You'd think that horses would instinctively know when we're trying to help them through training. Even though sometimes they do, when it comes to fly spray often they don't. Horse health care, however, is an important part of any horse owner's training, showing, and horsekeeping routine. Whether you're a trail rider or a competitor, these horse tips and ground training routines will enhance the overall grooming experience, create a healthier horse and enable you to bond with your equine partner.
Teaching a horse to stand for fly spray gives us a chance to train our horses to better respond to our cues, which is going to pay off in lots of ways beside fly spray. And we have an opportunity to help our horse over a fear. Many times the horse who's worried about fly spray is also a little headshy. So this one lesson will solve at least two problems.
If you're a long-time reader of John Lyons' Perfect Horse, you know that training has a starting point and a goal, and we can't start at the goal. When we first began to train our horses to step into the trailer, for instance, we began with the "go forward" cue and we were nowhere near the trailer. Our objectives were to develop control and teach our horse in a way that made learning easy for him. After he learned the lesson, then we could introduce a distraction, such as the trailer.
When it comes to fly spray, the spray isn't the problem. It's a distraction. So when our horse is pulling away and dancing around in the barn aisle trying to escape the fly spray mist, we should ask ourselves what cue we wish he were responding to instead. If the horse really knew the cue well and had practiced it enough, he'd be able to obey it even when threatened with fly spray - or other distractions like a visit from the vet or balloons from a birthday party.
Stand Still
Most people say that they want their horse to stand still. The difficulty is that we can't force a horse to stand. We can offer him the opportunity and encourage him to stand. When he understands the pattern, we can add a cue to it.
Encouraging him to stand involves controlling our horse's movements. Specifically, we have to be able to tell him to step forward if he backs up. We have to tell him to step back if he walks forward. And we have to be able to move him to the left and right.
When he moves, we counter his movement. By repositioning him, then leaving him alone when he stands quietly, the horse learns to stand still.
That works fine when there's nothing going on, when it's a warm day and we're grooming him at the wash rack, for instance. But what about when he's excited?
When horses are excited, they naturally move. So when we ask our horse to stand when he's revved up or worried, we're asking him to do something unnatural. We can't add intensity - yelling at him or jerking the lead rope. That would only increase his need to move. Instead, in addition to telling him where to move his feet, we have to be able to tell him to calm down. We do that by cueing him to drop his head.
When horses are excited, they naturally raise their heads. And when they're calm, they relax and drop their heads. But dropping the head is not just the consequence of being calm; it can often cause the horse to calm down. By following the steps on page 12, you can teach your horse the "calm down" cue.
Now we can more accurately answer the question: What do I wish my horse were doing instead of avoiding the fly spray? I want him to drop his head and stand still. And you have a way to tell him that's what you want.
Let's assume that you've taught those cues thoroughly. Now you're ready to bring out the fly spray, right? Not so fast. A few added steps in the lesson plan will help things go smoother. We're going to do a little sacking out, or headshyness training, first.
