Have you ever taken your horse to his place of turn out and when released, he tears away from you leaving you dodging clumps of dirt? Have you ever experienced taking off your horse’s halter in a stall and he pulls to get away before the halter is completely off to check out what is in his feed bucket? This act can turn into a habit that is annoying as well as unsafe. A horse that runs off or pulls away usually immediately puts his hindquarters closer to you. Some horses will kick out as they depart. Pulling away and leaving in a hurry is a behavior that should not be allowed by your horse. Your horse should have good ground manners with everything you do, even letting him go at turnout time.
First, state specifically what it is that we would like our horse to do when we are ready to turn him loose in his stall, paddock or pasture. I would like my horse to stand, with his head at an elevation of about 3’ off the ground. I want to be standing at my horse’s head, off to the side and he will not move his head away or up when removing his halter or bridle. I want to be able to walk away from my horse, at least to a distance of 10 feet or more before my horse walks, trots or runs away. I want to walk away before my horse leaves.
What I would like to give you are some suggestions to help you teach your horse good ground manners when turning him loose I like to teach this lesson in a round pen, stall and/or safe enclosure before actually going to his place of turn out so that he has practice with the steps before I actually turn him loose. I will need a halter or bridle, lead rope, 20' lunge line and training whip. It is also a good idea that when you do any training that your horse has leg protection such as leg coverings and bell boots.
I suggest that you start this lesson with the bridle and then go to the halter. The bridle will send a clearer signal at first and then you can work with the halter. It will be assumed that your horse is trained to do the following: will move forward when you cue the hip (go forward cue); will move the hip over when you pull the nose toward you (connect the hip); will drop his head when you apply downward pressure to the rein or lead rope (head down cue). These three skills are necessary when teaching this lesson. For detailed lesson plans on these skills see the John Lyons’ Ground Control Manual.
1. Take the bridled horse to round pen or safe enclosure that is large enough to eventually be able to use a lunge line. Stand facing the horse’s left side, at the head/neck area. Snap a lead rope on the bit ring. Remove the reins or secure them out of the way. Hold the lead rope with the left hand about 1' from the snap. Hold the tail of rope with right hand, leaving 1-2 feet of free rope at the end. You may also hold a training whip in the right hand.
2. Send the horse away using a training whip or the end of the lead rope, in a small circle. Cue the hip to move forward. The horse will be about 2' away from you traveling on a small circle. Allow the horse to walk, and then take the slack out of the rope bringing the nose toward you, asking the horse to step the hip over 2 steps. The horse should be facing you and stop his feet. Praise the horse after he stops. Repeat this procedure many times until you see the horse go forward and then turn and stop when pressure is applied. As you work this lesson, less and less pressure will be needed to get the ‘turn/stop’ response. When you see the horse bend and "soften" his neck (give), lower his head and step his hips over, consistently, you may know you are making progress. Switch sides often, do no more than 10 times before switching to the other side. Repeat, until the horse does this consistently.
Ask your horse to step his hips away with next to him, then increase
your distance away from the horse when you ask the horse to
step the hip away as described in the steps of the lesson.
It is very important that before you turn your horse loose that you are able to control two parts of the horse. First, the handler must be able to ask the horse to stand. Having control of the hips can help to teach the horse to stand.
Second, you will need to ask the head to stay at the elevation that you desire in order to safely remove the bridle or halter. The horse must be responsive to the “head down cue”.
3. After your horse is responding to connecting the hip, you will now incorporate the “head down cue”. When you apply light downward pressure to the lead rope, the horse will drop his head. This lesson is taught in detail in the Ground Control Manual and will not be described here. After each stop, for the remainder of this lesson, you will ask the horse to drop his head – stop the feet and then drop the head. Apply light pressure, when the head elevation drops, even a fraction of an inch, release the pressure and praise. Practice until the horse leaves his head at the desired elevation.
Apply light downward pressure and release when the head drops.
4. Repeat the same as above only this time allow the horse to be have longer length in the lead rope - 3'- 4' away and repeat steps 2 and 3. These two steps are done to make sure that the horse will connect the hip, turn and face and drop his head when asked.
5. Now you can do the same as above but this time use a lunge line. Do this step working your way up to having the horse moving at a distance that is 12’ – 15’ away from you. Ask the horse to go forward on a longer line. Apply pressure to the line so that the horse connects the hip. Each time you do this ask the horse to move around the circle different distances (1/2 circle, ¾ circle, full circle, 2 full circles) so that he will not anticipate the stop. Vary between short and longer distances and praise the horse often. Walk out to the end of the line every few times, ask the head to drop and praise the horse. Repeat this at the walk many times. When the horse responds to the cue, send the horse off quicker — first at the trot then the lope. Repeat at each gait until the horse is responsive to the lightest pressure from you.
The idea is to get your horse in the habit of leaving, stopping and then lowering his head when cued to do so. This part of the lesson teaches the horse to yield to pressure – the hip to step over and head to go down. These skills are especially important when the horse becomes excited. Teaching this lesson in a controlled area is necessary. You always want your horse to be able to respond to a cue, any cue when he is in a controlled situation, so that when his he becomes excited he will have practice of skills, correctly, when calm.
6. Take the horse to the stall or smaller enclosed area. With the bridle on and a lead rope attached to the bit ring, hold the lead rope, walk a few steps away from the horse. Expect him to wait quietly. If he moves, apply pressure to the rope to connect the hip - stop his movement. If he walks toward you, you can ask him to take a few steps back. After you ask the horse to move, ask him to drop his head. Repeat this until the horse will stand when you take a few steps away. When the horse stands consistently when you walk away, you are ready to go to the next step.
7. Practice step 6 in different locations, in your driveway, in front of the barn, where you turn out, changing the location and/or increasing the size of the area. Every time the horse the moves ask him to stop by connecting the hip or back him up a few steps; and then drop the head. If the horse stands all the time, no matter where you go, keep changing locations which will increase the excitement level little by little.
8. This step will address removing the bridle or halter. Now that you have your horse standing on cue and lowering his head to the desired elevation you are ready to work on removing the bridle or halter. I like to do this step in a small enclosure such as a stall. You may want to do this step with the halter and not the bridle so that you are not repeating taking out and putting in the bit. The focus is on the horse standing and not pulling his head away when removing the headgear, not accepting the bit, so doing this step with the halter is suggested. Your horse needs to be comfortable with you handling his head. If your horse is at all head shy you will need to address this in a separate lesson. Refer to the Sack Out Lesson, Bridling Lesson and the Ear Clipping Lesson in the Ground Control Manual. Get the horse comfortable with his head being handled.
When removing the halter, do so in small increments. What I mean by this is start by just reaching for the halter then take your hand away. Do this many times. Then place your hand on the halter putting your fingers under the halter and take it away. Again, repeat many times for each suggested step. Now, start to lift the halter off the horse. Do not take the halter off the ear. Repeat many times.
At this point you may want to loop the lead rope over his neck behind his ears so that you are able to have another place to hold on to the horse when you start to remove the halter. Start to pull the halter off but do not take it off. Pull it slightly forward over one ear and put it back in place. Repeat on both sides. Take the halter half way off and put it back on and repeat. Finally, take the halter off and walk away. Put the halter back on and do this many times. When you practice taking the halter off in increments, your horse should not anticipate that the halter is coming all the way off and therefore, not thinking about running off! Plan to repeat the halter removal sequence many times when you turn your horse loose.
This lesson will help in other ways as well. You should notice a difference in being able to put on and take off your bridle with more control. I have often found that when I do one lesson and do it so that the horse is very responsive, there are be benefits in the horse’s training in several other areas. Have fun with this lesson!
