Working with rescues, books on training.

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Irishdiamond

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Ive recently started volunteering with a rescue centre with many horses who are not quiet. I'm abit overwhelmed as I've never really had to deal with horses who aren't well handled or even youngsters. It's not like I have to deal with them alone (yet) but I'm so keen to learn how to deal with them so want to get the correct tools.
Can anyone recommend any training books ideally natural horsemanship ones? Just so I can get a better idea.
Ive been looking at Neil Davis fear free training, I like some of monty Roberts work and some parelli aspects.

The rescue is really busy so I will get a minimal amount of training.
I'm not clueless but not much practical experience when dealing with horses who will kick/bite or horses with no ground manners.

Also on another note can anyone recommend something to remove Muck? Apart from a dandy/rubber curry comb. Any sprays or special brushes that might make life easier for me haha

Thanks in advance :)
 
Kelly Marks book Perfect Manners is a good read. She was a Monty Roberts student.

A friend had a Highland Pony, who she insisted would not load. We had to take her somewhere, I used Kelly's suggestions and the Pony loaded first time - straight up the ramp.
 
Having got two from a WHW improving manners and general handling is just a matter of time and patience. Unless you have lots of that when volunteering I'm not sure how far you'll get.

I do find a clicker works well with the mule though.
 
I like Warwick Schiller's approach. There are lots of clips of youtube to watch to get an idea of how he applies horsemanship principles. Most good horsemanship principles are based on communicating with the horses how they communicate with each other. I think the priority in your situation is to stay safe if you have kickers/biters, so ways to enforce personal space boundaries would be useful to learn and Warwick is very big on staying safe around horses, for example, no barging into you or your space, walking when you walk, stopping when you stop, waiting quietly to be fed, etc. One thing he does talk about when working with rescues/'abused' horses is to try and put the fact they are rescues out of your mind and just treat them like any other horse. For example, he responds to a bargy rescue horse exactly as he would a bargy non-resuce horse, and conversely he responds to an anxious rescue horse, exactly as he would an anxious non-resuce horse. He would uses different approaches to respond to the behaviours from bargy or anxious horses, but their background is irrelevant, you work with the horse in front of you. His logic for this is that horse's don't make any special allowances for a horses background. A rescue horse being put into a field of 'non-rescue' horses wouldn't be treated any differently by them, they wouldn't allow a horse to barge into them and go 'ah that's ok, you're a rescue' :) The horse expects to be treated like a horse and it makes if feel secure when this happens.

I really like clicker training too, but I find for basic ground manners, especially if you have quite a few horses to deal with and limited time (really busy rescue centre) and like you say have horses that are displaying dangerous behaviours (kicking, biting), then I find negative reinforcement, meaning pressure and release, works very quickly as it is how horses themselves communicate so they understand immediately.

As for the muck, it's winter leave it :D
 
It's not a "how to" book but I recommend Buck Brannaman's book The Faraway Horses.

Like I said it's not a "how to" but he explains what "rescues" need in regards to handling and boundaries.

If you like that there's also his other book Believe and the Mark Rashid series of books (No horse is a bad colour, Life lessons of a ranch horse, considering the horse and Horses never lie)
 
Mark Rashid's early books are well worth a read. They won't tell you how to, but they will help you see things from the horse's viewpoint, which is usually the key, and means you will be more adaptable.
 
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