Horse training: how to stop a horse from moving

Balking is one of the most aggravating habits a horse can have.. You’re ready to go, but the horse isn’t and probably won’t be for a while. This is one of those challenging horse training problems..

A reluctant horse usually stands up and looks back, as if waiting for something to happen from behind, and is rarely disappointed, because the driver usually heats the air with a barrage of words and the hiss of the whip. His words have absolutely no meaning to the horse and naturally he becomes more and more confused and his senses more and more dull. It would be better instead of yelling and hitting with a whip to sing a song and step aside and cut through the fence. The horse’s confusion would turn to amazement and he would probably walk away.

No horse resists simply because it wants to stand. There is no reason for a horse to resist the first time; Several repetitions of the cause, followed by a successive act, become a habit, and the habit remains when the cause has long since ceased to exist.

Balking is a confused, inactive and almost insensitive mental condition that occurs when the horse is faced with two conflicting problems. For example, if a strong-willed horse wants to go to the stable and you step back to pull him in another direction, these conflicts can confuse him. Since he can only think of one thing at a time, he becomes confused and surly and stops. If the first blow or two of the whip doesn’t draw your attention to something else, the others will just block your mind and make you even more insensitive to your surroundings.

In another example, an ambitious young horse is hitched to the side of a slow, slow horse. The command “Get up” is given and the ambitious colt leaps forward, quickly, only to jerk on his tender shoulders and mouth, because the old horse did not immediately obey. When this is repeated a few times, he gets confused, because he was shaken for going forward and spanked for going backward, and in his confusion he could only stand up and prance around.

This is the same as when a man of sharp intellect, who is an entertaining conversationalist in ordinary conversation, freezes when asked to give a speech. He becomes unable to say a word and is so confused that he can barely say his own name and does not know enough to sit down. It is something similar to the same mental condition in which the horse that resists finds itself. It would be brutal to abuse the man because his mind became inactive in the new environment, and it is even more brutal to abuse the horse that resists with its lesser mental powers. But that is exactly what many do.

The solution may surprise you, as may many of the advice given by Professor Beery in his book series on horseback riding. Some are common sense, but some expert advice makes you wonder how it would work, but it does work.

The way to prevent a horse from stalling or backing up is just as you are telling it with your eyes and ears and head movement that it is about to stop, say “Whoa” firmly and give a powerful pull on the lines. . By stopping it before it stops of its own accord, you have puzzled him and put him in a thoughtful frame of mind. When you feel like you have attracted their attention by holding back, give a confident “Stand Up” and at the same time a side tug on the line.

Naturally, there is more to it than that, especially if it is a horse with the confirmed habit, so you should visit http://www.HorseTrainingResources.com for help with this and other horse habits.

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