Haltering You're Horse
17 September 2013
Haltering -
Whats our horses feedback when we ask to halter him? We should never sneak up with the halter in fear he may walk away, always be clear in what your about to ask of him and if he does walk away, thats feedback and we need to stop and think about what it means.
When you approach your horse with a halter, does he come to meet you half way? Or does he look at you and turn away to think about moving away from you or even just continue to graze?
When you go to halter your horse do you greet him with your hand and
then offer him a scratch and love? Or do you just flick on the halter before you greet him kindly? hen we show our horse the halter does he look interested in what we might be doing after we halter them? Or does he turn his head away and focus his ears back on you as if to say, "Im not sure i dont find enjoyment from that thing."
When you hold out the halter do you first kindly hold the long piece over his poll and offer him the nose part of the halter? Or do you shove on the nose part first and then awkwardly flick over the poll piece to tie it up? hen you hold out the halter does the horse offer to place his nose into the nose part? Or does he move and jerk his head around?
Once you have haltered your horse, does he look intently at you to see what you will both be doing today? A walk or trail perhaps, a brush and play, of to find some nice grass to eat? Or does he pull away from you and/or look dull?
These are only a few of the things we should be asking ourselves when we halter our horses. We should be looking at everything that might be his feedback....
Again just a few things we should know about our horses and learn to pick up on. He cant speak if there is a problem or he feels discomfort of any kind, he can only display these emotions with his body language. Its up to us to learn to read them to better our horses and our relationship with them.
So whats your horse telling you?