In an ideal world, stable manners should be taught at a very early age, but sadly, some horses, even when they are going through the process of being started or backed, are not educated in how to behave when being handled.

This lack of education can lead to a horse that barges when you open the stable door, drags you across the yard to grab a mouthful of grass, does not respect your personal space etc and often these horses are labelled as bolshy, rude, dangerous maybe, when sadly they are just uneducated.

 

It is much easier to teach a horse how we would like it to behave from the beginning, than to have to retrain it at a later date, and behaviour that can start off as annoying can quickly spiral into dangerous or totally unacceptable problems.

 

The basis for a well mannered horse, is for it to see you as a calm, and confident figure, not someone who demands the horse behaves in a certain way, but a “passive leader”.

 

It helps, whatever you are doing around horses, to have a clear “intention” in your mind as to what you want to happen. So, for instance, if you like a horse to move back away from the door when you enter the stable, have a clear picture of this happening in your mind as you approach, and be confident in you head that this WILL happen. As you step into the stable, if the horse does not move back, gently but firmly press your fingers into its chest and release the pressure, and repeat if necessary until the horse steps back. It is surprising just how quickly a horse will learn to step back as you enter, but you have to be consistent, it is not fair to expect it to happen one day and not care the next if the horse does not do it.

The same goes for leading a horse out of its stable, many horses charge out the moment the door is opened a crack, resulting in you being squashed and dragged and often the horse can catch its hip or get caught up with its saddle resulting in panic. So, once you have got the head collar on, open the stable door wide, and be ready to use the press and release action with your fingers in its chest again to ask it to stand, and have in your mind the intention of calmly waiting and the expectation that this WILL happen. Again, it only takes a few sessions for the horse to understand that you would like it to wait calmly for a moment, before following you out.

 

Some horses have never been taught to move over when asked, and the same principles apply, a calm, focused attitude, being clear in your own mind what you want to happen, and then pressure and release against the horse’s side until it takes a step away, when you release the pressure, praise and repeat.

 

So much of the behaviour that we see in horses, which we perceive as negative, is a direct result of them either never being educated properly in the first place, or not having the trust in us or the understanding of what is expected.