Quote:
Originally Posted by Deschutes I go to set myself up at his drive line, right behind his shoulder at the 45 degree angle to his hip. As I go to do that, he simply backs, disengages his hip, goes in circles around me. I do this at a walk, and even try to catch him at his drive line before he moves. Nope. He blatantly does not want me at his drive line.
I might try the bag trick... But he's so spooky, I wonder how that will turn out, haha! But he's so weird about stuff and desensitizing. Rub him with anything you can, and he stands still, relaxed, and fine. Until you are on his back and those same tools are "oh my god! I gotta go, gotta go, gotta go right now"
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I can see it. HE ends up lunging YOU!
Give up trying to position yourself at his driveline. Learn to make him move so that he makes his driveline available to YOU.
To do that, you need him (he's facing your to start with, right?), to step away from you with his shoulders.
Let's say you want him to move to your left. Take your leading hand, holding the leadrop (and make sure you use a real leadrope, not a skinny lungeline. And it should be at least 12 feet long), put some tension on it, a firm feel, that is kind of directing the horse to "think" toward your left (his right). Put a couple of soft tugs on it,, while holding your hand out there directing, and holding it moderately high (chest high). Optimal is that he will turn and look toward where you are tugging. Ease off.
Now, tugg his thought over that way again (even if he only crooks an ear that way), and now you will support him thinking that way by putting on a bit of driving pressure to cause this step sideways away from you , him to his right. You walk straight toward him slowly while lifting the tail of the leadrop in your supporting hand (right). This is the driveing pressure.
You can start by just kind of moving it up and down a bit, then if no response, you start to twirl the end of it (propellor it) as you walk toward the horse's head. Look at his inside (in this case his left) nostril and aim your driving intention RIGHT AT IT! At the same time continue to indicate with your leading hand and a light tug that you want him to think and then go off to your left (which will put him onto the circle).
If he backs up, you put more pull on to that leading hand , some sharp tugs now. If the horse just stands there, you will get so close that your propellor will bop him on that nostril. Now, he'll move . I bet you he'll jump forward, too, or a bit sideways. Or, he'll step away from the propellor befoe it hits him. The instand he takes one step sideways , which will bring his driveline into your access, you stop all pressure and let him stand. YOu do this til he will step over with you just indicating the direction with your leading hand, and offering a very light driving support with your other hand.
If he simple backs up you can do several things;
If he is confused, then keep a strong tug in the desired circle direction. Not so much tugging as you keep the rope "there" so that if he backs up, he hits the end of the line, but be ready to resist pretty strongly and quickly. You don't stop putting driveing pressure on him but you reach a bit further off to your side (the horse will be a bit farther away from you) and you put some drive pressure on his side. This can be done even when you are directly in front of him, beleive me. You can even run off a step to his side and put a bit of a swing on him. But keeping the forward pull on the leading rope is essential. Whatever he does, back up, go the other direction, whatever, you don't stop until that firm pull until he takes ONE FOWARD step.
Build on these, "step your sholders away from me to offer me your driveline" . Once he is happy to do it with ease, you ask him to both step over, (dont' release) AND step forward.
I wish I could be there to help you in person, though I cannot guarantee he wouldn't give me a lot of trouble too.
7Likes
Work him on a short line{8-10ft like long lead rope length} & keep him moving forward {use lunge whip to tap him forward as needed} slowly around you at a walk till he grasps the concept of moving forward.Work him both directions till he has the concept then you can ask him to pick up the pace. Once he is consistently walk & trotting on small circle around you ,you can start letting out the line making his circles bigger. Make sure you are positioning yourself correctly not getting ahead of his shoulder
.Verbal cues are helpful if you maintain the same verbal command or cluk for each thing you are wanting him to do, Stay consistent
