Trust Issue?

by Tristin Jarratt
(Sault St Marie,ON,Canada)

Hello, at our horse farm, we have trained many horses, but this one is different. Her name is Athena. She was a boarder at our barn. She is a tall slim thoroughbred. She is currently 4yrs old.(mare) the owner was at horse show. She felt bad for the little filly and bought her. She was skinny and rather thin, She was brought to our farm. She got taller and gained weight.Her owner rarely comes by, but we did lots of ground work. lunging, blanket being tossed on both sides, saddle on both side and done up. we have also put on a bridle. We lunge her and take her for walks down the road. But Every time we do it, she acts like we are doing it for the first time. like we are doing it all over again. She is a ( right brain? I think) we have trained and ridden to horses during the same time period. We are still working with her. We have had somebody on her once, and she took off bucking, he got dumped. The Owners couldn't pay board, so the horse is ours. We can't sell her because she is a "psycho" horse. =/, I am the grand-daughter, my grandmother owns her. I suggested, using an English saddle, lighter to toss, I am going to try, I will do what she did. But I am going to make her bomb proof before I get on. I am very determined, I do understand the danger, but I have feelings for her. I want to tie the small grocery bags to her halter and let her go, she will be scared, but I know she will get use to it. Next, cans and bags tied to the saddle. we will lunge her until she is use to it. we will keep doing more. But have any other ideas what we can do with her? I also said I wanted to be bringing her into the bigger ring and take her for more walks. Grandma suggested just boosting me up and have me leaning while she leads her. If all goes good, I will gladly get on, but have any ideas what else we can do? She doesn't trust us, but what are we doing?

Please e-mail me back.

thanks. =)

Answer

Yes, indeed this is a trust issue!

So please, do not tie plastic bags to her halter and let her go or cans to the saddle. Athena is a highly sensitive scared mare and these methods would only intimidate her and increase her fear level. You would do more harm than good. The reason everything seems like it’s the first time to her is because her fear is getting in the way of learning. Horses cannot think through a process when they are in a state of fear or anxiety. You are dealing with a horse whose experiences from the past are haunting her. Your challenge is to convince her first she can trust you.

I highly recommend our ebook The Secret Lives of Horses. This will offer insights regarding horse behavior and understanding.

A lighter saddle is not going to solve the problem either. Once a horse has bucked off a rider they will try it again as long as they are still afraid about the process.

Let’s start from scratch with some ground training exercises and Athena is the perfect candidate for Clicker Training. This method is perfect for helping horses gain confidence, trust and calmness.

No horse is born psycho, unfortunately they are created by human experiences gone bad.

I wouldn’t take her outside of her comfort zone into new environments to train. She is not ready for that. Start your training where you know she feels safe.

Here is another example of how we go about retraining a horse

Athena is asking you to help her and the only way is to learn something that may seem outside of the box for you. Traditional methods like lunging are not effective communication tools with a prey animal. It lacks purpose and understanding behind them. Take in all the information I offer on my website there is lots more there to help you too.

You can do it!
Elaine