Horses are naturally wary of new objects in their environment. Their natural suspicion can be manifested in different ways – some of which can be explosive and dangerous if they are pushed too close or too fast. Entering and exiting natural states of arousal is critical to building a horse’s ability to understand and tolerate… Read More Training Exercises: Introducing Obstacles
If you are starting here, you have missed her first 4 months of training. See The Trouble With Ariel to start at the beginning. ARIEL HAS GRADUATED from her small enclosure and joined her friends in the big paddock again! She has progressed from a crazy, wild little horse to a compliant, manageable horse during… Read More No Trouble with Ariel – A Kristull Chronicle
As I wrote the Training Exercises to start DE-sensitizing your horse, I realized that I have not really defined the term or the theory behind the exercises. Wild horses live life super-sensitive to threats of any kind. They are super-sensitive out of necessity. No one wants to be eaten. However, once our horses are in… Read More Training Theory: De-Sensitization
Equine PTSD. Horse abuse pulls on anyone’s heart strings. It usually comes in the form of neglect and malnutrition or is practiced as unpredictable or traumatic physical punishment. Horses with true PTSD need special care. Their reaction to stress is usually exaggerated, frantic, not proportional to the stress a normal horse exhibits. Some researchers posit… Read More Horse Problems: Training The Abused Horse
The purpose of this exercise is to catch, restrain, gently control, and release the baby every day so that he gets used to giving to pressure from the very beginning. This lesson will also reinforce his earlier contact-imprinting as you enlarge your rubbing, stroking, and manipulating of his body, legs and feet. All of this… Read More Training Exercises – Foal 3 Days Old
It can be highly irritating to be taking a long, slow, beautiful trail ride and have your horse continually diving to the ground for a morsel of grass or grabbing tall grasses from the side of the trail. It jars you every time, and can whip the reins right out of your gentle, relaxed hands.… Read More Horse Problems: Horse Eats on the Trail
There are many reasons why a horse is stalled. Most of them are fallacious. (based on a mistaken belief. synonyms: erroneous, false, untrue, wrong, incorrect, flawed, inaccurate, mistaken, misinformed, misguided). Horses are herd animals. They experience psychological insecurity when removed or isolated from other herd members. This can lead to instability of temperament and the… Read More Horse Health: The Case Against Stalling
A horse’s first saddle experience can be difficult or easy, depending on how much ground training he has and how solid he is when it comes to pressure situations. We do not introduce a saddle until a horse can lunge in hand properly and has had a lot of desensitizing. He should have no “untouchable”… Read More Training Exercises: First Saddle Experience
In my early days of horse training, I was less experienced and less sure of myself. My angst expressed itself with a great deal of work on safety exercises. Paramount among those were disengaging the horse’s rear early so that he never showed that part of his anatomy to me and teaching him to stop… Read More Training Exercises: The Verbal “Whoa!”
The Goal A horse that respects his handler will back away when his handler moves into his space in an authoritative way. The only time a horse ever backs up in the pasture is when a more dominant horse demands it. Therefore, it is a natural way to gain respect from your horse. Used frequently,… Read More Training Exercises: Back Up