Halter breaking an older horse!

Question
QUESTION: I am at a total and complete loss of what to do. This horse is 100% my mistake and my responsibility, but I need help doing the right thing. This colt was born to an amzing mare that I owned 3 days after my mom was diagnosed with cancer. His mother was "more horse" than I've ever experienced. She was fast, forward, smart, and a boss mare. She had more spirit than you can imagine and amazed anyone who ever met her. She was put down last year due to a severe injury. At any rate, back to the colt. When he was born I checked him out, he was alright, and I turned him out meaning to get back to him. Well, when he was a late yearling I penned him up to start him and some friends bet me I could get a halter on him. I worked him in a small pen and taught him to face. All I did was whoop and holler everytime he turned away from me until he learned to face me. I finally got a halter on him. I did not strike him or injure him in anyway during this. I left the halter and a short rope on him for him to start halter breaking himself and put him in a larger pen with his mom and a couple other horses. His mom took the halter off of him. I wasn't up to getting another halter on him and I turned him back out. I always meant to get back to him, but there was always something else that needed to be done. When he reached 4 years old I realized I needed to get to work on him, but a totally wild 4 year old stallion is a little intimidating. I contacted a veterinarian. He was tranquilized with a dart, gelded, feet trimmed, wormed, teeth floated, and had a halter put on him. When he woke up he went back into the field and took his new halter off that night. I left him alone "to heal". Now he is 5 years old. I have begun working with him and will stick with it this time. He is not afraid of me and will go in a stall and allow me to close the door (a huge break through). He will follow me around, sniff me, allow me to pet him, and even let me give him his vaccination (he would not allow the vet near him). He really is coming along well, but he will not allow me to touch the front of his face. I have tried round pen work, but he will gladly trot and canter for hours on end, but will not allow me to touch his face no matter what. I can put ropes on him, drape them over his back and neck etc. He just will not allow any rope, hand, etc. to touch the front of his face. I have tried working with a few trainers, but they can not even touch him after hours of work and I am at least past that point, but now I am totally and completely stuck - HELP!!!

Sorry to ramble on I just wanted to give you all the details - thank you, in advance, for your help!

Becky


Ricky Quinn   ANSWER: Hi Rebecca!  

I love this question and your attitude in presenting it.  Honest, very honest.  People write to me hoping to find an easy answer.  Some write because they just don't know where to go.  Many write because they think they can't afford help or don't want to pay for a clinic.  It is my goal to get them started and point them to the resources that can really help them.  This is not easy, or cheap.  An e-mail is never the total solution.  It requires an investment of time, resources and the changing of priorities in order to really get what they/you are looking for in their horses.  

The problem is always us!  It is always the human.  I can tell you where to start with this horse but you have to promise to do the follow up, or again, you will be stuck.  This is a problem that took 5 years to develop and it will take time to correct.  Depending on your feel timing and balance, how hard you work at developing YOUR skills, this will determine how quickly things change.   The things I suggest, YOU will have to go out and really learn.  I can't re-write all of the books, or present all of the information to you in an e-mail, I'd be writing forever!  It is the same as someone asking in an e-mail...how do you build a car!  There are a  lot of steps, a ton of parts and pieces and a whole lot of time!  I'm telling you this because the last question  that was asked of me was the same sort of thing.  Someone just wanted a quick, easy answer and to be spoon fed all of the information.  That just can't be done.  People have such egos and this just kills the learning process.  None of this is meant to hurt feelings.  It just is what it is. You seem different!  So, here we go...

Working in the round pen never involves cantering or trotting for hours on end.  You have done nothing for the horses mind.  His trotting and cantering for hours means he is just tuning you out and there is no mutual communication.  A round pen is just a tool.  It closes the gap between you and your horse and makes the lesson easier to reinforce.  When you send your horse out, you also need to be able to stop him, have him face up on you, turn him by having him step his front quarters off in the new direction, yield his hind quarters AND be able to touch him on the forehead!  He needs to be willing to stand as you approach him.  When you stop him and he faces up on you, walk toward his head with the intention of petting him on the forehead.  If he starts to leave, stop YOUR feet and see if you can get him to stay.  You may even have to back up a step or two to take enough pressure off of him to get him to stay, then try to approach again.  If you reach your hand out to touch him on the forehead and again he begins to leave or pull his head away, STOP your hand!  Pull it back smooth and soft.  When he settles, try again.  If he just can't stay with go ahead and send him out to work.  Send him off at a good working walk or trot, but be looking for him to look you up.  At the first sign that he is checking in with you, take the heat off.  Have him face up on you and start the whole process from the beginning.  Pretty soon you will be able to walk up and just rub him on the forehead.  Never pat him.  Be respectful with you touch him and always remember to rub him with a feel that says you really, really like him.  He will know the difference.  

My guess is that this horse has very little trust and respect for the human.  The horse has been offended by the human doing too much and forcing the horse.  This is another one of those horses that will not allow himself to be taken for granted.  You have to get things right by him and prove yourself to be a leader he can trust or he will have none of it!  This horse will teach you so much!  

Becky, this is just the tip of the iceberg of what good horsemanship really is.  Go to my website and start working your way through the resource list that is posted there.  Look at the Ground Work DVD and book by Buck Brannaman.  This will be the most important one for you.  As you learn more about good horsemanship, ask more questions.  I will be more than happy to fill in the gaps and help you refine your horsemanship.  I never feel that learning about good horsemanship is work.  It is a wonderful journey that will really change your life and your horses life as well.  Trust me!  I also want you to look up a clinic with Buck Brannaman or Ricky Quinn.  What you can learn in just 4 short days will amaze you.  It is getting late in the year.  Cross your fingers and hope that a clinic is near you.  Watch or better yet take your horse.  You will find the hands on help you need.

Keep me posted on your progress!  If you run into glitch, let me know and we will work it out!

Smiles!  Denise



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Denise,
I really appreciate the time you put into this answer, but I think I may have confused two things in my post and that was my training and my round-pen work. I have trained other horses from the ground up, but I have never started with an older horse. I do understand the basic principles of training, I have done 4 John Lyon's clinics and have two clinics on tape, I have done a VIP clinic with Monty Roberts, and I have shelves of books and videos that I have read/watched. I fell on hard times right when this guy was born and he suffered the consequences. When I would start with him I had so many other horses that just needed a little work I took the easy way out. I am devoted this time. I have been working with him 3 days a week for 1-9 hours per session for the last 6 months. In the round pen he will turn and face and allow me to approach. He will allos me to touch him anywhere with my hand, a rope, and even his halter as long as I do not touch the front of his face. If I touch the front of his face he is off. I can hold my hand up, but as soon as there is any contact he is gone. I worked attempted to work with a few trainers in my area, but most have told me that they just don't know what to do. One of them to me to just keep trying the approach and touch his nose and move him into the canter to make him "work" if he refused to allow me to touch his nose. They told me not to stop until I touched his nose. I worked him 9 hours straight. He did inside and outside turns, turned and faced, etc., but every single time, no matter how much I prepared, if I touched the front of his face he was gone. I refused to push him beyond that point, because I was afraid I would hurt him. I had another trainer that told me I just needed to get something across his nose so he would learn to accept it. The trainer put a cotton rope over his nose in a small pen and he jumped a 5' fence from a stand-still, but then came back when I called him and went right back into his field. He is nervous around people he doesn't know, but other than touching his face he does really well with me. I've considered trying to teach him to lead with just a neck collar, but I know in the long-run I need to be able to touch the front of his face and I don't know how to get there. I am willing to take the time and spend the money to do this right. I have considered taking him to a trainer, but I think trying to get him into a trailer would be a horribly tramatic experience and I really don't want to put him through that.

Again, I really appreciate your time and concern and I welcome and an all advice that you are willing to give.

Thank you!

Becky

Answer

Ricky making an offer   Hi Becky!

Just treat him like a colt!  Don't worry about the age that it says on a calendar.  His level of experience makes him a colt, so treat him as such.   

I would not try and touch his nose.  I would want to touch and rub him between his eyes on the forehead.  Again, the exposure has been too much for this horse.  He has been offended.  It is too much and this is why he can't stay.  Continue with the approach I talked about in the first part of this answer.  Also, I want you to see if you can get HIM to touch YOU.  Offer your hand, palm down.  You do not want to offer your palm, there are too many other scents there.  Offer the back of your hand and see if you can get him to offer a feel back to you.  Your horse is just telling you that he can't stay for you yet.  When you get him right in his feet you will get him right in his mind.  Get him to offer to put his head into your lass rope and then start your ground work from there.  Really, it is all about the feet.  When he is feeling good about how he is moving, when the feet are free and he is not feeling stuck or trapped, his confidence will blossom.

You are always offering a feel to your horse and your horse is offering a feel back to you.  Keep searching Becky, because something is missing here.  Something in the trust element in not quite right.  Please don't take him to a trainer.  You can do this.  Attend a clinic with Buck or Ricky.  They can help you with your own horse.  If you have not attended a clinic with Buck Brannaman or Ricky Quinn, they are very different.  It is not a show.  They are very small and quiet.  It is for the most part, just owners and their horses learning and finding a better way.  There may be a handful of spectators, but no big crowds.  It is a wonderful learning environment.  Many people that write me are worried that clinics are some big, crazy deal, and they are not.  So, if Buck or Ricky are near you, please go and take your horse.  You can show them first hand what is up and they WILL help you solve this.  I wish I could see your horse.  It really helps with a touchy problem like this one.

So, do your homework.  Watch Buck's DVD.  You will see new things in the ground work that you have not yet been exposed to.  Keep searching and keep me posted.

Smiles, Denise