Preparation for being Tied and Bathing

  Preparation for being Tied and Bathing

Hello!!

As promised last week today I will be showing you the first part of the process

of how to prepare fillies and colts to be tied in place. 

When this process is not done correctly it can end in an accident; horses pull and fight against the pressure on their head, sitting back in a violent manner when feeling confined and that experience will mark their life forever.  

In my opinion “abuse” is not limited to treating a horse poorly, punishing, inflicting pain or intimidation. To me not teaching horses basic handling is also a form of abuse as the horse will be exposed to situations in which he will simply not know how to react and his prey animal instinct will be his first option in response.  

When we see an extreme or dangerous behavior in a horse it is natural to ask yourself: What has been done to this horse? But what we must be asking ourselves is not what has been done to this horse but what has not been taught to this horse to have this extreme or dangerous behavior?

Preparing the horse is a process that requires patience and takes time, but each minute invested you are teaching the horse to trust you, in your handling, in your teaching tools, and is without a doubt the safest route for the human and the horse.

The goal in this first part of the process is to achieve that the horse remains calm when he is tied anywhere, that he knows what he must do whether it is in a small or large area.  

The following are some of our responsibilities during this stage:

• Be sure that the horse responds correctly to the pressure
• Do the procedure progressively teaching him patience ( progressively lengthening the time )
• Be aware how he responds to stimuli in his surroundings while tied

We will see this in the videos:

In this video we will observe how Alex makes sure Hakasan responds correctly to the pressure created by the halter. When he moves forward he finds the release. Before considering tying a horse we must be sure that this behavior has been well established. 

Now you will see that we have switched to the rings in the bathing stall, we test how he reacts to them from outside of the bathing stall.

In this video you can observe the friendly handling of Hakasan in the wash stall without being tied yet. This is perfect  preparation for everything that will most likely be done in the future.

For safety we tie the horses with a quick release knot, we practice this first in their stall progressively lengthening the time.

The second part where I will share a tip to avoid accidents and complete the process of tying is still to come.  I will share this with you next week. and remember:

“ Take the time it takes so it takes less time”