Magic Mustang Tamer

Task 03: Look at Human from Right and Left Side

Over half of the horses you ever meet will prefer you stay on one side; a small number of these will prefer to keep you on the right. Fix it now.

ALERT: Use the fences to control the possibilities.

Task 3 Subtask 1 Do “Easy” with duration CD(10) while human is on preferred side *

Objective: This step was probably completed in Task 2, but here you should review it with the animal and make sure the animal lets you stand towards its side.

The Set-Up: You are feeding a motivated horse. This may be done through the fence panel if needed. Use the corners of the pen from outside the pen to limit the animal from facing the wrong way.

Prerequisite Training: Relaxed hand feeding (T1), bridge, and conditioned “easy” posture (T2).

Protocol: Start feeding in the center of the training stall and notice which eye is on the side nearest you. You will be recording this in your workbook.

Task 3.1 is basically repeating Task 2.2 while standing at the side of the horse. You should be able to stand behind the jaw and in front of the withers (this will vary).

Try to move around the animal and get to the other side. If the animal is not concerned about either side, you don’t have much to train in Task 3.

QC: The animal will be able to stand in “easy” position for count-down(10) while human stands parallel to neck and shoulder. This should be done three times in a row with no errors.

Task 3 Subtask 2 Do “Easy” with duration CD(10) while human is on scary side*

Objective: The animal will be able to stand in “easy” position for 10 seconds while human stands parallel to neck. This should be done three times in a row with no errors.

The Set-Up: You are feeding a motivated horse. This may be done through the fence panel if needed. Use the corners of the pen from outside the pen to limit the animal from facing the wrong way.

Prerequisite Training: Relaxed hand feeding (T1), bridge, and conditioned “easy” posture (T2).

Protocol: If neither side is scarier, simply make sure you can get the horse to meet criteria with you on the second side. If, however, one side is more difficult, go to the outside of the pen and feed through the fence in the corner that forces the horse to present its scary side. Be sure you are not doing anything to annoy the horse. Feed on the difficult side until the horse can calmly accept hay there. As you notice that the animal is getting calm, then start making the food contingent on showing the “easy” posture.

When the horse can perform the behavior on the other side of the fence, return to the pen and see if the horse can perform the behavior while you are in the pen.

What ifs:

  • What if the horse refuses to look at you out of one eye? Some horses have a very hard time with this. Go super slow, even if you have to spend a week on it. You will spend a long time fixing it later, so you might as well fix it early on.
  • What if the horse isn’t making any progress after 3 sessions? Sit in a chair by the corner to make yourself less scary and feed five bites for each easy in the scary corner, alternate with the other corner, where you only feed one bite.
  • What if the horse isn’t making any progress after 10 sessions. See troubleshooting guide.