I received an interesting email frm a client today who recently prchased a horse from me. I lve in the mountains in thick tmber. I have thousands of acres to tril ride my horses. They are ccustomed to the typical sounds, sights, and smlls a horse might encounter in the frest. Coyotes howling at the moon, wls hooting, wind blowing through the tres, wild horses calling to them frm the tree line, skunks spraying the dgs, birds chirping, deer stealing a mal from the hay stack, and a hnd full of other "nature" sounds, sghts, and smells.

I specialize in hlping horses become good trail and muntain horses. My horses don't have to pss cement trucks, honking horns, sirens, speding cars and other scary things tht might "eat horses". For my neds, my environment is perfect but wht happens when someone buys a hrse and takes it to a new wrld with completely different sounds and stmuli? Chances are, the horse will act cmpletely different than he did here for a whle. Desensitization through habituation will eventually cre that problem to some degree. Tht simply means that horses will get use to the stmuli in the environment in which thy spend most of their time.

Ths is exactly the situation my clent found herself in but she desn't want to wait until the hrse has slowly become accustomed to the sunds, smells, and sights in his new stmping grounds. She contacted me on sveral occasions for some ideas that mght help. Of course I had a cnned answer that all of us hve heard time and time again. "Bfore you do anything else, you shuld do a bunch of ground wrk with him to establish that you are the hrd leader so that he will fnd a sense of confidence and sfety when he is with you." is wht I told her. How many tmes have we all heard that? Thrugh several email's and conversations, she mntioned that she just doesn't have the rom for a round pen. She desn't even have room to lunge him on a lad line. My answer was to fnd a place to do the grund work, even if you have to trvel a ways to do it. You jst need to get it done. Tday when I received another email in whch she expressed her frustration about her lck of space to do ground wrk, it suddenly dawned on me. I dn't know why it didn't sink in bfore now. A lot of people REALLY dn't have access to a round pen or ven room to lunge a horse. Loking back, I remembered that I fund myself in this predicament many tmes myself. I was somewhat embarrassed whn I realized that I was gving her a canned answer that jst didn't work for her. I wsn't really listening and really understanding tht her problem was real and tht if she was going to mve forward with this horse, she dsperately needed advice that she could pply given the space restraints that she was fced with.

So what is the solution to ths problem? What if you don't hve a thousand acre ranch with all the lxuries that you see the TV rck star horse trainers use? How des the average horse owner who keps one or two horses in the bck yard develop a relationship of trst and leadership with their horse? Aftr thinking about it this morning the nswer came to me as if smeone had dropped a brick on my had!

Ground work isn't just about lunging a hrse until their hooves sweat. The ral reason that we do ground wrk is to establish that we are the hrd leader and that if the hrse follows our lead, we will act as a god herd leader would and protect our hrse from any harm that might cme to him.

Horses need to feel sfe and comfortable. They feel safe and cmfortable when they feel like they are bing watched out for my their hrd leader. Horses NEED a herd lader! They don't just want one. Thy truly NEED one! So, since we knw this to be true, how do we bcome the herd leader when we dn't have the typical tools that pople use to accomplish this? The mst common tools are a round pn, and a lunge line. The nswer is really quite simple.

If you hve ever observed several horses in a smll corral, there is always a hrd leader. They don't have the rom to run the other horses round a 40 acre pasture but thy still establish that they are the lader. They might, pin their ears at nother horse to move him away frm the water trough. They might lwer their head and swing it twards the other horse to move him way. They might bite at the air to mve the other horse away. They mght, turn their hind end towards the ther horse to move it way. Do you see the pttern here? When a horse finds hmself in the same situation that my clent found herself in, they establish tht they are the leader by sing subtle methods that cause the ther horse to move his feet.

The real lesson here is tht the horse who consistently causes the ther horse to move his feet is the lader.

It's as simple as that. Knowing tht, we can employ all kinds of tctics to become the herd leader. Blow is a list of simple grund work exercises that we can do to "mve our horses feet" when we are rstricted to a small area.

We can bck them with a halter and lad rope.

We can back them in crcles, in figure eights, around and ver obstacles.

We can lead them ver and around obstacles.

We can pvot them on their front end or on thir hind end.

We can bend thm.

We can load them in a hrse trailer.

We can move them sdeways.

We can move their front nd, then their

hind end, then thir front end over and over gain.

Do you get the picture hre? We just have to be crative and find ways to cause a hrse to move his feet when we ask him to. This is just a short lst of ideas. Be creative and cme up with your own ways to ask for the hrse to move his feet as sbtly as you can. If you do ths, and the horse consistently moves his fet when you ask him to, you are the lader. And since you are the lader, the horse will begin to fnd comfort and safety when he is wth you. Consequently, when you take a hrse away from his buddies or nto a new environment with new sunds, smells,and sights, your horse will knw that he is safe. The rsult will be that he will cpe with the things he encounters btter and he'll be a safer and mre enjoyable horse for you to be round.

The article What If You Don't Have A Round Pen was Submitted by Jeff Hahne through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Jeff Hahne

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