^Montana's Mountain Magic Ranch

Posted: November 22, 2005
Horse Training Tips from Darla Nassif, Mountain Magic Ranch's Director of Horse Training

With more than 218 horses at Mountain Magic Ranch we have to catch horses a lot so we need to do it in an efficient, timely manner. You can catch your horse just as easily as we catch ours if you use our simple horse training methods.

I can't catch that horse!

The easiest way to teach your horse to be hard to catch is to only visit him when you want something and, believe it or not, by putting tension on his lead rope whenever you have a halter on him. Even worse, you can virtually guarantee that he'll be just as tough to catch next time if you chase him all around, never catching him and then giving up!

If you want to start programming your horse so that he wants to be caught, do the opposite of what hasn't worked in the past! To do that you need a long-range program so that whenever he sees you coming, your horse thinks Oh Yes! instead of Oh No!

Friendship, Distance and Approach

The First Session

 1.  A great way to start changing a horse's attitude towards of being caught is to go to his pasture or corral and play with him. Put a halter and lead rope on him and play a friendship game. First, try rubbing him all over his body with the end of the lead rope until it becomes obvious to you that he actually likes the attention.

 2.  Next, try tossing the rope with rhythm over different parts of his body until he can stand relaxed without the rope bothering him. Then rub him all over again with the rope. Make sure you can do both sides of him. If he gets worried, just smile, keep going and keep slack in the rope so he can move around freely until he settles down.

 3.  Now, stand at the end of your lead rope, face your horse and make a game out of distance and approach. Wild horses and domestic horses alike make a living by reading the body language of the predators that live in their environment. They pay great attention to distance and approach so they can read a predator's intention.

See how many ways (walk fast, skip, hop, jump, etc) angles and speeds you can approach your horse from without him flinching or moving, then rub him all over with the rope again. This procedure is called habituation through progressive desensitization - or the Friendly Game. This completes your first session, but put no time limit on it.

Follow Up Sessions

For the next session, repeat the first, and then try all of the same techniques with a longer rope (like a 22-foot line). The idea is to simulate your horse being free with a safety net for correcting him. By the third session you should be able to progress to no rope at all, but make sure you are in a small corral (no bigger than 60 feet) for this.

When you do these tasks without a halter and rope on your horse, do exactly the same as if you still have the rope on him. If he runs away, make it uncomfortable for him for having done so. To create discomfort, fling the halter toward his hindquarters repeatedly until he turns to look at you. As soon as he looks at you, smile and welcome him. Allow him to smell the halter and lead, and then play the Friendly Game with it again.

Play with your horse like this every time for seven sessions in a row. Do not skip these tasks until you know your horse has got the concept down.

Remember, your horse always reacts to instincts instilled in him by Mother Nature. Your horse is programmed to flee from predators and anything else he perceives as potentially dangerous. Don't blame him; try to understand that he is only acting out of an instinctual sense of self-preservation.

The next horse training tip will go further on a long-term plan for support.

See you then! - Darla