The horse is Jake, and the human in Emma. The horse is a wild BLM Mustang on his 4th day of training. This horse has had a total of 8 hours of work done with him. The first 4 hours were dedicated to getting him to allow himself to be caught. The next two were dedicated to sacking him out. During this process, we get him to be familiar with blankets, ropes, saddles, multiple people and whatever else we can think of. By request from a follower, I decided to go over calling the horse. To call the horse, we need a cue that:
1. Is Visible
2. Can be Escalated
To begin with, we teach the horse to yield his hindquarters under pressure. This is shown in the previous blog. Often when taught this, a domestic horse will simply start to follow the human. Even one that was previously hard to catch. This is an excellent outcome and if that is the case, simply allow him to come to you.
However, in the case of a wild horse, he will learn to yield his hindquarters, but is unlikely to come to you. This is because the flight instinct of a wild horse is far greater than that of a domestic. So he may yield and pivot all day, but he will not take a step forward toward you.
This is when you implement the following:
Using a lunge whip, get the horse to yield his hindquarters. He needs to yield his hindquarters easily and quickly. When he keeps facing you, stand a few feet in front of him and slap the ground with the whip to the left and right of you. Do this until the horse moves. If the horse starts to move away, place the whip in your opposite hand and use it to move his hindquarters away so that he is facing you again. For example:
1. You are facing the horse.
2. You slap the ground to the right and left of you.
3.The horse moves off to YOUR Left.
4. You place the whip in YOUR Right hand and use it to apply pressure to HIS Left hip and make it move to HIS Right, which is away from you.
5. He will turn his hindquarters away from you and start facing you again.
6. Wait a few seconds, then start slapping the ground to the left and right of you again to make him come.
Sooner or later, he will stop backing up, either because he thinks he is far enough, or because he has bumped into the fence. Either case is acceptable. As soon as he stops backing up, for either reason, stop slapping the ground. Wait about 3 to 5 seconds, and start slapping the ground again.
If the horse has backed all the way up to fence, he will have two choices, one, try to move off to the side, or two, take a step forward. If he moves off to the side, make him move his hindquarters and keep him facing you. If he steps toward you, stop slapping the ground. If he does nothing after you have slapped the ground NO MORE THAN 5 TIMES, take a step toward him and keep slapping. Again, if he does not move, step closer, and slap harder.
Make sure that you escalate the cue every 5 slaps. Do not wait longer. Remember, if you wait to enforce the command, then the horse will wait until the command is enforced to obey. So do not wait.
It will be amazing to see the horse actually move into the pressure of the whip until he standing right in front of you. In this process, the horse will learn two things:
1. Stepping toward you is the way to get you to stop slapping the ground.
2. The safest and quickest place to get relief is right next to you.
These are both excellent and important lessons for your horse to learn.
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