(Editor’s Note: Last month we discussed the start of using pressure to work on ground manners. This month we continue.)

Move Sideways

Now you need to work on pressure side-to-side. This is the beginning of Basic #1 under saddle. I don’t want him to move his feet, just his head. “Give me your nose, but don’t move your feet.” If he starts walking, I just keep the pressure on. When he quits moving his feet, I release the pressure. I should never feel anything when I ask him to bend; there’s slack in the lead rope. The goal is for him to give me his nose, but not move his feet. The Arkansas colt (described in the last installment) figured this out pretty quick. He got real soft. When the lead rope moved, he turned his head. I didn’t take up the slack.

Next I teach him to move away from my leg (from the ground). I put a little pressure on the left side of the rib cage where my leg would go. I’m going to help him understand what I want by tipping his nose a little to the left, which makes his hip move to the right.

My goal is to get him to step his left hind foot in front of his right hind and move away from pressure. He doesn’t lean into my hand, which is good. I don’t want to push him over. I repeat what I just did. Ask him to move over. I don’t get into a pushing contest. Remember to help him by bending his nose a little.

Push Me, Pull You

There are two things you’ll never see me do to a horse. You will never see me push on one of my horses to move over or back up. I don’t put my hand on a horse and try to push him. The first time you do that, you teach him something you don’t want him to know: that when push comes to shove, he wins every time. I don’t want my horse to know he can out-push me.

You also will never see me get in front of one and pull on him and say come here. The first time you pull on a horse and he pulls against you, he’ll never forget that. He’s learned something else then: Anytime that horse wants to pull away, he can win. I don’t want him to know that he can out-pull me.

Pushing and pulling translates into riding. Every time I see a horse that, when you ask him to get in the bridle, he throws his head, I’ll ride up to that person and say: “You know what your horse just said to you? You just said: ‘Give me your face,’ and he just said: ‘No!’ ” And that person doesn’t even realize that’s what is going on.

Now, I said I never pull on one, but really what I mean is that I’ll never get in a pulling contest that I can’t win. I can out-pull one to the side. I can step to the left side of him, and with a rope halter–or particularly with a nose chain–I can take his nose away from him.

With a padded leather halter with the fleece all over it (I think that should be illegal around horses!), no, I can’t take his nose away.

So if you ever see me pull on a horse, I’m going to be positioned so I can’t lose.

If it’s one of those big, stout, stiff-necked Warmbloods, I’ll use a nose chain. Then, when he tries to take his nose away from me, I’m going to step to the side and point out to him that every time I take the slack out of that line, I can get his nose. After a nanosecond of that, he’s going to give up.

But if I get in front of him–even with a nose chain–and pull, I can’t win.

Back Up

This is just more yield to pressure. I put a little pressure on his head to go back, and pressure to get a step forward. Go back, come forward. I’m not pushing against his chest. This is all pressure against his nose with the halter. If he thinks about leaning back, that’s good. He’s young, and I want him to move forward and backward without me taking the slack out of my lead rope.

Two things: When I step forward, he needs to get out of my space. And when he feels that rope start to move and that halter start to rock on his nose, he needs to back off of it.

Now we’ll see if this colt will lead a little bit. I’m not real big on leading position. I don’t care if one follows (directly behind me rather than walking beside me); it might not be the best safety position, but with my horses, I know they have enough respect for me that they won’t jump over me.

Now I’m going to do the same things on his right side. He really doesn’t like it. He’s ducking his nose and wanting me to go back to his left side. Since he’s not as good on this side, I’ll spend a little more time here. I’ll work until he’s as good on the right as he is on the left.

That’s crucial because I see so many people start colts and get all the ground work done and the round penning done, and they step on. Everything is wonderful. They walk off to the left, and he does wonderful. Then they reach down and go to step off to the right, and he looks up and sees them there out of his right eye and bucks them off now! Or he panics and runs off.

If he’s not comfortable with me working with him from the right side on the ground, he’s one I’m not going to get on right away. Because the first time he looks up and sees me with that right eye, he’ll go to bucking.

Speaking of round pen, make sure after the horse is obedient in all these ground lessons, and after he’s been introduced to the saddle with the ground lessons, that you do round pen work before you ever get on. Send the horse around in both directions with a saddle on at a walk, trot, and lope. When he decides that doesn’t bother him, stand on a fence rail next to him, and let him look up at you. Repeat this so he sees you from both sides. When that doesn’t bother him, you can step up and down from the saddle on both sides. Make sure you bend his head toward you and let him see you when you are just stepping up.

Then you can settle gently into the saddle, turn his head to both sides without him moving a step, and let him see you up there and feel your weight. It’s a good idea to gently rub your legs up and down his sides while in the saddle to desensitize him to your legs. That way if he makes a quick movement, and you accidently touch his flank with your leg, it’s not a total surprise.

When he’s happy with that, we can pull on his nose and take a step and we’re riding. With the Arkansas colt it took about 30 minutes in the round pen.

As always, make sure someone close by is watching in case of an emergency.

Problem Horse

A friend bought a 2-year-old Morgan out of a sale. He had been saddled, driven, and green-started under saddle. The lady who bought him said he was rude and pushy, had no respect for humans, and had the attention span of a gnat.

He wasn’t mean, he was just uneducated.

I put a lip chain on him for leverage, not to be cruel. Never get angry with a horse, especially if you have a lip chain on one. This Morgan wasn’t happy; his head was high and he was walking all over me. I wanted him to pay attention to me. If I stopped, he should have stopped. If he went past me, then I should have “parked” him (used the lip chain to move him back to a standstill in the proper position) and made him take a step back. I’d bump him away from me with lip chain if he got in my space.

When he does something nice, I tell him he’s a good boy and pet him. After a bit, his head is a foot lower than when we started. He’s not nearly as tense and worried, even though I’ve got a lip chain on him. He’s happier because I’ve drawn some boundaries, and he’s accepted them. I don’t beat up on him.

Then I do everything from the right side.

Remember, don’t lose your temper. Be just as patient from right side as the left. Don’t brutalize the horse because he acts like everything is new from this side. Remember that a lip chain is not an instrument of brutality. It’s no worse than a snaffle bit in the hands of the horseman. It’s not a brutalizer, it’s an equalizer.

Once the Morgan is thinking of being a better citizen, he looks like he’s happier and more relaxed. He stands with his head down, relaxed, and paying attention to me.

Then I take the lip chain off and he’s the same good citizen. It’s not the lip chain; we’ve taught him something.

If I had a big Warmblood that was walking all over me, I’d do the same thing. The flip side is if I have a willing citizen, that horse will never see a lip chain.

By Andy Anderson, DVM, with Kimberly S