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AW: [RC] Teaching the Trot-out to a STUBBORN Horse (long) - Hilga HöfkensAs Diamante is presumably smart, what about bribing him. Terrified of crops as he is, I would not like to risk a nervous breakdown in a vetcheck. Rather do it the "reward-way". Give him a small but mutch liked cookie after the first trot down. Let him know you have another one in your hand and trot back (with help of hazing or whatever it needs). Do it often and at different times. Do it before a trainingride, after, in between. Get off show hin the treat and run with him a short strech. Give itto him, then get back on and continue your ride. Do it in the pasture or paddock as well. Run away with the treat (go slow at first, later run like hell) and let him catch you. Make it habitual, he should be eager to run after you, as soon as you show him the treat. Not letting you get away without giving some to him. Hopefully he will then fall into that habit at a ride as well. Good luck Hilga -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]Im Auftrag von RDCARRIE@xxxxxxx Gesendet: Freitag, 3. Januar 2003 16:18 An: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Betreff: [RC] Teaching the Trot-out to a STUBBORN Horse (long) My husband and I are at our wit's end...well, mostly my husband (Ross), since it's his horse who is the Little Monster. <G> The horse is an 8 yr old Paso Fino gelding. We've been told now by 3 different vets that they are a stubborn breed. We discounted the first one ("he must have had a bad experience with a Paso"), but are becoming believers! The horse, Diamante, is *very* smart - learns new things quickly. For example, he quickly learned our method of trailer loading (walk in by himself, and back out when signaled by a tug on his tail). Now, every once in a while, he just decides he doesn't feel like loading...he'll walk up to the trailer, cock a hip, and that's it. **sigh** As for the trot out...we've been working with him since we got him last summer. He's terrified of crops and lunge whips - apparently had some harsh training - we've had to work to gain his confidence, but these devices still scare him. So, the usual method of having one person on the lead encouraging him to trot, and a second person encouraging him with a lunge whip as needed just panicked him (forget having the person on the lead hold the whip to tap him - he just spins in terror around that person). We've managed to get him to do a *fairly* respectable trot out at home and after conditioning rides by having the second person haze him to get him moving (without a whip), the one on the lead rewarding him with cookies and ear scratches for a good effort, and have now been able to pretty much do away with the hazing. His trot out is not very inspired or enthusiastic, but it's there. However, remember I said he's very smart...Ross gets to a ride (he's done 3 LDs on him), and Diamante refuses to trot out unless I'm there to haze him very firmly. I'm there at the pre-ride vet in, but I'm not around at the mid-point vet check and post ride trot out, as I generally do 50s. Any ideas for improving consistency? The horse knows the difference between home/conditioning and an actual ride situation, where he's discovered that he can get away with murder (or at least, acting like a murder victim on the end of the lead <G>). Ross is thinking about getting a short whip and just working with the horse till he realizes that even though Ross is carrying it, he's not going to use it, as long as the horse trots out. Ross is very frustrated at not being able to present the ride vets with a decent trot out, but it's not for lack of trying. I know there's a lot of knowledge on this board, and surely some of y'all have run into something like this before. Suggestions? Thanks in advance, Dawn in East Texas =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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