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How to Improve Ground Manners.... and Why
Good ground manners aren't just nice to have. "Ground manners" is a shortcut for saying that the horse knows and
accepts his place in the pecking order of his herd. It means he respects and complies willingly with those horses who outrank
him...and in your little herd of two, you must always outrank the horse.
When your horse respects you as above him in the pecking order, he can relax and listen to you. He will be happier feeling
secure in his position.
If you do not confidently maintain your position, he may fall back on a lot of undesirable dominance behavior: nipping
at you, pushing you aside, pullling away on the halter rope, for just a few examples.
Does this mean you have an "alpha" horse? Not necessarily. In a herd, someone must always lead. If you don't,
the horse will be forced to, even if he doesn't really want to. Understand that it's life or death for the herd to have a
leader. By far the majority of horses are happy to have you assume that position.
Of the two horses pictured below, which would you rather walk up to with your brush box at the ready? The filly below,
left, is waiting patiently. Note the slack in the rope, the eyes and ears on me (taking the photo). On the right, it's a different
story.... (we'll talk much more about tying later, too).
Horse #2 is an accident waiting to happen. Suppose you had put your brush box down just on the other side of the hitching
post, conveniently close, and gone back to the barn for something forgotten...the horse paws the box, it spills out suddenly,
startling her, whereupon she tries to RUN...but she's tied...see where this is going?
Horse 2 is not ready to be brushed and tacked up. It's that simple. She needs to make a choice to stand still at the hitching
rail, so you need to offer her a choice. In this case, I'd offer her the choice of immediately going to work, or standing
still at the hitching post.
As she is fidgeting and pawing, I'd untie her quickly and have her immediately perform some tasks - moving forward, backward,
changing directions, making a couple of circles around me, stopping, starting immediately. It's best if you can hitch somewhere
where you can do this without having to lose any time walking to an appropriate spot.
Once she's paying attention and responding promptly, you can stop and offer her the chance to stand quietly at the hitching
post again. Chances are, she'll accept your offer. But if she still fidgets (and remember, this is not for teaching how to
tie! but only for a seasoned tie-er) move her away from the hitch again and put her to work immediately.
Make sure that you're offering two (and only two) clear choices: standing still at the hitch rail, or working. In order
to be clear in the horse's mind, you need to connect these events in time: the instant she begins to fidget, she's untied
and working. If you need to be sure, when you bring her back to the rail, don't actually tie the rope for a few moments -
wait a couple of seconds to see if she's going to settle down or not. That way, if she doesn't, you can put her to work even
faster. That's how she'll make the connection: if I fidget, I have to go to work. If I don't, I get the reward of peace and
quiet.
Another way to approach this: leave her tied, but if she stops fidgeting and stands still for a couple of seconds, walk
up and pet her and let her know she's doing what you want. This is harder than it sounds. You need to look like you're ignoring
her while she squirms, paws, and fidgets, then as soon as she settles down for one second, you need to quickly get to her
side (without running at her and scaring her, of course!) to reward her. After three to five seconds of praise (she probably
will not stand still any longer than that) you need to walk away (especially if she begins to move again), ignore her again,
until she settles herself down. So don't walk too far away, you need to watch her without appearing to watch her (she can
tell when you're looking at her!).
There is no punishment involved. You simply reward the horse for the desired behavior, and make the undesired behavior
a more difficult choice. Horses, like children, need to know the rules. If you show that you are consistent and fair in applying
the rules, you'll have a happier horse.
Leadership Exercises
Good tools make the job easier
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