Marker Training Journal #1

I need to take more pictures of The Boi, just to chronicle his progress along the training pathway. Husband said yesterday that once he gets into condition, he’s going to be a fine-looking horse—he’s already pretty sleek and shiny.

So. Training. With the temps in the high 90s over the past week, I didn’t really want to ride due to my lousy heat tolerance. Additionally, what I’ve figured out so far is that the young man needs groundwork as much if not more than under saddle work at the moment. He actually is more advanced under saddle than he is on the ground. I saw a good analogy for the retraining process on Lee McLean’s Keystone Equine page on Facebook this morning—“unpeeling the onion.”

That’s exactly the case with Marker. From his overall conformation and attitude, I think he’s a reasonably well-bred Quarab (Quarter Horse-Arabian cross) and papers might actually exist somewhere, just not passed on after he was injured (he has a huge divot on his neck) because the blemish works against him in the half-Arab breed show pen. My suspicions were further confirmed after I added a stud chain to ground training tools, properly set up, of course (the proper use is to run the chain through the loop at the bottom of the halter, take one wrap around the noseband, then attach the chain to the upper loop of the right side of the halter, not the right side of the noseband). Not only did he pay more attention but suddenly when I asked him to square up (stand with forefeet and hindfeet aligned, roughly in a rectangle), he advanced his forelegs slightly and parked out (instead of standing with forelegs directly under his shoulder, they’re further ahead). That’s an Arabian halter show thing. It’s trained.

I’d also been carrying a dressage whip to tap and poke him with to encourage him to stay at arm’s length instead of walking on top of me when leading (another reason for the chain). I happened to raise the handle of the whip high while doing something else. He parked out and raised his head, rolling his eyes slightly and looking nervous. Oh yeah. Arabian halter show training. A lot of that style of training is intended to make the horse appear spirited and excited. So that tells me that certain things require quiet handling and patience to calm him down rather than ramp him up.

Like clippers. He freaked out when I brought the clippers near his head. Or near his divot. History there, either from past rough handling, or something tied to that injury that he associates with the pain from the injury, or both. Now I could force the issue. I’ve seen it done with twitches, usually in a setting in a stable alleyway where there is a huge safety issue from a horse reacting in fear to clippers and there’s not a lot of time to train for this, especially if you’re using corded clippers.

I’m using cordless clippers, in a setting where there’s no safe place to tie. However, there’s room for him to move his feet, and he’s one of those horses where moving his feet when anxious really helps him settle. Some horses need to release energy like that when worried more than others do. Mocha has not been one of those but Marker definitely is one.

So my options were this: get a twitch and force him to comply. Go without clipping a bridle path. Use manual tools. Or take my time and work through his anxiety about clippers until he relaxes and accepts them.

The twitch is right out, because I simply have never been able to get it to work for me. Plus I need an experienced hand to manage it. I’m also not into forcing compliance for things like clippers, especially when it’s not an emergency.

Not clipping is also not an option for this boy. One of my goals is to make him into a horse that will find a good home when I’m too decrepit to ride. That means he needs to accept things such as clipping.

And manual tools? Nope, for the same reason that not clipping isn’t an option.

That leaves the option of working through his anxiety. That’s where my position as owner really turns out to be beneficial for the horse. I don’t have a client’s schedule to think about. I can take my time. Marry him to the clippers, which means that we spend five-ten minutes with me rubbing the non-running clippers over his head and neck area, then doing the same while the clippers are running. We’ve spent a lot of time going around in circles until he stops for a moment and accepts the clippers while they’re running. Then I turn them off, praise him, and after a break we try again. I’m looking for longer and longer periods of acceptance before I even try to clip that bridle path. It’s starting to happen. We will get there. Mocha was edgy about the clippers when she was young. Now I can pretty much march up to her, run the clippers along her bridle path while she grazes, no big deal. Granted, her problems were with one ear, but I’m not clipping ear hair these days. Might eventually do that with Marker, but that’s a ways off.

Doing this sort of work also helps build a foundation of trust between us. It helps me establish boundaries when he’s worried or anxious—no, buddy, you can’t just barge over the top of me or try to jump into my back pocket when you’re scared—as well as training him to accept the clippers. Multipurpose, and I just love it when a training exercise works toward several goals.

And his reaction to all this? Well, he’s in a field with Mocha. I roll down the pickup window and call for them when I’m driving up to park. Mocha would usually amble up, taking her time a lot of the time. But she wouldn’t hurry.

Marker starts by trying to get her to move. Then he peels off to greet us (husband is going with me for safety reasons). For various reasons, including helping her get used to not being the Only Horse, we’re taking Mocha out first. Marker’s reaction? He threw a little tantrum yesterday. Stomping, squealing, running down the fence. Then galloping up to me when it was his turn. And after he’s been worked, when I turn him loose, and treats have been dispensed (he is learning that Mocha gets more treats and attention because he still is chonky and needs to learn more manners), he comes over for head scratches. The Boy likes people. He likes being handled.

And that bodes well for future training.