Horses naturally relax when they lower their heads. Use this to your advantage by teaching the drop-head response.

Photo by Heidi Nyland Melocco

Like a needle on a gauge, your horse’s head position is an indicator of his emotional state. When his head rises, he’s tense and prepared for flight; when it lowers, he’s relaxed and at ease. By teaching a drop-head response, you can ask your horse to calm down on cue—especially useful if your horse is the nervous or spooky type.

I’ll explain how to teach the cue from the ground, then from the saddle. It’s straightforward, but does take patience on your part in the beginning.

From the ground. Put your horse in a rope halter with training lead. Place your thumb and index finger on the knot just below your horse’s chin and apply gentle, steady pressure downward. You’re not trying to pull the head down; you’re just applying pressure as a cue. Watch your horse carefully, and the instant he drops his head even a fraction, release the pressure and praise him. (It’s better to err on the side of releasing a bit too soon than a bit too late.) Then ask again.

The first few inches down will be a challenge. Be patient and keep at it. Once your horse gets the concept, he’ll soon be dropping his head all the way to the ground every time you ask. Eventually, encourage him to keep his head down at ground level for a few minutes, to allow time for him to feel the serenity that naturally comes from a lowered head.

From the saddle. Once your horse responds reliably to the cue from the ground, tack him up (a snaffle bit is best for this) and try it mounted. From a standstill, shorten one rein a bit, lift that hand slightly to apply light pressure to your horse’s mouth, then just wait. You’ll feel tempted to increase the pressure to get a response—but don’t. Apply just enough pressure that your horse begins to look for a way out of it.

Then, the instant he drops his head even slightly, release the rein entirely and praise him lavishly. Don’t worry if he moves about a little while you’re working on this; just focus on the head dropping and release whenever he complies. As before, the first few inches will be challenging, so be patient. Once your horse figures it out, he’ll begin to respond quickly and willingly.

Then practice the drop-head cue frequently on an ongoing basis, especially any time your horse becomes tense or fearful. Eventually, your horse may start dropping his head on his own whenever he begins to feel nervous or anxious, “self-medicating” himself in order to feel calmer. Now that is a result worth working for!

Julie Goodnight, known for her ability to teach horses and riders of all skill levels, hosts “Horse Master with Julie Goodnight” on RFD-TV. She also presents clinics nationwide from her home base near Salida, Colorado (juliegoodnight.com).

Any horse might kick under the right circumstances, and the possibility of becoming the target of a well-aimed hoof is always with us. Most of us learn commonsense guidelines of defensive horsemanship early on, but it’s easy to get complacent among trusted horses. To stay safe, it’s wise to always keep these rules in mind:

• Stay alert. Focus your attention on the horse you’re working with as well as any who are close by. Pay attention to a swishing tail, pinned ears, flared nostrils and other signs that a horse is getting annoyed, and take steps to diffuse the situation before he “blows up.”

• Watch herd interactions. Steer clear of any who seem alarmed or threatened by your presence. Also sidestep any developing skirmishes.

• Avoid carrying feed or treats through a herd. Horses can become competitive and/or aggressive to get to the food, and you could inadvertently be on the receiving end of their blows.

• Don’t ride among loose horses. A horse at liberty may send yours a “don’t come closer” message that puts your leg in the line of fire.

• Tie horses far enough apart so that they can’t kick each other. You’ll also need a safe buffer zone so you can remain out of reach while walking between them.

• Stay close to a horse’s body when working around him on the ground. The most damaging kicks happen when a horse has enough room to fully extend his leg. Kicks at close range hurt but are less likely to cause serious injury.

• Put away your cell phone. Whether you’re on foot or in the saddle, stop talking, texting and indulging in other smartphone activities. Safety around horses requires your full attention.

This article first appeared in EQUUS issue #427.

Watch in the video below as I longe a horse that's been saddled for the first time.

I might have learned enough to train horses anyway, but I am convinced that one of the luckiest things I ever did in my horse career was to get a black Labrador. Labs have always been a sharp reminder of what it feels like to have an animal in my care—and to know I don’t know enough to deal with that animal correctly. People remark to me that I seem unusually sensitive and patient while dealing with riders struggling to climb the learning curve. That is because I know exactly how they feel as they try to understand and communicate with their horses.

Although I was already a fair horseman by 1966 when I brought home my first puppy, the fact that it was a new and different type of animal convinced me I needed help. So I did what had worked for me with horses: I read books about it. It worked. My first Labrador was a lifelong friend, and I have been at it ever since, reading books on training Labradors and applying what I have learned along the way.

Since I am always trying to find—and pass along—new and different ways of learning how to train horses, I thought that as a mental exercise we would talk this month about training Labs. If you don’t quite get the points I am making, just substitute the word “horses” in your mind every time I say “dogs” or “Labs.”

Job Determines Training
Once you decide how you want your animal to earn his living, a lot of decisions fall into place. My Labs, for example, are purchased with a specific goal in mind: I want them to be good hunting dogs. This means they spend a fair amount of time around humans carrying loaded guns, so they cannot jump up on humans—ever. I start training my puppies about this right away.

My puppies usually tell me just before they are going to jump up, and I make sure they run into the flat of my hand with their noses. They seem to get the idea quickly that jumping up on humans in not acceptable. I hope the analogy with horses is clear to you. Your horse outweighs you by a factor of 10:1. Make sure you teach him ground manners. An unruly horse is a danger to himself and to you. Decide how you want your animal to behave and be consistent about applying your rules.

I firmly believe that most animals want to please us, but we have to show them how to do that. Praise or punishment alone does not accomplish what you want. You need a judicious balance of these two techniques to produce a friend for life. Of course, justice should always be tempered by mercy; we will talk more about punishment and discipline in a minute.

Even the most prepared horse and rider can find themselves in a challenging situation on the trail. When you’re far from home — and a veterinarian isn’t close by — it’s crucial that you know steps to take when a crisis arises. That knowledge and your quick action can make all the difference in the outcome.

Here are six TTouches that can offer help in emergency situations on the trail.

Ear TTouches
Use in following situations: Colic, shock, injury, tying-up syndrome
What they do: Calms the horse, reduces pain, lowers pulse and respiration, regulates temperature, helps alleviate shock
How to perform them: Slide your hand from the middle of the poll over the base of the horse’s ear all the way to the tip of the ear. Emphasize contact with the tip, giving a gentle twist of the tip between fingers and thumb as you glide your hand off the ear. Once the horse is comfortable with having his ears stroked, you can slide your thumb along the inside of the ear as you’re stroking the outside. (Note: Ear TTouches should be done vigorously in the case of shock.)

Belly Lift
Use for: Colic, tying-up syndrome
What it does: Helps relieve spasms and eases the tension of cramped abdominal muscles, stimulates normal gut action, activates the paristolic action of the gut to relieve pain.
How to perform it: Use a large towel folded lengthwise so it’s about 6 to 8 inches wide. If there are two people, you can also use a girth or surcingle, or two people can use their arms and lock hands under the horse’s belly.

Using the TTouch Belly Lift technique have one person on each side of the horse, hold the towel/girth/your arms under the horse.

With two people: With one person on each side of the horse, hold the towel/girth/your arms under the horse. Start just behind the front legs. Hold the towel steady and slowly lift until you can’t lift any more. Hold about 10 seconds and then SLOWLY release the pressure. It’s important to release slowly – ideally, the release time should be twice as long as the lift. Move the towel 4 to 6 inches towards the horse’s hindquarters and repeat. Continue Belly Lifts until you are as close to the flank as the horse will allow. Repeat the lifting cycle 3 or 4 times, starting behind the elbow each time. In cases of extreme abdominal pain, the lifts and holds must be shorter. If your horse cannot accept the lifts, the holding period at the top of the lift may have to be left out. Counting out loud seems to relieve many horses. For example, say “Lift, 1, 2, 3, 4. Release, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.”
With one person: Drop the folded towel over the horse’s back and catch it under the belly. Hold one end a few inches below the spine on your side. The other end of the towel should come up from under the belly. Proceed with lifts as described above, holding steady with the hand on the spine and lifting with the other.

Tail TTouch
Use for: Gas colic.
What it does: activates the acupressure gas point to cause the horse to release gas
How to perform it: Make deliberate press-and-release circles with fingers 1 and 2, moving in one-eighth inch increments on the acupressure gas point just above the anus and under the root of the tail.

Lying Leopard TTouches
Use for: Injury, shock
What they do: Reduces pain and prevents swelling in acute injury.
How to perform them: The primary connection comes from your partially flattened fingers in this TTouch, not the palm of your hand. Move the horse’s skin in a circle with contact from the first two phalanges of your four fingers. Don’t press with the heel of your hand as this will flatten your fingers and make it hard to perform circles.

Tail Pulls
Use for: Exhaustion, fatigue.
What they do: The tail is actually an extension of the nervous system and contains 18-24 vertebrae. Relaxes the horse’s neck and back, activates the cranial-sacral fluid that runs through the spine, helps release tight muscles in the hindquarters.
How to perform them: Stand slightly to the side of your horse’s hindquarters, angled so that your one foot is in front of the other. Hold the horse’s raised tail firmly in both hands. Slowly shift your weight from your leading foot to your back foot, applying a steady pull to the tail without bending your elbows. Hold the traction for a few seconds and then slowly shift your weight from your back foot to your front foot, releasing the pull. Releasing slowly is very important. Repeat two or three times.

Coiled Python Lift
Use for: Exhaustion, fatigue.
What it does: Relaxes muscle tension and spasms in the back
How to perform it: Begin at the top of the leg. (For exhaustion/muscle fatigue, work on the inside of the horse’s thighs.) Using the flat of your hand, lightly move the skin in a circle with one hand, then push the skin upwards with both hands. Hold for four seconds, supporting the skin as it returns slowly to the beginning place. As you make circles against the skin inside the horse’s thigh, you’ll want to give a slight lift to the muscles.

Cynthia McFarland is a full-time freelance writer and avid trail rider who writes regularly for national horse publications. She’s also the author of eight books.

Retirement for most horses is a fairly informal process. No papers are filed or legal statuses changed; rather, an equine retiree simply does less of what he used to do or perhaps stops entirely. And, ideally, the end of a horse’s working career is determined less by his age than by his physical capacity and other less tangible factors.

“I hear people say all the time, ‘My horse is 18. It’s time to retire him,’” says David Trachtenberg, DVM, owner of Trachtenberg Veterinary Associates in Penfield, New York. “But the age in and of itself is meaningless; what matters is his health status. If he’s in good shape and is handling his workload with ease, there’s no reason to retire him. And, frankly, it can be detrimental, physically and mentally, for a horse to suddenly go from being active to not doing much at all.”

The best way to “retire” a horse is to gradually decrease his activity level, based on his changing physical abilities. But it’s not always easy to decide when to make those adjustments and to what extent. Of course, you never want to ask a horse to do work that his aging body can no longer handle, but---let’s face it---most of us have horses so we can enjoy riding them, and we’d like to do that as long as possible.

Balancing these objectives requires a clear-eyed assessment of your riding goals and your older horse’s ability to carry you to them. It also means judging whether an off day is a minor bump in the road or part of a larger decline in your horse’s health, and continually making adjustments in his management and lifestyle that can help him stay healthy and happy.

This process is full of uncertainty and is sometimes fraught with emotion. But it’s something that every older horse deserves.

When to say when
An acute injury usually leaves little room for doubt when it comes to planning a horse’s future workload. A horse with a torn tendon obviously can no longer do his job---at least until he heals---no matter his age. On the other hand, when an older horse’s decline is subtle, progressing without significant injury or loss of vigor, it can be difficult to see.

“If you see an animal every day it can be hard to recognize the gradual changes,” says Ruth Sobeck, DVM, of Palos Verdes, California. “That’s when your veterinarian can be extremely helpful. I may see an older horse only two or three times a year, so I’m going to notice that he’s stiffer or losing muscle mass. I’ll point that out to the owner and ask what the horse is doing work-wise and how he seems to be handling it. These discussions can be an eye opener for an owner who hasn’t seen, or hasn’t wanted to admit, that the horse is slowing down.”

Sometimes, however, signs that a horse can no longer handle his workload are apparent. “You’ll notice they tire a bit faster and take longer to recover,” says James Bleak, DVM, of Central Arizona Equine in Camp Verde, Arizona. “They may trip more or be sore the day after a big ride. These can all be signs of him slowing down.”

Too much work can also make an older horse behave differently. “Watch him carefully and see if he is still enjoying himself,” says Trachtenberg. “Are his ears forward? Is he moving out willingly? Does he seem happy about the work? Even if you don’t notice anything obviously physically wrong, a horse who starts to show behavior changes and acts like a ‘brat’ may
be telling you he needs his workload cut back.”

That said, any horse will have good and bad days, so you won’t want to read too much into a single episode. Instead, look for patterns. “It can be helpful to keep a calendar or diary to record just how your horse feels each day,” says Sobeck. “At the end of the month go back and take a look to see where you are.”

Solvable or inexorable?
Your veterinarian can help you distinguish age-related issues from problems that can be solved or at least made less severe. Simply ascribing your horse’s physical infirmitiesto “old age” can allow illness or injury to go undiagnosed. “Ninety percent of the time, arthritis is what I’m confronting in an older horse who is slowing down,” says Trachtenberg.“But chronic, low-grade laminitis can look very, very similar. Chances are it’s just arthritis, but if you make that assumption without a veterinarian’s input, you could overlook something significant.”

Sobeck says that in addition to arthritis, repeated soft-tissue stress can put a horse on a retirement track. “Many times an older horse injures the same ligament or tendon again and again. You rehabilitate them, but when you reach a certain level of work, they just come up lame again.”

Listening to your horse is paramount in making decisions for his future, but keep in mind that some horses won’t let you know when they hurt. “From my own personal experience I can tell you that some horses will lie, particularly Arabians,” says Sobeck. “They’ll tell you ‘I’m great, I’m fine, I can run on these tendons,’ when really they can’t. If the x-rays and ultrasounds are telling you one story, but the horse is giving you another, you have to overrule the horse for his own good.”

Nonmusculoskeletal conditions, such as heaves and Cushing’s disease, aren’t likely to drive a horse into retirement by themselves, unless severe, because medications can usually control them. “Untreated conditions can certainly lead to complications that can make it difficult for a horse to perform his job,” says Trachtenberg, “but most of these medical conditions can be managed so effectively that they aren’t a factor.”

Cutting back
Once you determine that your horse can no longer manage his current workload, you’ll be faced with even more decisions. The challenge will be to reduce his activity level enough to relieve the stress on his body but not so much that his relative inactivity precipitates new problems or exacerbates existing ones. There are no rules---or even rules of thumb---for determining how much a horse of a particular age and with particular conditions can do. That is done on a case-by-case and even day-by-day basis.

Consider the arthritic horse, says Trachtenberg: “You want to keep these guys moving and active---mild to moderate work is actually beneficial for the joints. But knowing how much to work a horse who is stiff is a judgment call. You’ve just got to take it day by day and make decisions based on what you see in the moment. If he is initially stiff and improves in the warm-up to his ‘base line’ but is not outright lame, go ahead and ride. If he’s feeling particularly good, maybe have a short canter. But if he’s acting more sore than usual, more lame than usual, it’s time to head back to the barn, maybe give him a bute, and see where you’re at tomorrow.”

Trachtenberg adds that riding an older horse sparingly won’t preserve his soundness. “I think the adage that ‘Horses only have so many miles in them’ applies more to the extreme sports, horses showing at the higher levels, or horses on demanding show schedules. You aren’t going to take five years off a mild or even moderately arthritic horse’s life just because you continued to trail ride him. Go ahead and enjoy him.”

An incremental approach to retirement, in which you follow the horse’s lead to slowly reduce his workload, is logical. “If your horse isn’t handling the rocky, mountainous trails well anymore, stick to the hills,” says Bleak. “And then when the hills are too much, ride the flat trails. Eventually, if he’s got the personality, he may just be led around with kids on his back, but that’s an important job, too.” The same years that took a physical toll on your horse may have made him a calm, experienced schoolmaster, perfect for younger or inexperienced riders.

Scaling back your horse’s work means a change in your own riding as well, which may raise another set of questions and challenges. “One particularly tough scenario I see a lot is when people buy a mature horse to learn on,” says Bleak. “These experienced horses teach them the ins and outs of an event, but then when the people are ready to advance to higher levels, the horses can no longer physically compete at that level. The owners love those horses but have to get a younger one if they want to continue in the sport.”

One way to handle this, says Bleak, is for riders to purchase a second horse when their older one begins to show early signs of aging. “The people school and train on the younger horse and save the older one for the main events, when it counts. By the time the older horse has to stop roping or running barrels, the younger one is ready to step up.”

But not everyone can afford this solution. “That’s a harsh reality,” says Trachtenberg. “You can’t always just go get another horse, so you’ve got to decide if you’re willing to adjust your riding habits and goals. Oftentimes I’m very surprised: I’ll have an owner who’s been doing high-level hunter/jumper competition for 10 years, and I’ll tentatively ask them if they are OK with just a trail horse. And they’ll say ‘yes.’ But sometimes the answer is ‘no.’ There’s nothing wrong with that; it just means we will have to have a frank discussion about whether or not it’s possible to keep this horse at that level of competition, for how long and at what expense.

“Horses have a unique dual role in our lives, beyond companion animals,” Trachtenberg continues. “In one role, they are a pet and we get a great amount out of the animal/human interaction. But in their other role, they have a utility in our lives. Most of us have horses because we want to ride them. When they get older and those roles don’t work together, owners are faced with a tough dilemma: Do I keep this animal I love and give up on my riding goals? Or do I pursue my passion without this particular horse? That is something I’m often counseling owners of older horses on.”

Retirement TLC
Even if your older horse is working less, or not at all, the task of caring for him won’t necessarily become easier. His needs will be different, but still important.

“The biggest mistake I see people make is just throwing a retired horse out in a field and assuming he’ll be fine,” says Bleak. “He still needs regular dental and hoof care, good nutrition, vaccinations and deworming. He can’t be expected to fend for himself.” Keep all regular farrier and veterinary appointments for your retired horse, and expect to even increase their frequency as he ages. What goes on at the appointments will change, but he still needs that level of professional attention.

Simply looking at an older horse daily will go a long way toward keeping him healthy. “You should visit him and groom him every day,” says Sobeck. “The grooming isn’t so much for looks, but it makes you take a closer look at his weight, skin and overall health. If you’re just casually throwing hay and water at him each day and not taking the time to run your hands over his body, you could miss something.”

Consistency is important, too. If your horse received an oral joint supplement while he was working, continue to give it in retirement, says Trachtenberg: “A few times I’ve gone to an emergency call for a horse unable to get up. After an investigation, I find out the horse was on a certain joint supplement for years, and the owner either stopped giving it or had just run out and figured it would be no big deal if the horse didn’t get it for a few days. But then the horse ends up not being able to get up. The only thing that changed was the supplement, so I have to figure that was making a difference.”

Sobeck discontinued joint injections when her horse retired but kept using an intramuscular PSGAG0 injection. “It’s a judgment call,” she says. “But I think it makes them feel better, and even if they aren’t competing, they deserve to be comfortable.”

As you tend to your horse’s physical needs, don’t overlook his mental health. Sometimes our notion of what lifestyle will make an older horse happy misses the mark. “I retired my show horse when he was 22 after a series of injuries,” says Sobeck. “It turned out he wasn’t particularly happy being out in a field all the time. He didn’t do poorly physically, but he lost his spark and seemed very disinterested in life.” Sobeck moved him back into the barn and he perked up almost immediately: “He was just a very social guy who liked the activity of the barn.”

Companionship is important to older horses, even if they don’t seem to appreciate it. “Older horses can seem really grumpy and almost antisocial,” says Bleak. “They’ll pin their ears and kick at youngsters, but they still need the company of another horse and will get upset if you take that away.” For instance, an older horse may not feel comfortable lying down unless a herdmate is nearby, and then he becomes sleep deprived. “Unless the grumpiness escalates to fighting and one of the horses is going to get hurt,” says Bleak, “try to give an older horse
a companion.”

Finally, don’t discount how much a horse might miss his old routine: “There is a 33-year-old mare at a large stable that I take care of,” says Trachtenberg. “We had progressively retired her from the lesson program due to neck arthritis. She had gone from jumping to walk-trot lessons and then no riding at all. About four weeks after full retirement, she managed to get out of her stall, walked straight to the riding ring and stood next to the instructor as the lesson was going on. That’s a horse who obviously missed the interaction that came with her job.” Even if an older horse can no longer be ridden, if you can find a way to include him in his previous activities---hand-walking him during a lesson, for instance, or shipping him to a show simply as a traveling companion for a younger horse---he’ll be happier.

As a certified applied animal behaviorist, I’ve worked with a variety of species—from Komodo dragons, orangutans, camels and horses to humans. Working with species like these and more, I’ve learned the importance of having a variety of tools to train a desired behavior. Whether challenged to train a Komodo dragon to enter a crate on cue or my horse to willingly accept dewormer or ear clipping, I open my toolbox and choose the training tools that work best for the task.

In this article, I’ll introduce and define some of those tools you’re probably already using but may not be fully taking advantage of, particularly positive and negative reinforcement. A simple breakdown will help you distinguish the training method you’re using and give you alternatives if a particular method doesn’t seem effective for a certain horse or behavior.

Though many people use negative reinforcement when training animals, I’ve found the experience is usually the most fun for both species (me and the nonhuman animal I’m training) if I rely heavily on positive reinforcement. So we’ll also apply a couple positive reinforcement tools on some common behavior issues that folks ask me about in my column, “Ask Dr. Weiss,” at www.aspca.org.

Training Tools Defined
To get to the fun stuff, we first need to dig through a few learning-theory terms that can be a bit confusing—and are often used incorrectly.

• Positive in the field of learning theory simply means “give.” That is it—just give. Not good or great or yummy or anything like that … just give.
• Negative means “take away.” That’s it—not bad or painful.
• Reinforcement means increase the likelihood that a given behavior occurs again. Think of it as making something stronger—more likely.

Now let’s put those together.

Positive reinforcement occurs if, when I give something right after a behavior occurs, it makes that behavior more likely to occur again.

For example, I want to teach a dog to sit. I have a tasty treat the dog would like me to give to him. I hold the treat a bit above his head and say “sit.” He then puts his nose up, resulting in his rear rocking back toward the floor. I give him the treat. The next time the treat appears, he’s likely to try the behavior again because it caused treat delivery previously.

Negative reinforcement occurs if, when I take something away right after the behavior occurs, it makes that ­behavior more likely to occur again.

In this case, I need to take something away to reinforce a behavior. Let’s use the same behavior “sit” and the same species, dog, as our example. This time I’ll apply moderate pressure to Fido’s rear when I give the “sit” cue. I’ll keep the pressure on his rear until he yields to it by placing his behind on the floor. The moment he does, I’ll release the pressure. Next time I give the cue and apply the pressure, he’ll likely sit more quickly to “turn off” the pressure.

Here are a few more terms you’ll need for your training toolbox:

• Cue: A cue is often an auditory (a word, for example), ­visual (a hand signal) or tactile (the touch of your leg) stimulus to initiate a particular behavior.
• Primary reinforcer: This is something the animal finds inherently reinforcing, or said more simply, something the animal naturally likes. Most commonly used primary reinforcers are food, water and social interaction.
• Secondary reinforcer: When training, timing is everything. Secondary reinforcers are used to help with timing—they signal “primary reinforcer is coming!” They are sometimes called a “bridge,” as they connect the desired behavior and the reward. To develop a secondary reinforcer, it is paired with the delivery of a primary reinforcer several times until the secondary reinforcer produces a seeking of the primary reinforcer. You may have heard of clicker training. Clickers are secondary reinforcers. I’m notorious for losing clickers, so I use the word “yes” or make a whistle sound instead—I call it “tweet and treat.”
• Shaping: Shaping a behavior is something you’re already doing … now it has a name. When we shape a behavior, we reinforce approximations of the behavior we want. When we train something like lifting a hoof, the initial behavior we reinforce may be shifting the weight off the leg we’ll be lifting. For more complex behaviors, the behavior we initially reward may look quite different from the final behavior.

Now I’ll teach you how to create a secondary reinforcer, then we’ll do three exercises to show you how to put applied learning theory into practice.

My horse Aurum was a real handful when I first brought him home. He was a 2-year-old who had grown up in a field without much human contact, and I knew I was going to have to start with lessons in basic ground manners. I soon found, though, that he was a real problem child.

I enlisted professional help, and we discovered that many of his issues stemmed from back pain---but that’s a story we already told, in “Good as Gold” (True Tale, EQUUS 352). Yet even after we finally got his back cleared by a veterinarian and a chiropractor, and he was started under saddle, I knew I was going to have to work extra hard to gain his confidence and respect.

Teaching him tricks proved to be the perfect way of achieving that goal. I already had some experience with trick training. After a friend showed me the basics of a method called clicker training, I taught our white pony Timbit to do all kinds of things, from fetching a tissue when I sneezed to retrieving packages from a mailbox. Timbit took to all my requests almost gleefully, and we did many demonstrations at festivals, seniors’ homes and for the Humane Society. But Timbit was growing old, and I had bought Aurum to aid him.

Aurum, too, took to performing like a duck to water, but in the end my beautiful palomino taught me that trick training can be about much more than pleasing crowds---it’s also about teaching a horse confidence and trust, reducing his fears, helping him to relax and building a bond. Today Aurum is a confident ham who loves performing for crowds who come to our place, especially children, and I firmly believe it was the trick training that helped him become the horse he is.

Whether you’d like to train your horse to put on shows, or you’d just like to explore a new way to have a little fun with him on your own, teaching tricks can help you strengthen your relationship. And it’s easier than you think to get started. Here’s what you need to know.

Steps to positive learning
Volumes have been written about how to train animals, but I found success primarily through techniques based on positive reinforcement. The concept is fairly simple: The horse gets something he likes---often a food treat---as a consequence of performing the desired activity, and he is therefore more likely to repeat the behavior when asked again. And the faster the positive reinforcement follows the action, the sooner the animal will understand the connection.

To effectively practice positive reinforcement methods, you’ll need to develop cue control. Once you’ve begun rewarding a certain behavior, you will find that your horse will often do it without your cue, hoping to receive a treat anyway. But to maintain control of the situation, avoid rewarding a behavior unless you’ve asked for it. In other words, reward him only for correct responses to your specific cues. Establishing cue control is also an excellent means of teaching your horse emotional control, and this will be of great benefit when you are out riding him.

The other part of cue control is how you respond to incorrect behavior---you simply ignore it, or at most, you might deliver a gentle but firm “No” or “Uh-uh.” You must be careful to never accidentally reward bad behavior. Once the horse learns that the only way to earn his reward is to wait for your cue and then perform the behavior you want, you are well on your way to good training.

How to use a clicker
Clicker training is one method of delivering positive reinforcement quickly and efficiently. A clicker is a hand-held device with a button or a metal tongue that makes a distinct “click” when you press it. You can buy them at most pet stores or order one online.

A clicker is helpful because it is not always possible to reward a horse instantly when he offers a desired behavior. But just as Pavlov conditioned dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell with classical conditioning, a trainer can make an animal associate a particular sound with an upcoming reward. In other words, the click becomes a “promise” that the reward will come later.

You do not need to use an actual physical clicker to train a horse; you can also use a verbal cluck or a word of praise. But, to me, the clicker is like magic when it comes to trick training. It is both attention-getting and precise, and the sound can be delivered instantly, to let your horse know that the behavior he has just performed is exactly right. This helps him to make the connection and understand what you want faster.

To get started with the clicker, simply get a handful of your horse’s favorite treats (if you’re worried about feeding him too much at once, break larger pieces down into smaller bits). Click the clicker and then offer a treat. Repeat this several more times: click, treat; click, treat. It won’t be long until your horse associates the click with the treat. Trainers call this either charging up the clicker or creating a conditioned reinforcer. (Do not click and treat if the horse gets pushy or aggressive---that would be rewarding bad behavior. Instead, wait until he backs off and stands quietly again.)

Many clicker trainers wear a treat pouch on their waists while they work. There are still some people who worry that feeding a horse by hand will cause him to bite, but in reality a horse who is properly clicker trained is less likely to mug you for treats because you will never, ever reward pushy behavior.

Trick basics
Once your horse understands what the clicker means, and you’ve learned how to deliver rewards appropriately, you can start with a few basic “building blocks” of trick behavior. These simple actions are easy to teach, and they can become the first steps into more complex tricks. Here’s how to get started:

• Targeting teaches a horse to touch his nose to an object. The target can be anything you choose, such as a small orange cone, a plastic lid or the rounded end of a hunter bat (my choice).

Hold the object in front of your horse. Natural curiosity will make him sniff it. If he touches it, immediately click and treat. If he doesn’t touch it, help him succeed by positioning it so that his natural head movement will cause his nose to bump into it. The instant this happens, click and treat. As you repeat this process over and over, you will notice the exact moment when your horse figures out the connection between the touch and the reward.

Clicker training is a flexible method, so there is plenty of room for you to develop your own style. You can have the horse respond to your gestures alone, or you can build a verbal command into your training by saying, for example, “touch” as your horse reaches for the target. Eventually, you ought to be able to say “touch” to let him know what you want him to do. (Most clicker trainers shape a behavior and then put a word to it, but I always start with the word and then find a way to explain that word to my horse. Using this method I have taught Aurum such complex behaviors as the canine scent discrimination exercise, in which an animal is sent out to find and retrieve a scented dumbbell from a group of identical dumbbells.)

Once your horse consistently touches the target on command, you can start getting him to follow it around. I use my hand as the target when guiding Aurum over ramps, through hoops and around weave cones. Build slowly, and if the behavior deteriorates at any time, go back to a previous step in the shaping process.

Targeting is not just a trick but also a valuable tool that can be used in situations such as trailer loading, obstacle training and lateral work.

• Head positions, such as tucking the chin, raising the poll or turning the nose away from you, can come in handy in many situations. Head lowering, for example, is one of the most important moves you will teach your horse, because a low-headed horse is a calm horse. If you want to use it as part of his tricks for public performance, you can always use a command like “shame on you.” (I use the “look away” if Aurum gets at all pushy.)

Head lowering can be taught in two ways, and because it is such an important behavior, I train it both ways.

Using this method, with a lead rope, will help with riding work. First take the slack out of your lead without pulling down. Then apply just enough pressure on the rope so that your horse can feel the halter pressing against his poll. If you feel even the slightest dropping of your horse’s head, release the rope. When you feel a definite drop, click him and reward. Continue this exercise until your horse is dropping his nose all the way to the ground. Gradually extend the length of time he has to hold it there to get his reward. If your horse lifts his head, just go with him and wait for him to eventually come back down.

The other way to get your horse to lower his head is to put the weight of your hand on his poll. Let it rest there quietly, and eventually he will shift away from the steady pressure of your hand. As soon as he moves down even slightly, click, take your hand away and treat. If he goes up, go with him but keep steady pressure on his poll and wait him out. When he lowers his head even slightly, take your hand away. Start over, and when he eventually drops his head again, click and give him a treat.

Nowhere is patient persistence more important than in teaching your horse to lower his head.

• Kick the ball can become the basis for a variety of similar tricks, including kick the can, kick the bucket and knock on wood. To start teaching your horse to play soccer, put a large beach ball or similar toy in front of him and click him when he touches it. If he moves to paw at the ball, you’re in luck! While he might initially scare himself, your click will encourage him to keep playing.

If he doesn’t paw the ball, you can help him by rolling it off his hoof and clicking. Just be ready at the beginning to keep out of the way if he spooks. Eventually he should be so sure of himself he will be able to bounce the ball off his own stomach without bat-ting an eye.

• Fetch. Once you’ve taught some very basic behaviors, you can start putting them together into more complex actions. What you do is “chunk down” a trick, which means breaking down a complex action into increments, so the horse learns separate behaviors that are combined in the end.

Teaching your horse to retrieve an object, such as an oversized dumbbell, is a perfect example of this process. A proper retrieve consists of several behaviors taught in this order:

1. Touch the object.

2. Take the object.

3. Hold the object for increasing lengths of time.

4. Give the object to the handler.

5. Bring the object to the handler.

6. Go out to the object to retrieve it.

You can use whatever words you like for these behaviors, but I use “touch,” “take it,” “hold,” “give,” “bring it to ME” and “go out.” Once I’ve firmly established all these behaviors, I put the whole retrieving sequence together and call the command “go and fetch.” Don’t expect to get a perfect retrieve in one session, as you will only frustrate both yourself and your horse.

“Take it” shouldn’t be too difficult if your horse will take a bit. Once your horse understands the words “take it” in connection with a bit or an oversized dumbbell, transferring the command to other objects is relatively easy.

Gradually increase the length of time for your “hold” command. When you ask for “give,” make sure you click at the precise time you receive the object from your horse. Once you’re ready to establish some distance, it’s easiest at first to move away from the horse and have him “bring” you the object. I teach the “go out” as a separate command in which the horse goes to a mark or mat, and by the time I’m finally ready to tell the horse to “go and fetch,” he’s more than ready to comply.

Once your horse has “learned to learn,” and you’ve learned to teach, the sky’s the limit! You can teach your horse almost anything as long as you can break the action down into component behaviors. Here are the breakdowns for some of Aurum’s tricks:

Paint a picture: take brush, touch brush to paper, wave brush

Put garbage in can: take garbage, go to can, drop garbage in can

Sweep the barn: take broom, touch broom to floor, wave broom

It’s raining: fetch umbrella (involves all the steps of the retrieve), wait (stand at attention while the opened umbrella is held over his head)

Parcel out of mailbox: go to mailbox, open mailbox, fetch parcel

Turn skipping rope: take end of rope, wave rope.

Horses trained using positive reinforcement learn quickly and become enthusiastic partners in the process. Once you’ve got the basics down, you might find the only thing holding you back is your own imagination. If you approach each session with enthusiasm, a positive outlook and a sensible plan, good things are bound to happen.

This article originally appeared in the July 2012 issue of Practical Horseman magazine.

You see it as a trail surrounded by plentiful vegetation. To your horse it’s a sumptuous smorgasbord just begging to be sampled. Allowing him to eat while you’re riding can help ease any anxiety he may have about the trail. It can also increase his enjoyment of the outing. But if he’s more intent on snacking than he is on responding to your aids, it’s time to refocus his attention.

He won’t be as easily distracted if his grazing time at home is sufficient and he’s consuming adequate forage. More hours at pasture—with a corresponding cutback in concentrates—will allow him to maintain his weight as he satisfies his natural desire to graze and fill his belly with forage. If, however, your pasture is poor or your horse at risk for laminitis, feed quality grass hay as the bulk of his diet.

Another way to prevent his focus from straying is to remain aware of your surroundings and maintain communication with your horse through your aids. A trail ride is meant to be relaxing and fun, but it’s essential that your horse listen to you. Apply hand and leg aids as you would in the arena. Try a shoulder-in to pass a tempting bush or extend your walk through a grassy patch.

If your horse still grabs the occasional branch, you may decide it’s best to ignore him. As long as he continues to respond to your aids, a snack here and there on the trail should do him no harm—assuming he’s eating nontoxic vegetation. You may even want to incorporate grazing stops into your ride.