Training wild horses is neither too easy nor too hard. In fact, training wild horses are similar to the training of a domestic horse, with only one additional and most challenging part to cover: taming. However, taming and training the horse is not that difficult for an expert.
In this article, I am going to give an overview of training wild horses, step by step from the beginning for an amateur.
Training Wild Horses- how to start
Novice people find the taming of the wild horses a new concept before going to train the horse. Wild horses are afraid of the people and the environment itself. It has a tendency to resist and react. Wild horses or the Mustangs come domestic after successfully tamed and trained.
By the training wild horse, you will be able to grow leadership in your horse. You will make the horse gentle, polite, domesticated, and educated under the guise of training. You will approach the horse in two phases of training. Behavioral as well as professional.
Don’t only rely on blogs, videos, or expert opinions. Reality is very challenging. All you need to grow a relationship with the wild horse in the beginning. To do so, learn the behavior, psychology, body language, temperament, smell, and vocals of the wild horse. Mix up with the horse well. Feed and care the horse in the stable or in the training ring.
Mixing up together, making eye contact, and building trust will be effective in the subsequent steps. Being compassionate and kind is key. You can never be rude or harsh with a wild horse. A domesticated horse compromises with force, but not the wild horse. Love, affection, and a sober attitude will build trust that you are not its enemy.
If you want a good response from the wild horse, make friends with it. In order to tame the wild horse, pacify the horse from a distance and stay as calm as possible. Make eye contact with the horse. Approach your hands slowly and cover the distance.
Let the horse take your smell. Utter sounds ‘easy’ or something to make the horse understand and trust you. Touch the throat, neck, back, and head of the wild horse gradually and gently. Rub them politely. Hopefully, the wild horse will be tamed.
It may take some time to tame the wild horse, from a couple of hours to more than a month. Be patient during this time. Since your horse is tamed and trusted you as its companion, master, or friend, it will start following your instructions in the next training phases. For this binding, don’t forget to reward the horse with appreciation and treats.
Next, you need to go through some of the basic training and groundwork that the horse has never experienced. Introduce the horse with some very basic training encompassing smell, taste, color, distance, response, harness, rein, saddle, etc. Grow intimacy and know more and more about the horse’s liking and dislikings, body language, eye contact, etc. Know what the horse means by its hoofing, nodding, wagging, etc.
Grooming is important for the horse to be familiar with. At this stage, you will pat, rub, and tease the body part of the horse it will enjoy. Rubbing the horse’s body parts around the tail, loin, and throat gives it pleasure and the horse gets to know about pleasure and love.
By this, you can familiarize the horse with grooming as a part of reward or appreciation. Body massage can be relaxing for the horse. But you need to know which part of the body massage gives the horse stroke, and which places give pleasure. Knowing your horse’s body also helps you to pacify it during any situation in the future. Also, the horse will know the meaning of touch, rub, and massage.
Also, let the horse know about yourself. Let it learn what do you mean by what gesture, posture, tone, voice message, etc. Be consistent about the instruction from the beginning. Never compromise with what you follow since day one.
In any way, you can’t confuse the horse. In fact, a wild horse possesses a stronger sense of self-preservation compared to a domesticated horse. Therefore, bonding and trust are important to uphold always.
Understand the level of understanding the horse already has. In case it has already mixed up in the society earlier, you will find a strong personality, sense of etiquette and manner, respect, response, function, and command in it.
If not, you have to grow these in your horse gradually through training. Horses can possess leadership as well as follow leadership. Let it know your leadership traits, that is, what do you expect from the horse, when, and how.
Introduce your horse with intent, body language, movement, and activities. Read your horse well and let it read you well too like any other domesticated horse.
As the wild horses are capable of handling hardship, challenges, dangers, and leadership, it will be much better and quicker in learning new etiquette and professionalism in the days to come. It all depends on you how successfully you can deal with and lead on the wild horse.
Familiar your horse with the lead position, it will have several options, when you lead from the front and the horse follows you; when you lead in the companion position from beside the horse, and then let the horse lead you to demonstrate the speed, distance, movement, turning, and pause. Let your horse know about touch training.
It is very basic level training where you tough the horse by hand, with things like a whip, bag, cloth, stick. You touch with a thing that creates sound. You also touch sensitive body parts, like groan, nostrils, nipples, groin, ears, hack, stomach, sheath, mouth, eyes, and tail. Horses will gradually be familiar with touch.
Every horse is an individual with a certain unique character. As a human being, you are also unique. Therefore you will find the horses are doing better in some training skills than some others. The same rule applies to your traits too. Familiar with the horse with the logistics.
After the gentling process, let it practice the steps again and again in order to be accustomed to it. After learning about touching, the horse will be familiar with a halter, lead, grooming, and picking up heads and legs. Grow adaptability and let it know the expectation.
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