Thursday, July 30, 2009

How to bond with your horse?

How do you bond with a horse?
Answers:
there are many different ways
-brush them
-ride them bareback
-tell them stuff talk to them they will understand
-ride
go out into the feild with them and just stand there and pet them/speak to them
-give them a treat
-take walks with them
-try to uderstand what they are feeling
-care for them even when it is raining or hot don't give stop your normal ruitene even if the weather is bad
-just generly be around them
go find a boyfriend
by brushing it riding it feeding simple stuff like that
scratch him right over his withers, that is where horses groom each other and it is a sign of friendship. horses also love treats so unless he has health issues where he can't have treats that will help a lot. Just make sure that he can learn to trust you. Never use force or violence with a horse to get what you want.
Grooming, grazing, trail rides, etc.
buy him ice cream
try going into its stall or the pasture with her, and brush her and talk to her, and spend lots of time with her. try reading a book to her. good quality time!
it's a gradual thing. i always spend just relaxing time with my horses. i go out with brushes and treats and sometimes my lunch and a groom them out in the paddock. i eat a few slices of apple and bites of carrot myself and i share the rest with the horses. i brush them down and talk softly to them, the tone of your voice is soothing to a horse, and i sit down against a tree and let them have bites of my lunch. i always introduce myself once or twice to a new horse by blowing gently on their nose to teach them my scent. it's like saying 'hi my name is-'
i just hang out with them. somtimes i take a book out and sit down out in the pasture against a tree. they come over and stand near me somtimes and graze near me. i check their hooves twice a day for rocks and just do a general look over to make sure they are doing fine. one of the cutting horses loves to practice cutting with me running around in the arena with him. he's a big gelding but he is always sure not to run me over so it's safe to do with him. i ride around at a walk or trot bareback a lot and try to teach them new little tricks.
just lots of things that allow them to be around me and be comfortable with me without being under stress form being ridden or anything. i enjoy their company lol.
Anything you can do to spend time with your horse.
Brushing and feeding are great but I also bring my horse in in the evenings, feed him in his stall and while he is eating I hang out in the barn and clean things up, so I am in the barn with him for an hour or two each night.
look up pat parrelli natural horsemanship on the web. www.parrelli.com
bonding has to come naturally. Just like ppl...if your personalities clash it's not likely you and the horse are going to bond...but to help bond you would spend lots of time grooming...or even just sitting in his pasture reading, writing...just being there. Riding for fun...not all riding has to be a training session or working. Take him/her out on a trail ride and take it easy. Form a partnership when riding by suggesting things instead of demanding them right away (that doesn't mean let the horse decide what to do) Suggest, request, tell, demand...Sometimes give the horse a choice. Should I go left or right? If you don't care then maybe give the horse his head and let him choose...though don't make a habbit out of it b/c the horse might start getting too independant.
Just simply spend tiem with him. Do teh whole grooming and talking to him. Also to lunging. Lots of ground work! He will eventually come around. The best horses are the ones that take to most time!
I love to lay in my horse's stall and sleep there. Or I sleep on her back. I whistle to her when I come to the barn and she picks her head up as if she is saying "yeah! Carly is here!" I almost never give her treats unless I feel like cooking something up and giving it to her at the end of a ride. I dont want her to say "oh there is the lady that gives me treats! Yes treat time, gotta check the pockets." When I turn her out, I stay there with her in the arena and she is completely comfortable with me being there. She eve comes over to me and starts to doze off. When she does that I know she feels safe around me and that she is willing to share her world with me. Bonding to me is the most important part of owning a horse. When you bond with your horse, you make it feel like a friend and not like some kind of pet.
It took a sever accident and some intense trainings to really set the bar on bonding.
There is days of all I would do is be in her stall, grooming her, talking to her, sleeping in there while she ate.
Riding her from learning balance all over again (broken pelvic, ribs, spinal injury, colasp lung etc from her rearing up and falling ontop of me etc). My trainer would only allow me to ride bareback. She wanted me to learn the true motion of my horse. Feel the muscles moving, trust her and my horse trust me etc. I tell you what, that was one of the best things I ever learned.
sometimse I would get her halter on, get on her bareback and lay on her watching the sky as she ate grass etc. (once I was able to have good balance to sit up and stay on incase she spooked etc).
there be times I just sat in the grass holding her lead rope while she ate grass for awhile.
When I bred my mare and she had (my now gelding) her foal, I imprinted (was there while she gave birth). So, I bonded with him from the start.
as he got older and more playful, we would play by (he loves water) putting sprinklers on in the sand arena and putting hose out there to make some puddles. He would roll in it, splash everywhere. I scratch his belly as he is lying down (which he is spoiled about getting to this day).
There is a lot I believe it takes to bond with a horse. Just some people take to it easily as other people have a harder time. All depends on the personalities of the owner and the horse. My personalities match my horses. If my mare was a human, I swear she be my best friend. There is some people who have a hard time as they just don't match.

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