If you love horses and enjoy working with them, then you know that well-trained horses are always more pleasant to be around than those with behavioral problems. However, many people do not understand what it takes to eliminate such problems the horse may have. Instead, they ignore the problem or try to find a workaround. The real answer is proper horse training. Here are some strategies that can help you eliminate some of the most common behavioral problems in horses; such as shyness, fearfulness and rearing. Shyness and fearfulness: One of the most common problems for horses is shyness. When the horse is afraid or nervous, it may not obey commands and could potentially cause injury to someone. Most of this problem comes either from a lack of confidence on the part of the horse or from traumatic experiences in the horses past. Either way, the key is to convince the horse that it can trust you. First, always make sure to make each experience with you a pleasant one. Offer the horse treats and food in exchange for desired behaviors. Do not demand anything from the horse you know that the horse will not deliver. That will only end in frustration for both you and the animal. Second, pay close attention to your actions. Walking up on the horse can startle her, so always approach slowly from the left side. Make sure you are not wearing anything that might frighten her during a ride as well. Even the smallest fright during this process could be a setback. Work slowly and regularly with the horse. As it begins to trust you more, you will see the shyness and fearfulness disappear. Of course, it also helps if you enter the process feeling confident in your abilities to work with the horse. It will be able to pick up on your insecurity and that can certainly delay the process. Rearing: Although shyness is common, rearing is probably the most dangerous horse behavior. That is because this powerful animal becomes out of control and can severely injure the trainer or the rider very easily, or both. Horse training can definitely be used, however, to stop rearing. First, you need to realize that most examples of rearing are caused by the horse becoming frightened by something. Identifying what that something is can be the first step in correcting the problem because you can be prepared for the negative reaction next time. As soon as you see the horse start to rise up, you should pull down his head and move it back towards the hindquarters. This is going to make rearing very difficult and that means the horse will be easier to manage. Now move him to the side of whatever seems to have caused the reaction. Although it seems contradictory, you want to keep exposing the horse to whatever is generating the rearing behavior. Each time you need to stop the behavior before it happens. With more exposures, the fear should lessen and the horse should stop rearing. Master any horse problem! As these above examples show, the secret to horse training is in being patient and working consistently with your animal to improve his behavior. With some time and practice, your horse will get used to you and start to respond automatically to your commands.
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