Bad manners at the feed bin say a lot about your relationship with your horse. Good table manners can have a profound effect on everything you do with your horse.
At least 80 percent of what we call “training” a horse, occurs during times when we don’t think that we are training. However, any time we touch the horse we teach him. Horses do not distinguish between class time and recess. It’s all the same to them.
Take feeding time, for example. How you feed your horse and what you do around him while he eats has a tremendous influence on your relationship with him. In fact, hours of so-called “training” can be ruined in thirty seconds of poor manners and bad habits around the feed bin.
Does your horse put his ears back when you show up with his grain or alfalfa?
Do you respond at all, or just assume that’s the way he is and there’s nothing you can do about it?
If your horse is telling you to get away from his food he’s saying he’s the leader in your relationship. And if that’s the case, what makes you think he should listen to you at any other time? He won’t, and the relationship will ultimately be confusing to him. As far as the horse is concerned either you are in charge, or you are not.
You can begin working on this issue by trying the following exercise:
1 .Feed him in a place where you can get out of the way if he rebels at this. If you’ve long had a problem at feeding time he may resent your intrusion.
2. Place the food on the ground – one pile only.
3. Allow him to have a bite or two while you pet and rub him gently.
4. After a few moments, gently place your fingers on his shoulders or chest or nose, put on pressure and ask him to back away from the food pile. Release for each step.
5. Walk through the space between him and the food pile, allow him to return to the food to eat, and then spend some time petting and rubbing him from the other side.
6. Repeat from the other side.
Do not punish the horse for rebelling or putting his ears back or even trying to bite!
Instead, remain focused on getting him to move away from the food and allowing you to pass in front of him - between him and the food.
Here is the magical key – if he responds quietly and softly with a nice attitude and allows you to move between him and the food – QUIT!
Do this at every feeding, until you horse understands that the food is yours and you are sharing it with him. Now you have established yourself as a leader in a way the horse understands – who is in charge at the food bin?
