responding to pressure?

Question

I have a 4 year old gelding that I am working on teaching showmanship, but he has no idea how to respond to pressure. He was imprinted at birth, which makes him almost dead quiet and beyond easy to work with, but when he was imprinted I think they went overboard and made him completly desensitized to pressure and pain. I seriously think that someone could beat the crap out of my horse with a wooden board and he would just stand their and not even blink (of course I never would do this)

I am trying to teach my horse to pivot in showmanship (I know how to do this, have taught many horses showmanship before), but he will not move away from me in turning. I walk towards his shoulder and he stands, so I will put pressure on his shoulder until he moves, and he will just stand there not moving. Any ideas on how to get the idea through to my horse that pressure is something to move away from, not just ignore?

He isn't being at all stubborn, he just doesn't get it.

he knows how to respond to leg, and the bit while I am riding.

Answer 1

The bast way to get him to move away from pressure is to put slight pressure where you want him to move, if he doesnt respond to that, then apply more pressure, if he still doesnt respond to that, apply more pressure. Keep applying pressure until he moves, when he moves release the pressure and praise him. You need to get doing this till he fianlly responds to the slight pressure. I learned this trick from a Pat Parelli instructor that broke my horse.

Answer 2

First start riding him in tight spirals at the walk to limber up, tighter and tighter untill he is pivoting on the shoulder.Then proceed to doing the ground work. Here is one girls experiance---

What I did was start with the back left foot forward, and pull towards urself and forward while backing up. The pulling forward was really important with Eddie, he wouldn't do it right if I didn't. If the step the back shank and start over, if they move the front feet praise. What I started to run into was he wouldn't use his shoulder, so thank goodness he was tall cause I ducked underneath and gave his shoulder a slap, now this time Melvin is smaller, so I guess I am going to have to go around him. Good luck!

Maybe an idea would be to stand on the other side and practice pivoting him like a normal pivot first going the opposite direction, Missie was always lacking the muscle to pivot that way when I rode her.

Answer 3

Pushing on him will likely get you the exact opposite of the result you want...horses instinctively push/lean into pressure. I teach my youngsters to step over, by standing at thier heads, and tapping them on the barrel ( about where my heel will be when I start to ride them). I use a longe whip, and tap fairly firmly at first, so that the natural reaction is to step away from the souce of irritation ( NO, I don't mean beat with the whip...I mean tap them!). Some horses need the whip to be snapped either before or after you tap them, since most horses will step away from the sound of the whip-snap instinctively, where they might not "get" moving away from the tapping right away. ( again, not whipping the horse, just snapping the popper off to the side to get the sound) I give them a verbal cue to "step over" as they are moving. Most horses will pick this up pretty fast, and will become progressively lighter and quicker...I know this is not exactly what you are asking your horse to do, but the method will work to turn thier front ends away as well.

Answer 4

Start by putting the pressure on him to turn, if he doesn't respond walk into his personal space while shaking your hand at his eyes, like you would be flicking water off your fingers, while putting pressure on the lead and halter with the other hand. Of course don't actually hit him in the head but he should get the idea to turn away from you. If that doesn't help you'll need to be patient and give a pat everytime he takes a step away...even if it's one stumbly baby step away, let him stand a second then pressure him into moving over again. Patience is golden with your horse, but it's better then having a horse jump out of her skin if a leaf blows by, trust me! Good luck! :)

Answer 5

Hi, just be consistant and patient and he will get it. Continue to use your body to push him over, and don't stop until he moves. You can get him off balance and he will have to step over. Use a verbal command at the same time, so that he associates the two with each other. That way, eventually, when you stop the physical pushing and use the verbal command or even a cluck, he will know to move. Remember, all horses are different, and respond differently, so get to his mind. Think how he thinks. Concentrate on his positives. Sounds like you are a good trainer of halter horses, and no doubt, you will make him a champion. Have fun!
pro horse trainer

Answer 6

In dressage we introduce a horse to lateral movements from the ground which may help in this scenario.

Hold the reins in your hand and apply pressure as you would from the saddle to signal that when there is pressure, it doesn't mean move forward.

Use a dressage whip (the length will help you reach where your leg should hit). Run the whip over his body to show him its not going to hurt him so he doesn't panic, but from the sounds of it he wouldn't anyways. Tap lightly where your leg would hit in conjunction with a verbal command or pressure on the shoulder (whatever command you can use in showmanship). If he fails to respond to light tapping where your leg sits, keep increasing the pressure until he moves one step. I know this sounds rough but most horses will try their hardest to figure out what the heck you are asking by tapping him.

Obviously reward for that one step and build him up to your needs from there. You don't want to just throw your body weight into him because:
1. Its back breaking work for you and our advantage is our brain not might when it comes to horses
2. He will lose respect for your personal space
3. He will lose respect for your commands from the ground by touching him. i.e. when he's on your foot in the cross ties...

I know some have suggested running a horse in a round pen or what not. I personally don't support this method because when a horse gets confused they can become frustrated and agressive, or maybe I just have had the luck of having hot horses... I also want my horses to know that when I'm on the ground, its time to pay attention to me, not free run until you decide to focus or until I can capture your focus. I want them to think "the human is present so I must obey and this is work time."

Best of luck with your four year old.

Answer 7

Get a small riding crop or whip and stand at his shoulder. Gently tap him about twice each second until he moves away. As soon as he moves away, IMMEDIATLEY release the pressure and praise him. Horses learn from the release of pressure and he will learn that moving away releases it.

After he will move away from the tapping for a few days, try to just tap once or swing the whip along his shoulder. He'll know that it's there and should begin to move away.

Remember, once he moves away, release pressure IMMEDIATELY and PRAISE him.

Answer 8

Try putting your horse in an uncomfortible situation when you put presure on him to move look for the slightest change in him then release the pressure if you do this enough he'll get the idea and then your on your way.

Answer 9

I have had several horses with this issue. One is an ex-racer who just ignored it because she wasn't wasn't used to pressure lower on her sides, and the other is a Warmblood who was taught to drive and desensitized to the cart and harness. I have had to go two different paths, so I will tell you what worked for me. Both horses are actually incredibly sensitive, just taught to ignore pressure.
For the TB, at first she was even dead to a whip. There was one day where she got destracted, and I slowly increased the force of my taps with the whip until I was hitting her as hard as I comfortable could (without feeling like I was getting abusive) and she didn't even twitch her ears towards me. With her, I would ask her to respond with the light touch I wanted to be able to use, then I would tap her with a whip. (When she wasn't looking at something else, a simple tap would catch her attention.) Then, I would try again. You ask them to do what you want with the aid you want to use, then, if they don't respond, a mild correction. The correction can be as mild as the horse will respond to, a sudden step forcefully toward the horse will work for some, a hard smack with a whip will be needed for others, go with whatever gets a reaction from your horse. Then ask again, as gently as you did before. What you are doing is saying "hey, I told you to do something" so you let them know to pay attention, then ask again. They will put two and two togather and figure out to react a certain way to avoid a correction.
Okay, second pony. He was not scared by a whip, but probibly due to driving training he would only focus on the whip and completely ignore me if I tried to use one. For him, I went back to the ground. I worked on Natural Horsemanship. I started in a round pen, just sending him out and away from me. If forceful steps and stern voice commands don't work, use a lunge whip or rope to encourage them foreward. Soon he got that if I looked him in the eye and walked quickly toward him to move away. Then I could go back to either a step toward him and/or gentle pressure to make him pivot. Once he got the point to respond to my advinces by moving, I just had to get it down to teaching him how tomove away.
I would recommend putting him in a round pen, ring or small paddock. Send him away from you, the key is getting him to respond to you by moving away. Then, put him on a lunge or long lead rope, and continue to have him move away on your command. Then, you can fine tune him to moving how you want to what signal you give. I think using a whip with your horse won't do too much, and won't be as logical a step in getting to your end result. Just do whatever you need to to get him moving away from you in the beginning, then fine tune.
If this doesn't work, try a light tapping with the end of a whip at his pastern area. He should move his feet, and you can push his head away with a lead rope to get him moving away from you. Then you can back off slowly until you can use the level of aid you want.
I hope these ideas help, I have diffinitly been in your shoes. If you still don't get anywhere, I would recommand finding someone who can do a lesson with you and your horse using Natural Horsemanship principles. It's all about using body langauge to manuaver your horse, which is the goal of showmanship anyway. Good Luck!

Answer 10

I think the only way he'll learn to move away from pressure is to get on him and teach him to respond to leg.