understood the social code established at my barn for all horses. This is why we have no accidents and stallions can stand in the cross ties next to other studs or even mares. The same principle applied to entering into the groom-
ing bays: all horses learn very quickly to “park” themselves backing up in the cross ties. The young ones imitate the old ones. Once it is explained to them, stallions also learn to look the other way and ignore the stallion standing next to them. Toti used to have a habit of kicking nervously (while being
Halt by pressing the Endostick across the chest. This technique lets you teach the horse to stop from any stable contact on any part of his body associated with WHOA! We can see that Toti halted in balance (vertical front legs, first priority), though he is not engaged at this stage.
and front leg high strikes, a behavior that is not acceptable because of its potential danger for the handler. Establish- ing an immediate hierarchy was necessary. A young dominant horse is accustomed, since birth, to demand his way through all opposition by using his weight forward from the hind legs onto the front legs, bracing his feet as a means of imposing his power and pushing his head and chest through (the other horses). Conversely a submissive horse will back off in the presence of a higher-ranked horse. The training principle is the same: if the handler asks the
horse to lift his head as high as necessary, the action shifts the weight onto the hind legs (by the compression of the back from the front). The bracing of the front feet AND hind feet diminishes and the horse backs up. The mechanical leverage of the lifted head and neck onto the back greatly reinforces the meager strength of the handler. It convinces the horse that the human can back him off, just as effectively as any superior horse would do by usual intimidation. This simple method establishes leadership very naturally
and avoids creating a vacuum of authority that could lead very quickly to a conflict, either open or latent. Stallions who are unsure of who is in charge easily become aggressive. As I already explained in the general principles of train-
ing, the horse will back with lighter and lighter aids as he gains understanding of the idea and will eventually no longer need to have his head raised. He will mirror the steps of his handler, learning to walk at the same speed as the handler, stopping as soon as the handler stops and says “whoa” softly. The psychological effect of this initial back- ing up exercise is profound and will affect all the subse- quent training. The beauty of this simple approach is that the human is dominant but remains benevolent and encouraging (as opposed to equine dominance, which can be brutal). For every correct step he made (forward, back- ward or halting), Toti was lavishly rewarded and quickly
showered, for instance). He never kicked directly at anybody, just as an expression of excitement, but it is still a habit to discourage. That was done quickly by a stern voice threat and a raising of his head. We do all our own feet trimming and horses must be totally safe, regardless of who stands near them. Threats at feeding time are also strongly discouraged.
Toti wanted to rush to his grain past the handler and put his head in the bucket, so he was made to remember that he was eating “by permission” of whoever brought him his grain. A horse protective of his food can become dangerous in no time.
Bridling and Tying The next issue we addressed was bridling: Toti had a tendency to lean heavily on the handler bringing the bridle from the side and avoid presenting his head by swinging it around, so I used the same backing action as a correction. We think of undesirable or dangerous behavior as a mental activ- ity to be modified by a new understanding of the situation, but we must remember that all equine behaviors are always expressed physically in a very predictable way. A horse that pushes on the handler acts forward or laterally. The correc- tion must consist of displacing the horse in exactly the oppo- site direction. Once the physical expression of the resistance is suppressed (or prevented) and the horse is rewarded for adopting a new position or a new direction of movement, he finds this new behavior pleasant because it resolves the previous conflict. Remember that “social peace” is intrinsically rewarding to any herd animal. When I bridle a horse (or simply put on a halter), I like to
do it from the front by offering the horse the opportunity to “enter” the bridle or the halter voluntarily. With Toti, who is a very smart and playful horse, I put the bridle first from the side, holding the bridle with the left hand and opened his mouth with my left thumb by creating a little pressure on the roof of the mouth. The educational component was to say “take your bit” until he got the idea of opening his mouth himself. After that, I placed myself in front of Toti (in the cross tie with a halter on) and I presented the bridle from the front while saying “take the bit” and rewarding him lavishly for doing it. I then slid the bridle over the ears and took it off by saying “give your bit,” repeating it several times. It became a game and the issue disappeared. Toti now knows how to open his mouth and relax it instead of clenching his teeth. At one point, Toti was tied up in his stall and he broke the (leather) head piece of his halter because of exciting activity in
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