Clicker Training a Horse to Ground Drive/Longrein/Longline

[poolsproperty]

love this advise .. i will try it on my 3 year old colt next .. im trainin ghim & this looks great for steering

[abirdslife]

Nice :o)

[KelseySevenfold]

thank you for this video! it is very helpful. I am going to try this with my horse. he is an ex racehorse and gets really crazy when you try to ride him. hopefully this will help.

[welcometopemberley]

You're welcome! i hope it helps. We have an OTTB as well. Do you have any specific questions? Make sure you desensitize his legs really well first as he might spook at the ropes.

[Shels00]

Loved the video and glad to see someone else in the world does ground driving before saddle training. At our farm this is done for about a month before the horse ever meets a saddle!

[welcometopemberley]

Thanks for your comment! Yes, I think it is so much safer if you ground drive first.

[BlazingAva]

We're sloooowly comming to the back XD

[welcometopemberley]

Thanks for your comment. What is XD?

[MidnightContender101]

turn your head it looks like a smiley face

[welcometopemberley]

Ha, oic.

[evanswelsh]

Look at all those boys together. They look like they're having fun.

[JackaCrack1]

What about a horse (belgian) that is bad to charge or just drag you? We had a 6yr old that he was REALLY bad to just take off, screw whoever was holding. I was drug once (my fault should have just let go) and had multiple burns. He was also a rather good jumper, he took on a 4'2 fence with ease cleared it with only a 4stride start!

[welcometopemberley]

Generally a horse that bolts is bolting because he feels claustrophobic. With riding the horse is blocked on both sides by your reins and in back by you or the cart. With riding, the horse is blocked above by you sitting on him and blocked on both sides by your legs and reins. All the stress they feel from being surrounded makes them want to rush forward and escape. If they have that tendency, one of the worst things you can do is pull back with both reins because then they're blocked in front.

[JackaCrack1]

But it also happens when your just leading him? What about that??

[welcometopemberley]

What I do in that case is I grab with my left hand about one foot from the lead rope snap. If the his head were at 12 o'clock, I take a big step to 2 o'clock, which pulls him off balance. Then I push the hand with the lead rope and all my weight forward at his hip, which swings his hindquarters away from me, and send him right into a back up. I also sometimes carry a stick and tap him on the chest when he tries to run in front of me. The tap is like a warning - don't make me disengage your HQ.

[welcometopemberley]

Whoops, I said take a big step toward 2 o'clock - I meant 4 o'clock, so out a little ways but even with his hip.

[Treestompa1986]

i we have a very hard time with this 1 horse. she aways run when she see rains or a saddle what is a easy way to put some rains and a saddle on her with her givein me a hard time.

[welcometopemberley]

I'll make a video of that for you. There are 2 reasons she could be running - 1) she is afraid of what happens while she is being tacked up, or 2) she is afraid of what happens while she is being ridden. Which do you think it is?

[welcometopemberley]

What I would do instead is do lots of turning because it's physically more difficult for a horse to run if he's bending. Turns also distract him because he has to look where he is going.

Most horses who take off do so because they're really stressed about being confined. The targeting helps to make it a game they feel like they can win. Just drive them short distances at first so they can get a lot of positive reinforcement. Also, make sure he desensitized to ropes and people all around him.

[welcometopemberley]

In the event that a horse does take off with you, just pull his nose around to his side so his back legs cross, disengaging his hindquarters. No horse can run, buck, rear, or do anything if his hind legs are crossed. You need to practice disengaging his hindquarters when he's not taking off, though, or he won't have as a soft enough neck to let you pull him around when he's bolting. Disengaging the hindquarters is one of the first things I teach new riders because it's your emergency brake.

[JackaCrack1]

Yes but how do I do this from the ground?? He is a belgian and is like a friggin TANK! Even working round pen I have to watch since he is bad to just run into you or run your over. We have worked on getting him use to whips/ropes being drapped all over him he doesn't seem to mind.

[welcometopemberley]

That's a really interesting case. It sounds like your horse has some serious issues. What's his history?

Generally running into you or over you is called "Prey Animal Crowding." When a herd is under attack, the herd bunches together so it's harder for the predator to get in there and tear things apart. The horses in the middle of the herd are safest. It's a little bit "every man for himself."

[welcometopemberley]

To keep your horse from crowding, practice backing him up a lot until he will back when you just give him a look. He should be able to go stand at the end of a 12 foot lead rope and hang out there until further direction. To get him to back, tap him on his chest with a stick, tap the snap of the lead rope under his chin, tap the ground in front of him, tap the air around his head, shake the lead rope at him, or stamp your feet. It make take a lot at first, but teach him to back from just a look.

[JackaCrack1]

I can understand the prey thought those at the center less likely to be eaten. Noah this belgian has had a AWESOME life really, he was bred and raised on a fabulous farm in Marietta SC at the base of the mtn's. I think he just started getting away with WAY too much. It took a long time for me to "claim" his stall as my SPACE! Our biggest fear with the bolting is that he had come to the understanding that yeah he was bigger than us and could bolt without consiquence.

[welcometopemberley]

Interesting. Is he by and large lazy and pushy or panicky?

[JackaCrack1]

Noah has panicked once in the 3yrs I have been around him. And that was during a HUGE hail storm and we were alone in the covered arena which is made of Tin. Other than that nothing, he has walked a parade he never spooked or bolted then I think he rather liked the attention and the newness of everything. Though he did take a bite out of a cotton candy trolly.

[JackaCrack1]

I can def understand the backing. It will put control back in my arena and his confidence back in me. There was something one of the trainers who worked with him before me would do, he has NO fear of the whip and very little respect for the person using it, and she would tie a bag to the end to scare him and make him move forward, was this a good or bad thing??

[welcometopemberley]

With a horse that just plain won't move, I would use the bag to get him started, then wean him off of it and phase in the stick as a visual cue to move forward. I don't like to use the bag as a scare tactic, but it doesn't have to be if you use it with phases. So make up a sequence that makes sense to him like: phase 1, lift the stick and bag, phase 2, tap the ground, phase 3, shake the stick so the bag makes noise, phase 4, walk in his direction shaking it...

[welcometopemberley]

You could also leave a string on your stick with the bag so that you can tag him with the string if he won't leave. I think for him the biggest thing would be to help him understand that there is a sequence of events going from doing things the easy way with low pressure to doing things the hard way with high pressure.

To get him to take the high road faster, click the instant he moves away from pressure, then reward him with a treat. This will motivate him to put his thinking cap on.

[JackaCrack1]

Then I may pick up on useing the bag just to let him know that this is business! And I think working the clicker with him would be something to try he is a smart horse just a wondering mind type.

[lesfreeman]

I really like how you integrate clicker/target training with the ground driving.

How would you approach this if you didn't have a handler to work with you?

[welcometopemberley]

I have worked without a handler before. What I do is start with 2 targets (usually buckets) about 30 feet apart so the horse can walk a straight line between them. Then I add stopping and backing in between to teach them how to respond to pressure on the reins. After that, I add a third target to make a triangular pattern, which allows me to start steering a little. Usually after three targets, you can add as many as you like and they'll steer to all of them.