i have a cute welsh that wants to learen so help
Answers:
I taught my horse to lay down when he was a 2 year old. I was tired of waiting for him to grow up before I could ride him, so I figured "what the hay, let's teach him tricks." I saw a program that taught laying down by a professional trainer. I will tell you how to do it, but please listen afterwards to what happened to me. This was EXACTLY as I saw done, and EXACTLY how I did it. Make sure you have a rope halter on to increase pressure when needed, put your horse in a western saddle (pad and all, like you're going to ride, save the halter). Tie the stirrups up across the seat of the saddle, tieing them to one another. Dont have a breastcollar or a buck strap on, as legs can get tangled and ruin everything. The key is to use NO aggression, let the horse do it naturally! A horse will not lay down for you, and will isntead fight, if it doesn't trust you. Horses only defenses are their legs and teeth, when they lay down, both of their defenses are useless to predators, so make sure you're somewhere where your horse is comfortable and SAFE. Do not approch your horse right as they lay down, as they might become alerted. Horses vision changes when they're on the ground, suddenly you look 120 feet taller!! BE CARFUL! Anywho, have your horse step one of it's front legs into a rope, just into the "eye" of the rope, like the loop, and pull the leg up to it's touching the horses stomach / cinch area. Wrap (do not loop it, not even once) just place the rope around the horn of the saddle and hold it in one hand, keeping the horse's leg up against it's stomach. Then pull your horses head to the opposite side of whatever foot you have raised (example: you have the horses front left leg in the rope, so pull your horse's head to the right) Wrap the halter's leadrope ONCE around the saddle horn (why you need western). it needs to act as a pulley, DO NOT TIE TO THE HORN just in case the horse (which will probably happen) fights and wants his / her head back. You then stand on the opposite side (example: the horse's head is pulled to the right, you stand behind them on the left side, so their face is pulled the other direction and not closest to you), you are holding the leadrope which is wrapped once around the horn, and holding the horses head in place. You then have the full thing finished. Softly, VERY SOFTLY, pull the horses head in tighter, but not TOO tight. You want them to lose enough balance so they naturally lay down to save from falling. It sounds very cruel, but when done properly, it's a neat eye-catching trick. Gently pull (using the rope around the horn as well as the leadrope around the horn) on the ropes and lean your horse towards the foot that is raised. Eventually, they should lay down calmly.
As said before. I taught this to my 2 year old. When he turned 3 and we started working, whenever I would back him up, he would lay down. It was cute at first but, when we started getting serious, it got old. Fast. I would not reccommend teaching this to a horse you plan on riding. This is intended for trick horses / ponies, who only works to please and not compete. When I would take my horse to shows, it was neat to have him lay down when we were finished with our run and lay with him. This trick shows a lot of trust between horse and rider, but there are some serious concequences that follow. If you need help, I can send you a video, however, to save my horse from re-learning this trick, I will only show it once. :) e-mail me at perfectsoldier23@gmail.com if you're interested. Looks neat to the eye, but like I said, it becomes a pain in the *** if you're trying to ride and your horse is just like, "I want to impress my mommy / daddy and lay down right.HERE! *plop*"
go find for horse trainer bah u will knw le hehe
I know it sounds neat to teach your horse cute tricks. There was a woman at a stable where I used to ride who trained her horse to "sit". For this, a horse has to lay down on it's side and then rock it's front end up and prop himself there with his front legs.
Cute, until he decided to do this while she was on him. Her leg could have been crushed by him rolling around on his side, but she managed to bail in time. Be very careful teaching your horse tricks.
there are several very good books that you can get to teach your horse tricks with and 2 that come to mind are "Trickonometry the Secrets of Teaching Your Horse Tricks" or "Trick Train Your Horse" I have not personally used ether of these books but I have seen horses that have been trained using them and they are very impressive. Good Luck with your training
I agree that teaching tricks can be dangerous. However, if you do it correctly and you are sure you have enough skill, there are ways. I'd suggest you start with smaller, safer tricks, such as teaching to say yes or no, to "count", etc. Before you can teach your horse to lay down, it should know how to bow.
Teaching my horse to bow wasn't too hard. Its easier to teach youngsters because they have less bulk to shift around. Firstly, I would hold a treat between his legs, and draw my hand back towards his belly. This would cause him to put his head between his legs and go down in the front to get at the treat. Once he got used to this (never EVER rush a trick. Take it very slow and only work on it 10-15 min. a day) I hooked a lead rope around his front pastern closest to me, and passed the rope under his belly and over his back, so that I held the end.
When he would go down for the treat I would lift his leg with my hand (just like asking to pick up his feet for cleaning) and then hold it up with the rope. This simply shows him how to position his body to go down on one knee. Its very easy to quickly release the rope if he gets frightened, etc. Make sure you have him haltered so that if you release the rope attached to his foot you don't have a horse with a rope on its leg running about. Doing it in an enclosed area is also a good idea.
Don't ever push him past his limit. He may very well get frightened or upset going down on his knee and pull up. Don't push him to do it. Bring him as far as he'll go comfortably and then let up. Reward him for the smallest advancement towards the goal. You can increase the amount he goes down once he is doing well at the smaller steps. Make sure you use a cue every time you ask him to bow. Say "Bow" and tap him on the shoulder with a small whip as the cue, or whatever else you think of. Once the horse can bow on cue (this may take as little as a few months or as long as a year or even more. Whatever you do DONT rush him! That is the most dangerous thing you can do.) then you can begin to teach him to lay down.
From the bow (which he needs to be doing without the rope, and only with your cue by now, every time you ask) you can then ask him to lie down. You may simply push on his body from the bow, encouraging his back end down. He may get frighetened at this, so dont ask too much of him. Simply suggest it. Reward the slightest movement in the direction you want him to go. If you can get him bringing his back end down a little at a time, you'll eventually get him on the ground. Remember, don't push hard. Go very small steps. Be very careful, lying down is dangerous! Make sure you are giving him a cue for lying down as well, and make sure it is different from the bow.
All of this should be FROM THE GROUND. Never try from the saddle until the horse has the cue SOLIDLY from the ground, and has been doing it very well for at least a couple of months. If you use the whip on the shoulder for the bow command, you can transfer it to the saddle. Once your horse knows how to lie down, and you wish to perform this in the saddle, you should first direct him to bow with the whip on the shoulder. From the bow use your cue to lay down. I'd suggest a tap of the whip directly a top his rump, not the side. If you tap him on the side for the cue, you WILL NOT be able to use the whip on him while riding because he may get confused and lie down, since most people use the whip on the side of the rump.
Always remember to only reward the horse when he does the trick BECAUSE YOU ASKED HIM. If, while on the ground, he does the trick and you did not ask, do not reward him, and do not ask for the trick again that day. If you are in the saddle and he does the trick without asking, you MUST reprimand him harshly. He needs to learn he can only do it when you ask! Just the same as a horse who breaks into a lope from a jog when not asked. We reprimand the horse who does this, do we not? All things we ask of a horse should only be done when we tell them to. Lack of direction leaves the horse confused of what you want.
Again, BE CAREFUL! Do not teach these tricks if you don't already have complete control of your horse. You should be an advanced rider before teaching these tricks.
I would not recommend teaching this to your horse. What do you mean by "he wants to learn"?
It sounds like a cute trick, right? But once you teach a horse a trick, he will remember it for life. It may become dangerous for you, for other (future) riders, and even for the horse itself.
I once had a Morgan mare that I taught to make a cute face for a treat. I found out that years later, long after me, she continued to make that face in hopes of getting a treat. It was harmless, but quite amazing that she would remember that and keep begging after all that time.
A horse that has learned a certain trick can end up taking it in a bad direction. I once had the 'pleasure' of having to deal with a horse that had learned the trick of laying down. He did it repeatedly because he had learned that it scared his riders and got them off his back. He hadn't actually hurt anyone (yet), but easily could have hurt someone that wasn't quick enough to jump off before he laid on them.
No one else wanted to ride this horse. At worst, he was dangerous to his rider. At best, it was embarassing to have a horse lay down underneath you and not be able to get him up.
This means that he was quickly becoming VERY undesirable. He couldn't enter a horse show. You couldn't have students rider him; the laying down was a known problem, and if he hurt a student, they could definitely sue for negligence. And who would buy this horse? How could he sell, even at an auction?
The fact that the horse had learned to avoid work through this trick meant that he was on the fast track to the slaughterhouse.
I was young and fearless and confident that I would always be able to get away/get off before he laid on me, and I did manage to get him to stop doing it to me, and he was eventually sold, but I have no way of knowing if, in the future, he may have become stressed, or decided to test a rider, and started doing it again. If he did, the chances are good that he would end up at the meathouse.
The same goes for other tricks like teaching your horse to rear, or even seemingly innocent ones like "counting" (the horse learns to be rewarding for pawing, which is essentially striking out, and can hurt someone.)
So please, don't teach tricks to your horse. I know I've provided an extreme example, but it happens more often than you'd think. A cute trick today, a dangerous habit tommorrow. You could be giving him a death sentence, quite literally.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment