collar on him. He was super relaxed and very confident we were going to sort him out.

 

[SEL]

I'm going to add how very well behaved the microcob was cantering with a pink and yellow kite wafting off to one side behind her. Really should make sure the high viz blanket is secured before heading off for a hack.

 

[Annagain]

I went to a riding club lesson the other day. Went to tack up and realised I’d brought my friend’s saddle with me. Tried to ride in it but it was pretty obvious it was Nowhere b near fitting him so we had To V wait on the trailer for an hour while our (other) friend finished the lesson we should have been in before we could go home. In my defence, it is the same make and model of saddle, albeit with a totally different colour numnah attached.

 

[Cherryblossom]

I was walking the course at my 2 phase yesterday when an announcement of a course hold was made. I soon discovered why when I saw a lovely horse standing calmly halfway over the barbed wire fence beside the jump, while people came running with wire cutters etc. I’m sure that owner is delighted that they idiot proofed their horse, otherwise it could’ve ended very badly!