Equine Behavior Issues

In every show jumper’s career there are horses who stand out as real partners and friends, who take a rider up the ladder of success in leaps and bounds as big as their gallop over a grand prix course. And when time begins to take its toll on that noble friend, it’s only right to turn a competitive partnership into a caring one. For Sarah Orberson-Taylor, 23, who trains at home in Charleston, SC, with Tony Sgarlata, and on the show circuit with Jack Towell and Liz Boyd of Finally Farm, that special horse has been a 1995 Selle Francaise gelding, born Hukas de Hermet, competed as True Religion, and loved around the barn as Hootie.

Read more: Keeping the ‘Tired’ Out of Retired

Horses are prey animals. To survive as a prey animal, the ability to feel, sense and understand intention, energy and pressure is hard wired into their system (e.g., flight or fight). In order for horses to survive in the human world learning to give to pressure is a must. The five keys to teaching horses to give to pressure are:

 

Read more: Training Your Horse to Yield to Pressure

Two different means of population control of wild horses on Assateague Island National Seashore are conducted by the two governing organizations.

Read more: Alternatives to Wild Herd Management

Throughout the years, as humans domesticated and bred horses, gentler horses emerged. Every horse is an individual and, whether wild or domestic, wants to be recognized entirely for himself. Horses as a breed have characteristics that separate them from all other animals.

Read more: Behavior Similarities Among Wild vs. Domestic Horses

The “X factor” is that indefinable something that makes for star quality. It’s all about heart, and in horse health, it can separate champions from chaff. Heart disease is the third most common cause of poor performance in horses. 

Read more: The Equine Heart: Beyond the X-Factor

When a horse resists having his head touched, he may be suffering from any number of physical maladies (painful teeth, poor eyesight, inflamed sinuses, infection in the ears, tumor developing in the skull, etc.). Perhaps the resistance stems from past physical abuse or use of a tool such as a twitch on the ear or the nose.

To overcome this resistance, and to more easily rule out the physical possibilities, the training is the same. The keys to overcoming head resistance include:

Read more: Overcoming Head Resistance