I am  training her under the guidance of someone who has trained babies. "Rose", (the baby)  spent 6 months in pasture around no humans, but with other horses. I have been working  with her for 2 months and I am happy with her progress at accepting us, and is becoming  quite comfortable with me. She tolerates the halter and will let me lead her occasionally, but  does object to this. She is at the point where she will stand quiet for me , while I stroke her  or massage her back and legs. She will follow me on her own if I call her. 

What method  should I use to teach her to lead better and what books do you suggest I could purchase to  learn how to train her properly. She is the best decision I have made and I am excited about  training her, however I am going to need a lot of help in that department. Some suggestions  would be welcomed.

Jane

 I'm just 12 but my grandparents have a farm in MO w/53 Arabs, and I work with them every  summer & winter. I'm proud to say I have gotten 1 of their horses jumping 2 1/2' w/a saddle  w/in 8 days. How I usually tell if a horse is ready for weight is I press my hands on their  back, gently at first, then working to greater pressure. If they don't really care, I then keep  my hands there and jump slightly, the horse's back supporting me. 

If they adjust to that, I  place a saddle pad on and then work up to weight & pad, then after she has accepted a  saddle, tie her or have someone hold her firmly and repeat that step with your hands, then  very gradually put pressure in one stirrup & then one foot. W/her still and calm vveeeerrryy  slowly lean on the saddle until you are laying on it. I think you can do the rest by yourself!!:)  (If she doesn't like the weight, work w/her back& neck 'til she accepts.)  Good Luck!!!

 Lesley V.C.

 Thank you for the advise. You may be only 12 but you certainly know a lot more then I do  about horses. I'm learning though, which to me is the fun part. Have you found any web sites  on horses that deal strictly with foals and training? If so let me know or e-mail me . Thanks  again.

Jane

 Congratulations on your horse ;-)  It sounds to me like you are doing very well with her. And that she is a lovely horse. ;-) You  ask about how to get her to lead better, but you don't tell me that you have any particular  problems in the area. It's easier to answer this question if you can tell me where the  problem lies ;-))  

I think it's important to keep in mind that she is a baby, try to think in terms of teaching rather  than training. May sound silly, but it often makes a difference in us. There are many good  books on training, I suggest that you get Alexandra Kurlands new book, clicker training for  your horse, she has a section on foals, but you'll find the whole book useful I think. 

Other  books I recommend you'll find in my special selection in my bookstore. (just go to my  home page and you'll find it right away) I have made a page that has some good natural  horsemanship books, and all of them are described and has reviews on their own page, so  you find something you are interested in there.  I think that if you have accomplished all those things in two months with a horse that isn't  even used to humans you are really on the right track with her, and that you should keep on  what you are doing. It's still a good idea to read books though, one just can't have too much  knowledge!! ;-)))

 Let me know if you have any specific problems with the leading, and in as much detail as  you can think of ….

 ;-))

 Ellen

My problem with leading is this. I will stand in front of Rose with the lead rope in my  hand. I apply tension to the rope and cluck (not like a chicken ) , if I did that she'd probably  think her trainer is nuts, When she takes a step forward I give her slack, but before she will  take a step forward we have a nice little tug-of-war going on. I think Rose thinks this is a  game . If I analyze the situation it's really not Rose who's the problem. It's me. 

My gut  instinct tells me that I am trying to teach her wrong, she is getting the wrong signals from  me. There has to be a different method of teaching her to lead. I don't feel comfortable  standing in front of her and she looks uncomfortable this way as well, plus she can really  dig in her hooves and not budge. As far as grooming , she will stand still and let me do  almost anything. I have tried putting a blanket on her back and she doesn't mind that. Of  course I let her smell the blanket first and rubbed my hands on it so she would get my  scent. After doing that she seemed to think it was safe. Do you have suggestions on  another way of teaching her to lead.

Jane

 Now I think I can help you, cause I can "see" what you are doing. ;-)  First I'd like to try to explain why this hasn't worked, because this is such natural way for  HUMANS to do it, unfortunately not for the horse.

 First it's the position, I guess that you are standing in front of her, facing her? That is a little  of a stop signal for a horse that is a bit submissive. For the horse she is then asked to  move into your space, and if you are looking at her eyes it feels even more intimidating to  her. If you turn away from her a little and look where you are wanting to go it's less scary,  and it makes more sense to her that you are thinking about going somewhere. (think of the  mare and foal, the mare would never turn and face the foal to get her to follow, but simply  walk forward.)

 The next thing is a VERY common mistake. It is that you are clucking (LOL, not like a  chicken, I know) to her. It doesn't mean a thing to her. In fact the more you make that sound  now, while you are stuck, the better she learns to associate this sound with the thing she is  doing at the moment….. Does that make sense?

 The trick to teaching a voice cue is not to use it until you know you can get the behavior.  When you can reliably predict that she will walk forward in the next second or two, then you  say the sound, and soon she will associate the sound with the action.  Also, be careful about repeating cues. If the horse does not respond to whoa… and then not to WHOA and then not to WHOOOAAA!!! It's likely that the cue don't work and that it does not  mean "stop" to the horse…. The more you use it without getting the response, the more you  are actually teaching the horse to associate the word with other actions than you want it to.  The only cure is to re-teach the word again the same way you did the first time.

 In the same way, people tend to say "cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck" in stead of just "cluck". After  a while the command word/cue for the horse will BE: "cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck"!  Keep commands short, and let one voice cue mean ONE thing. Every time…(not saying  that this is something YOU do, just saying it for general purposes.)

 The next thing is that you are asking for something that is just a little to hard for her to  understand. Yielding to pressure is NOT natural to a horse. What happens with horses  when you apply pressure is that they apply pressure back, but this part you have already  figured out. She is not playing a game with you, she really has NO IDEA what you are  asking, so she does what her instincts tell her to do, pull against that pressure.

 Since this is actually a hard thing for a horse to understand I use a LOT of time on just  teaching them to yield to pressure, because we use that for almost everything we ask of the  horse. (leg pressure, rein pressure, lifting legs, moving over etc.). So I will work from day  one to infinity on getting the horse to understand the concept. Unfortunately it does not  transfer very well from one thing to another. In other words, if you teach her to yield to halter  pressure that does not mean that she then will understand yielding to the leg.

 However, once you are aware of this you can brake down the task in so small pieces that  the horse WILL understand.

 I will give you one example of how you can teach her to lead, but there are many other good  ways to do this as well.

 First, stand beside the horse, about at the level with her shoulder or even further back, but  not too close, with the halter and lead rope on her. Tighten the rope in a as if you are asking  her to step closer to you. She can not pull against sideways pressure with near as much  strength as she can to forward pressure. However you are in any case not going to put a lot  of pressure on her, just keep the rope tight with a few ounces of pressure at the most. 

If she  goes against the pressure by turning her head away from you just follow with your hand  without changing the pressure at all. She is trying to find a way out of the pressure and you  must just maintain it to show her what doesn't work.  If you tighten it more, she will get worried and fight it harder, and the LAST thing we want  with a horse is a tug of war. (like you know, they are strong even as youngsters!). The very  moment that she moves her head in the direction of the pressure you release the pressure.  Even if she first had moved her head far over to the "wrong" side, and now just budged a  though to the "right" side you give release, and praise her.

 Repeat this until she turns her head ever so slightly away from the pressure every time.  When she consistently does this it means that she is beginning to understand. Don't be  afraid to praise her, and the best time for that to help her learn is the same moment that she  yields, because this is what you want her to understand is the right thing.

 Then you can ask her to yield her head a little further, like half an inch! Repeat until this gets  consistent, then you move up to an inch.  This seems slow, but the more tiny steps you can make the faster she will learn and the  better she will feel about it because she gets what she wants, in this case, release.  When you can move her head far over with a very light pressure and this does no longer  bother her, you will hold it over there longer. 

A horse will not stand with its head to one side  for long, she will move a foot in your direction. (If not, then you haven't been thorough  enough, go back some steps and make sure she understands, if she at any point starts to  resist the pressure again). The instant she moves one foot you will of course release and  praise her. Even if she does not move a foot, but just shift he weight in a way that indicates  that she is THINKING about moving it you should release. Then you are rewarding the idea,  and that will give her the same idea again sooner.

 After a few repetitions, or as many as she needs, you will see that the foot starts to move  sooner. Only when this foot moves when you apply light pressure can you proceed to the  next milestone. Remember, what we are asking for is obvious to us, but NOT for the horse.  The next milestone is two feet moving. You may already have got that by accident, and if so  that is great, otherwise you just keep the light pressure on until she moves that second foot.  When this happens consistently you start to move away from her, leading her step by step  in a very little circle and release and praise for every step. Teaching a horse to lead on a  circle before you try a strait line is a lot easier.

 Then you can widen the circle and as the circle gets wider and wider, it will be more and  more like a strait line….. and there you go.  If at any time she resists you are upping the criteria too fast, go back a few steps. Use  praise, but watch your timing, praise while she is doing well, not afterwards.

 This might sound like weeks, but I have been through the whole process in a few minutes.  That is not the point however, the point is to not go to a new level of difficulty until the  present level is understood by the horse. Break the task down into as small pieces as you  can think of. Slower is faster in this sense, because if she starts resisting you'll have to go  backwards. Especially with your horse you must take the time it takes because she has  already learned to resist the pressure. You will probably not want to do it all at once, but that  depends on the horse really. Lots of little cozy brakes in between, and try to resist staring  her in the face. You will feel when she yields.

 And…. Let me know how it goes..  If you run into any problems let me know.

 Ellen

I am  going to send away for the clicker training method, I've read up on it and it sounds like a fantastic way  to train this foal. I have stopped in the book store this weekend to see if they can order the book in for  me but can't seem to get it through their supplier in the states. I'll have to order through their 1-800-  number. Until then I will continue to work with Rose , but not push her to do anything new, as I would  really like to read this book first. I'll continue to teach her to lead , the proper way, and just be with her  to play. Thanks for all your advise, it really makes sense.

Jane

 I am SO glad this is working for you!!  Thank you for the feed back ;-)))  You can get books on clicker training at this site:

 http://www.karenpryor.com/ 

There you can order several books and videos, 
I recommend Karen Pryors book ; Don''t shoot the  dog, and Alexandra Kurlands "Riding in a state of excellence." 
I ordered the books from there myself and had no problem ;-)

 Ellen