First, thank you for all of the helpful advice on your Web site. I also have a library of your DVDs about Lead Line Leadership and riding and several CDs having to do with confidence in riding and private lessons with you. Love it all! But I am now facing a problem with my horse that I have not seen advice for. I have an 8 year old paint gelding who generally is a very obedient, respectful and willing horse.

I have practiced your Lead Line Leadership exercises with him, and he does them willingly. But several times I have longed him for 10 minutes or so and then been interrupted by someone coming over to talk with me. After a few minutes of conversation, I try to go back to longing, but my horse decides that he's done. (I use a fairly long longe line and longe whip, by the way.) When I try to start up again and move him into a circle, he faces me and backs up. If I try to get behind his drive line, he just moves his hips away from me and backs up again. I'm a little nervous about getting closer to his hip when I do this, and I have in the past just backed him up vigorously for refusing to go around me. After about 10 minutes of this, he finally gives in and goes in a circle.

My instructor has recommended that I get angry and hit him with the whip and run at his hip...she says he is disrespecting me with his attitude and I need to act angry and aggressive to get him to respond. But there has to be a better way to get him to respect what I'm asking him to do without harming him or me! I have always 'outlasted' him in these instances, but wondered if there's a better way to get him to move around me.

Thank you,

Yes! There is a better and a safer way to assert your leadership over the horse, rather than run aggressively at his rear-end—that’s a good way to get kicked. Remember, the kick is a defensive behavior of the horse for use when he is attacked by a predator or by a more dominant horse--the horse kicks and runs. Kicking buys him a little time to hopefully gain some distance from the attacker. Coming at the horse aggressively toward his flank or rear would naturally cause him to kick. That’s why you always longe/ground drive with some sort of “weapon” like a whip or flag to extend your reach and keep yourself out of the kick-zone.

In this instance, your horse knows exactly what you are asking him to do and is being willfully disobedient; you need to make your point in a more controlled, more strategic way. The good news is that your horse is obedient to you most of the time. It is only when you take a break and he thinks you ought to be finished that he challenges your authority. No doubt, he has had what he believes is success in refusing you (even if he only got to avoid working for 10 minutes) and so he challenges you again the next time the situation arises.

Your instructor is right that you need to insist on his obedience and you need to muster some assertiveness, but you need to out smart him, not get angry. Most horses are quick to figure out that all he has to do is face you and you’ll never get behind his drive line and be able to make him move forward. Pretty soon, every time you take a step toward his hip to move him, he faces you—next thing you know, and he is standing effortlessly in the middle with a smug look on his face while you are running circles around him.

Although horses make a game out of facing you when you try to longe them (they call it “stump the chump”), it stems from a natural behavior. Horses are very well equipped to defend themselves from the front—their teeth and the lightening-quick front feet are both deadly forces. It’s the flank area of the horse that is most vulnerable to attack and that is the last area where he will let you touch him—he has to build up a lot of trust in your before he’ll let you into his flank, but he’ll let you touch his forehead early on. A horse that does not trust you fully will turn to face you as you try to move toward his flank.

In your case, there is no trust issue—he has simply modified this natural behavior (instinct) into a learned behavior (stump the chump) that he has been rewarded for in the past. Like all things in training, it is important to understand the origin of the behavior before deciding on an effective means to change the behavior. Whether your horse is facing because of trust issues or in avoidance, the solution is the same.

Rather than trying to reposition yourself and run toward his rear end, you simply need to move your horse’s front end. If he is facing me and I want him to move in a circle around me to my left, I will pick up my right hand (holding the lead) and point and look in the precise direction I want my horse to go and tell him to move with a cluck—that is his cue to go the work. If he doesn’t hop right to it in a yes-Ma’am frame of mind, I will then use my right hand (holding the flag) to reinforce my cue and move the horse.

If he is facing me, it is not the hindquarters that I need to move, but the forehand—I need to move his nose and shoulder to the right, away from me, to put the horse on the correct track for the circle left. Once I do that, I’ll be conveniently positioned behind his drive line and able to drive him forward.

To move his forehand away from you is quite easy. Pointing with your ‘lead hand’ (which is the left hand in this instance) to gesture to your horse where is he is go, pick up your right hand (the ‘whip hand’)and wave your flag (or whip or stick) directly at his nose as you advance toward his head. Advance toward the horse with your flag waving vehemently right at his nose—if he doesn’t move it away from you, he’ll get in the way of your stick and get hit (it’s important that you convey this message strongly with your body language—if he gets hit, it is his fault—he had ample opportunity to move out of your way.) Once his nose moves away, point your flag and your body at his shoulder until it follows the nose and the horse is pointed away from you ready to trot a left-hand circle.

Your horse will probably back-up as you approach his head at first—but that’s okay. Now you are walking forward and he is backing up sideways as you move his nose to the right. You’ll easily be able to out-pace him and he’ll get tired of backing up real soon and forward will look like a good idea to him. As soon as he moves forward, you back off and signal him to continue around the circle.

No matter how bad your horse’s habit is of turning and facing you when you are asking him to go to work, once you get in the habit of moving his forehand away from you first, he’ll quit playing this game. Since he’s had a lot of success with this facing technique already, it may take you a few extra times before your horse gives it up entirely.

As you know, there’s lots of info on my website that relates to this and it is also addressed in my ground work videos. Sounds like you have done a lot of great work with your horse and you have a pretty good idea of your relationship with him and where the holes in your authority are. This facing game is an issue in every single clinic I do. Many people have this problem; so don’t feel too badly. This is a little easier to demonstrate than than it is to explain in an article, but hopefully you get the gist. Don’t try to change your position—just reposition your horse (make him do the work).

Good luck,

Julie

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If you liked this article, Julie suggests the following products to help you continue the work with your horse (or call 800-225-8827 for ordering help):

Training Tools and Flag: http://www.shop.juliegoodnight.com/shopforhorsetrainingtools.html

From the Ground, vol. 1, Round Pen Reasoning: http://www.shop.juliegoodnight.com/shop/trftg1roundpenreasoning.html

FTG, vol. 2, Lead Line Leadership: http://www.shop.juliegoodnight.com/shop/trftg2leadlineleadership.html