Putting a rug on a nervous or twitchy horse.
Tie up your horse.
Place the rug upon the gate and fold in half, neck straps to the fillet string.
Firmly place upon the horse's side and slide onto the back. Then do up the straps.
Picking up your nervous horse's feet
Take the lead rope, hold both ends, so you make a loop.
Wrap around the horse's leg.
Place the end of the lead rope through the clip.
Stand next to the horse's leg and lift slowly and gently.
Horse Body Language
Eyes
Eyes wide open, slightly glazed and wild looking. This horse is feeling frightened and will want to run away.
Eyes are soft, slightly droopy. The horse is relaxed and accepting your company.
Horse sleeping. It feels very, very content, relaxed and secure.
The Head
Tense, excited or fearful. PAY ATTENTION your horse is talking to you.
Not interested in you, something else is far more interesting.
Interested in you, LISTEN your horse is telling you he wants to be with you.
LOOK AT THE NECK this horse is being submissive. This means that he'll go wherever
you want and do whatever you want as you are the dominant one.
Remember always listen to what your horse is telling you.
- If his neck is soft he's relaxed.
- If his neck is hard he's worried and tense.
- If his neck is low and soft he's being submissive and informing you that he knows your the boss. Yawning is also another sign of being submissive.
- When his neck is high and tense he's excited, tense, worried or intensely interested in something. LISTEN for your horse's snorting as this is a good indication that your horse is unsure about something.
Ears
The ears are a very good thing to look at. As they can tell you a lot about the kind of mood that the horse is in. Horses can move their ears in all directions at the same time. The picture below shows that this horse has it's attention split.
This horse's attention is on me, NOTICE that both ears are pointing at me.
NOTICE that the horse's ears are flat back.
This means that it's uncomfortable, annoyed or angry.
PAY ATTENTION as these signs are warning you that the horse is in a bad mood.
Ears are back means that the horse is paying attention to things behind it, (usually you) when your in the saddle.
The horse is concentrating and not angry or annoyed.
Ears pricked forward, he's keen, alert, excited and interested in something. Horses do this if they
see something that they're unsure about.
If a horse is all up in your space then push him back. Walk into his face and keep walking. If he doesn't move his head push it away, you must walk through the horse. The horse does not exist. I have been doing this with a very dominate mare. Everytime I walk into the stable with her. I point and move forwards, she backs up every time. At first I had to stamp my foot, point my finger and say back very firmly. Now all I have to do is walk into the stable and point automatically she steps backwards.