Does anyone know how to break in a horse?

Question

Does anyone know how to break in a horse?

Answer 1

Well I do, but breaking a horse depends on the horse's age. A horse shouldn't be broken in if it is a year or less of age. Training at such a young age could damage a growing horse's muscles and joints. He should be 2 years or older. You may want to have someone teach you the basics of breaking a horse in, because even though you may think your doing something correctly, you may be doing it entirely wrong. Here is a mini- lesson training course:

HALTER BREAKING FOALS AND WEANLINGS

I first get the colt into a stall and get him to a point where I can walk up and pet him. You must be able to stand by the colt with your right hand over its neck before you can attempt a halter. As with all parts of training, the time required to accomplish this step will be different for every horse.

Then I introduce the halter and lead rope. I’ll have the halter and lead rope over my left hand. I take the end of the halter rope with my right hand, with it laying over the back of my thumb. Then I curl my hand and pet the horse with the back of my hand, working to ease the lead rope over the colt’s neck.

The colt will generally stand for this. Once the rope is over its neck,I reach my left hand under and pull the rope around to me, and the horse is caught. At this point, I ease the halter onto the colt's head.

Remember, you don’t want to make it a rodeo. If you and the colt ever wind up in a big wreck, and he gets hurt, he'll never get over it.

Now, if there was an emergency and I had to halter a colt in a hurry, I would probably rope him. However, that will cause problems down the road, just about every time. Try to avoid those kinds of situations at all costs.

To teach the colt to lead once the halter is on, I put the colt in a stall with a drag rope and provide plenty of food, water, and hay. As the colt moves around the stall, he steps on the rope and learns to give to pressure. The colt will either stand still or learn to carry his head to one side to keep from stepping on the rope. That’s an important step. The colt has figured out that he doesn’t want the tugging and pulling on his head.

I try to lead a colt first without using a hip rope (butt rope). I make a big loop in a soft cotton rope, tie a bow line in it, run it through halter ring, then step out in front of the colt.

If you do use a hip rope, be ready to get out of the way! Get out in front of the colt, because he’s likely to charge over you when you put the hip rope on him for the first time.

Also remember, don’t rely on hip rope. Always ask with the lead rope attached to the halter first, then reinforce the suggestion with the hip rope if the colt doesn’t walk forward. Use light, little tugs on the hip rope and keep a constant pressure on the lead rope until the colt steps forward. You want him to give to the lead rope, not to the hip rope.

But as soon as the colt takes a step forward, release the pressure on the lead rope for a moment as a reward.

Once I have a colt moving forward, I’ll take it to another pen or another stall and just turn him loose. Then I’ll go get him in the evening when it’s feeding time and do the same thing again.

If you take a horse where it wants to go, it will follow you. If the colt gets turned loose and gets grain after you’ve moved it from one place to another, pretty soon, the colt will follow where ever you want him to go.

If a colt bolts or rears instead of following when you’re lead training it, just stay with it. If he rears, snatch down on the halter lead rope and when he comes down, get his nose tucked and make him back up a step. Then pet the fear away until the colt relaxes.

You HAVE to get the colt’s trust first or you won’t ever accomplish anything.

You’re asking the horse to trust you when you put that scary thing on its head. A halter is against a horse’s natural way of thinking and he knows it doesn’t belong there.

If a colt is behaving that way (rearing and bolting), chances are that he’s just scared. Horses don’t like confinement, and a young or unhandled horse is going to fight that confinement. You can’t ever let the colt win, or you’re done. You have to be smarter than your horse.

If the colt won’t lead to another pen without a big fight, then just take it to a different stall. If the colt only goes 3 steps without getting scared and blowing up, you’ve made progress! Tomorrow he’ll likely follow for 4 steps, and pretty soon, he’ll be leading right along where ever you want to take him.  

But – and this is an important point -- you can’t let your horse get you mad, or worse, make you scared. If you do, you’ll have problems with that animal for the rest of the time you own him.

GROOMING, CLIPPING, AND BATHING YOUR HORSE

Grooming is usually the least threatening of these activities, so I would start with that.

Begin by using a really soft brush, or use one on the massaging curry combs. Most horses really enjoy those.

Begin on the side of the colt’s neck and brush or curry down the neck and shoulder first. Most colts will let you get to about their shoulder before they get really nervous and want to move away. Pay attention to your colt’s behavior. When he gets nervous, it means he’s scared. Back off and go just as far as he’ll let you without getting scared.

Each day, you’ll be able to brush a little further down the back and toward the hips, and pretty soon, your colt will be comfortable with you brushing his entire body length.

For bathing, you can take about the same steps. Hold your colt outside in a secure area, where if he pulls away from you, he can’t go far. Be sure there’s nothing on the ground close by that he could get hurt on.

Start by just holding the hose with the water running in front of him and let him get used to the noise. Most horses are curious, and he’s likely to stick his nose out into the water stream. Gradually move the hose closer to his feet as he gets accustomed to the water. When he’s comfortable with the water running right beside his legs, then you can start letting the water from the hose run over his hooves, and gradually work your way up his legs. Again, just like with grooming, if you pay attention to your colt and let him work past his fear, before long, you’ll be able to hose his entire body.

And of course, one note, do this training when the weather is warm, not windy, and the water from the hose won’t chill the colt. You certainly don’t want to make him sick!

Clippers are probably the biggest issue because of the noise and vibration. As with all things when you’re working with horses, before you can touch your colt with that scary thing, you must get him used to the object and the noise all around his head.

Start by holding the clippers and just letting them run in the air around your colt’s head. Find where his bubble of comfort is. When you push inside that bubble, he’ll move away. When you find the bubble, stop outside it move the running clippers in the air around the bubble. As the colt relaxes inside his bubble, he’ll let you start moving the clippers into bubble.

As soon as he reacts again, then stop and keep that distance away. Pretty soon you’ll be able to get right up to his head with the clippers.

You should not try to actually clip the colt until you have his complete trust. And you really need to pay attention to everything you do. Remember, if the clippers are hot, he’ll be burned; if you make a mistake, the clippers will cut the colt; and the clippers always vibrate.

Unless you’re showing a halter colt, there’s generally no need to clip a young colt. I typically don’t work with clippers around a horse until it’s broke to ride. At that point, it’s fully trusting of me and has been exposed to wide range of experiences.

I’ve known of a lot of people who just tie a colt up and force clip it. I don’t believe in that. The colt will never entirely get over that scare, and at some point in his future, it will cause problems for his owner.

HANDLING YOUR YOUNG HORSE'S HOOVES

A colt has to allow you to work with his hooves before a farrier can work on him. It’s not a farrier’s job to teach a colt to let his feet be handled; the farrier is just there to trim or shoe the horse.

Again, unless I have a colt that has some sort of problem and needs early farrier work, I don’t usually start having a farrier until I’m riding a colt. My colts stay out in the pasture, not up in a stall, so they get the natural wear intended for a horse’s hooves. Also, a horse has to learn to balance for several minutes on three legs for farrier work, and that’s really difficult for a young colt. As with everything I do with horses, I try to avoid any situation where a horse can get hurt – that scare stays with a horse for life.

First, I just brush the colt and brush all four legs all the way down to his hooves. Many horses will stand for you brushing their lower legs, but won’t let you pick their feet up.

In working with the feet, I start with the front feet. As I just mentioned, a horse has to learn that he can stand on three legs. I pick up a front foot and hold it until the colt gives it to me willingly and can set it down exactly where I want it. I don’t let the colt snatch his foot away. I look for him to be soft in the leg all the way down to the hoof when I’m holding that leg up.

To work with the back feet, I take a soft cotton lead rope and put it around the colt’s back foot. I stand beside his shoulder and ask him to pick the foot up forward and hold it. I put just a little tension on the foot with the lead rope and say “give me your foot,” over and over, with a little tug on the rope each time. I keep the colt’s nose tipped to me with halter rope with I’m doing this.

When the colt picks up his foot, I say “hold it, hold it”. Then I’ll say “put it down,” and ease off the tension on the lead rope so the colt can set the hoof down where I want it placed.  I want the colt’s foot to be set down right where I’m holding it. If he puts it down behind where I’m holding it, that means he took the foot away from me instead of me releasing it.

To start with, I only pick up the foot an inch or two, just enough that the colt can’t put weight on it. When the colt adjusts his weight, the leg will get soft on the rope. I’ll tell the colt to put the leg down, then back him up a step or two so that he gets to move that foot.

Once he’s squared up, I’ll pick up the foot again.

As the colt gets softer with his foot, I’ll pick it up higher, then step from his shoulder to the middle of his barrel. I reach down, with the colt’s nose still tipped to me, and feel the foot and squeeze on it. Once I can do that without the colt getting scared, I take the lead rope off his foot and hold the hoof with my hand. When the colt lets me hold the back foot with my hand and put it down directly below where I’m holding it, then I’m through using the rope to pick up his back feet.

Then I switch my tools. If I’m working with the left hind foot, for example, I put the lead rope in my right hand, run my hand down the colt’s back, down his hip, down his leg, and then ask him to pick up his foot. At this point, I’m still bringing the hoof forward toward the horse’s head, not back behind him.

When the colt gives me his foot willingly and lets me hold it forward, not kicking or jerking away, then I’ll put it down. That’s good enough for that day.

Every day after that, I go through the process of handling all 4 feet and it becomes part of the daily routine with that colt.

I don’t move the foot backward behind the colt like farrier would until I can leave the lead rope on the floor, walk back, and pick his hoof straight up and put it down where I want it. At that point, the colt’s ready for me to start stepping under the foot and raising it back like the farrier would.

My method is a bit of a long process, but it’s well worth the time. Remember, there’s no time limit for doing it right.

IF YOUR YOUNG HORSE IS BEING AGGRESSIVE

If a colt is trying to bite, for example, I don’t use the standard practice of hitting him in the mouth (I don’t see any reason to hurt my hand and any horse is able to move away faster than I can hit!). Furthermore, hitting a horse in the head is likely to make him head shy, and that’s a problem you’ll have to deal with the rest of his life.

A head shy horse is one of the hardest to cure.

Something that works well is to put one of those plastic lemons or limes from the store in your palm. Recreate the situation in which the colt tried to bite – if he got away with it, you can bet he’ll try it again. When he does try to bite, just squirt the lemon or lime in his mouth. Horses don’t like that sour taste! You just have to remember to make that lemon or lime part of your tools every time you work with that colt. It won’t take too many lessons for him to figure out that trying to bite causes a nasty taste in his mouth, and he’ll stop.

However, you also have to remember that not only are horses curious, but they communicate with their mouths. Even 2 and 3 years olds are still babies. Often, they aren’t trying to bite you, they’re just trying to be friends, especially stallions. Stallions are very mouthy – it’s their nature. In those cases, if a horse is just nuzzling you, not trying to bite, just give a little jerk on the lead rope, push his head away, and tell him “quit it!”

Also, I don’t like a horse to rub his head on me, because when he comes into my space, he’s being disrespectful. I’ll tell him to quit and push him away. If he doesn’t quit, I’ll slap him with an open hand on the side of the neck. You can’t hurt a horse that way, but it makes a loud noise, and it’s the kind of discipline he’d receive from another horse. He understands what that means.

As far as striking, a stallion is more prone to strike than a mare. It’s in his nature. You have to know if he’s really striking at you or just striking out. If he does strike at me, I take the end of the lead rope and pop him on the shoulder and side of the neck, then I pop the lead rope a few times and make the colt move back, I get after a colt pretty good for striking. And remember, you have to do it the instant he strikes. You can’t wait for three or four more steps and then get onto him, because he won’t know why you’re disciplining him at that point.

Some people suggest tapping a colt on the knee with a lunge whip for striking. Horses are quick and if you’re fast enough to tap that knee before he can get it up to strike, that method would probably work. Frankly I’m not that fast.

If a stallion is just striking because he’s getting talking to a mare in the barn and just being a stallion, but not striking at you, then you might want to put a stud chain on him the next couple of times you lead him out. It only takes a couple of times for you to pip his nose with a stud chain and you’ll have his attention. You don’t have to use the chain hard or hurt him with it.

If you have to use a stud chain on a stallion every time you lead him out of the stall, then clearly you don’t have his respect. You need to start over at ground zero with his ground work and earn his respect before he winds up hurting you.

The problem is that if a stallion can’t control himself in a certain situation, such as around other horses, especially mares, then you need to keep putting him in that situation every day and demand that he behave, until he will behave in that situation. A stallion (well, this is true for any horse) has to learn that when you go catch him and bring him to the barn or wherever you work him, then it’s time to work. He has to be on your schedule, not honky-tonking and chasing the girls. My stallions behave. They understand that. It takes time and a firm hand.

Every time a horse makes an aggressive move, it’s a response to a fear of some kind. Horses are not naturally mean. Some horses have learned that aggression will keep people away. For example, a horse may have learned that if it turns its butt toward a person, that person goes away instead of catching him. When I go in a stall to catch a horse, if he turns his butt toward me, he gets popped on the butt with the end of a cotton lead rope. Then once you do catch the horse, you stand and rub the fear away. The horse quickly learns that it’s more pleasant to keep his head to me, and I don’t have any more problems.

LOOK YOUR HORSE IN THE EYES

When I work a horse, I want it to stop and face me, with its two eyes looking at my two eyes.

That’s because horses’ emotions are shown through their eyes and facial expressions. If a colt is looking at me, then he’s paying attention to me. He’s not paying attention to the horse behind him or across from him in another pen or the dog in the yard – he’s paying attention to me.

If a colt’s going to have a blow up, you’ll see it in the expression in his eyes and in his body language. Then you’ll be prepared, and can try to avoid the blow up, or at least, be prepare to get out of the way if need be.

While it’s true that horses are prey animals and direct eye contact can trigger the prey instinct (i.e., make them want to take flight), for domestic horses, that really doesn’t enter in. With a wild-caught mustang, the prey instinct is high because the horse has been out with actual predators and has had to protect itself.

Domestic horses don’t have a strong prey instinct any more. That wildness, to a large extent, has been bred out of the domestic horses.

I also don’t buy into the idea that a horse thinks the saddle is a prey animal that’s jumped on its back. The saddle is a big scary thing on a horse’s back, yes. But if all horses thought a saddle was a mountain lion or something similar that was going to hurt them, then every horse I put a saddle on would blow up and buck. However, most horses I’m training don’t blow up over a saddle. So, I just don’t buy into that whole theory.

Answer 2

Hello. Yes i done this for a living. If anyone wants to learn they should be getting taught properly as it is so easy to stuff up a horse forever. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Yes I do, but if you have never done it before you should get someone to at the very least help you, if not do it for you.

An inexperienced person can ruin a horse for life if they do not do the job properly.

Answer 4

well you first oil it up really good,then you take a baseball and some big rubbrrr..never mind that is for baseball gloves..lol breaking horses requires a lot of specialised training and  a really good medical plan...sorry couldnt resist...actually there are several ways of breaking horses..there is soft breaking and hard breaking(not recomended)  go to the book store and look up some books on horse training..it is too hard to explain here..

Answer 5

youtube- Horse-breaking

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGA402wm3...

Answer 6

Hire someone who knows how to do this.