Hi,
One of the first things you may want to teach your young horse is self-haltering, which means that you present the halter, and she puts her head inside. All you need to do is to close it and give her a treat.
I am so used to having self-haltering horses that I am honestly confused when a horse does not plunge her nose into the halter when I am presenting it.
Graya’s breeder had a smart way of getting foals accustomed to the halter by offering foals their concentrate ration in a feeder bag. This way the foals become used to having something slipped over their ears combined with a tasty meal. This was very useful when I came to collect her from the field.
Malou already came with this skill. Her owner taught her to take the halter without much difficulty. For most horses, it is not problematic to put on a halter and it may not be necessary to teach it specifically.
I did not expect Blondie to have difficulties with the halter. When I met Blondie, everyone at that barn described her as a Saint: so well behaved. They did not see, that she actually did not behave. She did not offer anything except what was asked. That was not what I am used to with clicker trained horses, so I could see the difference. Contrast is an excellent teacher.
When Blondie became part of my horse family, I wanted to take her out of her stall by halter and lead rope. To my surprise, she reacted quite strongly.
Self-haltering immediately became top priority because taking her out should start with a pleasant experience. I had already taught this behaviour to other horses, so it only took me one training session and it changed the game completely. It was the beginning of her transformation.
In the next training video you’ll see that I wait for Blondie to drop her nose into the halter. I refrain from pulling up the halter. I then reset her by presenting the treat in a way that she needs to take a step back. That gives her the opportunity to approach for another trial.
The movement cycle is: Step forward – drop nose into halter – step back – eat treat – step forward etc.
By resetting her backward, I have the possibility to assess the training. As long as there is no hesitation to engage in the next trial, I can assume that the training goes well and I can increase the criterion for reinforcement. Should there be any hesitation after feeding the treat, e.g. she looks away or sniffs the ground, then I would lower the criterion.
When I took on Blondie and punishment was no longer a threat, she went through an extinction process. The behaviours that were suppressed for so long, re-appeared. She said “No!” quite strongly to so many things. It took two weeks until she realised that this clicker game stays in her life and I am somewhat trustworthy.
I think, at this point, less experienced clicker trainers may have given up. Blondie’s behaviour was scary at times and contrasted strongly with the “well-behaved” but shut-down Blondie that was handed to me. If you are only starting with clicker training, you may be convinced that “this clicker training was a bad idea. It ruined my horse!”. And people at your barn will probably tell you exactly that.
But I knew that sticking with it will create the relationship that I want with my horses. I just need to continue working to gain her trust. And from that point forward, we made continuous progress, and the sparkle in her eyes came back.
Blondie is, of course, not the only horse that has issues with the halter.
Let me introduce you to Stella. Her owner contacted me to help her re-introducing the saddle as Stella strongly disliked it. In the process, we also found out, that the halter was problematic.
With Stella, we used the head lowering behaviour to get self-haltering. Stella’s owner taught her to drop her head into a variety of items: hula hoop, a cardboard circle and other random items.
Here is another example. This warmblood stallion has learned to defend himself. He was not clicker trained and I only had five training days with him. In the video, you’ll see why we always start in protective contact. Nevertheless, we made good progress towards self-haltering and he became a lot softer and lovable in the process.
Hopefully, your horse is easy to halter and you can skip all of this. However, if you find that your horse is tense as you approach with the halter, these videos may help you how to address it.
Happy training,
Michaela