92. Working with Barn Sour Horses...

Working With A Barn Sour Horse - Part One
By Jeffrey Rolo

Working with a barn sour horse can be the ultimate test of patience; a test that can drain even the best of horse trainers. Unfortunately in the midst of frustration or anger, many handlers will make some fatal mistakes that exasperate the problem rather than lessen it.
The Common Mistakes:
Throw In The Towel – There is no denying that dealing with a barn sour horse can be a taxing experience, but once you decide to engage in the "battle of wills" it's important that you follow through until the end. This does not mean placing yourself in a position of danger; if your horse is bucking and rearing on the roadside because he does not wish to ride away from the barn, do not potentially hurt yourself or the horse by forcing the ride.

By the same token do not just give up and return the horse to his stall, because that's exactly what he wanted and if he wins you can rest assured that your next "war" will be all that much more difficult. Take your horse into a riding arena or round pen and work him hard. By hard I do not mean allowing anger to fuel your actions and thereby running the horse ragged; I mean give him a good workout so that next time he might decide the trail ride was more desirable after all.

It's never good to lose a battle with a horse since they always become progressively worse, but in the above case you showed the horse that although you lost the initial battle, ultimately you won the war. Don't wave the white flag the moment you experience your first setback.

Racing Home – One of the initial symptoms of a barn sour horse is a horse that speeds up the pace as he nears the barn on the journey home. Most of the time the horse does this of his own accord since he's simply excited about returning home, but sometimes a rider will actually canter the horse down the final stretch for fun. If only that rider knew how foolhardy such an action was!

It is important that you always take the final stretch home at a leisurely walk. Not only is this better for the horse's health (they should have a cool down period just as human athletes), it will let the horse know that you are in full control at all times.

If you are returning at a medium walk and your horse hastens to a faster walk, don't let him get away with it. Sure, he might still be walking, but he also just determined the pace and the next trail ride he'll push his luck even further. Bring him back to the medium walk, or better yet slow him down even further so that he sees his disobedience and impatience only made matters worse. Never look the other way when your horse misbehaves, no matter how sleight the disobedience.

You may find it necessary to stop your horse completely if he becomes too skittish or insistent… you might even need to stop several times on your return home. This is fine since haste will make waste - take the time to make him return properly. If your horse becomes too insistent you can even turn him around and walk away from the barn again until he settles down.

If worse comes to worst and he refuses to walk home properly, try to dismount him and lead him home. Unless you are a very experienced rider (and even if you are!) you do not want to risk being dismounted by a roadside or on an obscure trail, especially if you didn't bring along any riding partners to watch over you. (You did bring along a riding partner when you worked with a barn sour horse, right?)

When we become tired of holding our horse back and frustration begins to set in it's only natural to want to just let him head home quickly to get the undesirable situation over with. But that natural reaction will only compound your frustrations later as you find your partner turning into a full-fledged barn sour horse.

Bringing Along A Buddy – Herd bound horses resist leaving the property because they do not wish to leave their equine buddy behind. Often the owner of a herd bound horse will have another rider take the herd bound horse's buddy on a trail ride with him so that his horse doesn't have to leave his buddy behind. The thought behind this is the journey goes by smoothly and in time the owner's horse will become less barn sour by observing how easily his buddy rides.

This solution couldn't be any more mistaken!

When you pair up a herd bound horse and his equine companion on a trail ride all you succeed in doing is masking the symptoms, yet the problem still exists. In fact doing this will make the problem even worse over time rather than better, because you need to break the reliance on his buddy to overcome the herd bound problem. Never use a buddy as a pacifier for a herd bound horse; make sure if you have a riding partner he or she is riding a neutral horse.

To view more common errors as well as the key solution to remedying a barn sour horse view the second part of Working With A Barn Sour Horse.

Working With A Barn Sour Horse - Part Two
By Jeffrey Rolo

In the first part of Working With A Barn Sour Horse we looked at some of the common mistakes people make when working with barn sour or herd bound horses. We now continue where the previous article left off…

Feeding After Returning – When our horse does a great job we love nothing more than to reward him for his cooperation and loyalty, which in itself is a wonderful sentiment. We should reward our equine partners for a job well done! Unfortunately one of the common ways horse owners will reward their horse is with a portion of sweet feed, and this is where good intentions can eventually create bad results.

You need to find a balance whereby you can reward your horse for a job well done without setting up a situation where your horse actually anticipates the pending rewards. Rewards should be spontaneous and unpredictable in nature (excluding a good shoulder rub and reassuring words, which a horse can never have enough of), because if your horse comes to expect a certain result upon the completion of his ride he may look forward to that completion too much!

Before you know it your horse may start racing home knowing that a dose of sweet feed will be waiting for him!

So what are some ways to help discourage horses from behaving in a barn sour manner? Well, some good tips were interlaced with the common mistake explanations, but let's look at some resolutions in a more direct manner.
Make Home Less Attractive
One reason horses become barn sour is because they view home as a place of rest and relaxation whereas the trail ride means work. To combat this view make sure you work your horse at the stable regularly, as well as work your horse right after a trail ride concludes.

Most horse owners will immediately dismount a horse, remove his tack and set him free upon the conclusion of trail ride, and while this is absolutely fine for a well-trained and respectful horse, it's the last thing you want to do if your horse is barn sour!

Once you return home from a trail ride take your horse into the arena and work him for a considerable amount of time. Don't run him ragged; just prevent him from becoming too comfortable. When you have finished with your arena work bring him to some crossties, tie him and consider leaving him there for a couple minutes. Return in a bit, remove his tack and then let him stand there some more.

If the above actions seem like they are designed to annoy the horse… well, they are! They are painless and gentle ways to:

bullet Disconnect the "home equals reward" mentality
bullet Show the horse that you are his leader and will call the shots
Just Ride On By
Most of the time when we finish a trail ride we will head back home and immediately walk up the driveway or return path leading to the stable. If your horse is barn sour then try not to do that; instead upon your return home walk right on by the driveway and continue your ride. Do this several times until you are certain that you (not your horse) are ready to finally return home.

One of the reasons a barn sour horse speeds up his pace when he's heading back in a homeward direction is he's anticipating his return to the stable. When he finds that the homeward direction means little since the journey just continues right on by the stable in the opposite direction, he may eventually cease his quickened pace since he'll have no idea when the ride really does end. A homeward direction no longer equals a return home.

And now the key solution to remedying a barn sour horse…
Establish A Bond Of Respect!
When you get down to the crux of the matter you'll see that a horse is barn sour or herd bound because he does not respect you as a strong and reliable leader. Until your horse views you as his alpha leader he will continue to cling to the comforts of home or the security of an equine buddy. He needs to see that you control his comfort and that you are his security.

Consider dropping trail rides altogether for a while and work in the round pen or arena day after day until the horse fully trusts in you and looks towards you for direction. If you cannot keep the horse's focus on you in the round pen you will certainly not be able to direct his focus on the trail.

Bad habits can be incredibly difficult to break, so if you have inherited a barn sour horse I do not recommend trying to fight it out on the trail with him. Earning a horse's respect is far easier on the floor of a round pen than the back of a horse, not to mention far less dangerous. It may take days, weeks or even months to turn a barn sour horse around, but once your horse has enough respect and confidence in you as his leader, chances are very high you'll get through to him.

Just be patient and take it slow. Understand that in the horse world blunt force means very little, whereas respect and security mean everything. Redirect his other sources of respect and security (such as a horse buddy) towards you and you'll be well on your way to making him a perfect riding horse. Just expect to put in some hard hours of work in obtaining that goal.

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