Training the Horse to Think before Panic

by Yvonne

The first training session we did with GB was to teach him what to do with halter and lead rope. He already had this training and it was not an issue. The next step was to teach him not to panic if his legs were compromised. Leslie used a large diameter rope and we tied just one front leg and then I asked him to walk forward and then asked him to stop since he did feel the pull of the rope. At this point I reached down and untied his front leg and stroked him and said 'Good Boy'.

Next we tied the other front leg. The idea here is to get him used to something on each of his legs so that he does not panic. We wanted to make sure that he was as comfortable with either of his legs being tied with a rope before we introduced tying two legs. Leslie takes baby steps with the horse and I found that we could accomplish a great deal since each step we did went very smooth and there never seemed to be an issue or panic on the horses (or my) part. Once we had done all four legs, tiing only one at time, we moved to tieing two together and asking him to walk forward, each time he would try to walk forward he would feel the rope stop his forward movement. Once he almost tripped but immediately he stopped. With each of these progressions, he would get his rub and his “Good boy”. By the time we had all four legs wrapped and I asked him to walk forward he did not move. I could not coax him forward, he did not move. I looked down at his legs and unwrapped each one. “Good Boy”.

It is Worth the Effort

I did not understand these lessons. I wondered “how much value would these add.” I found out; They were valuable. No doubt about it. I have experienced times on the trail where my boy was perfectly fine when his legs were in a compromising position. No panic on his part.