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Teaching horse manners?


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Through a concatenation of circumstances too long to go into, it seems that I am becoming the half-owner of a horse. My friend who owns the other half has... well, promised is perhaps not the right word... to make me learn to ride. The question preying on my mind is how Niki might react to seeing me sitting on top of that enormous critter. And what, if anything, I can do to teach her to mind her manners, and not e.g. try to rescue me from the monster?

 

She has been around horses quite a bit. The neighbors have several, so there's general sniffing at the fence line, and we often go for ride/hikes* with the friend & her three dogs (and often additional friends/horses/dogs) without problems, so it may be simple. Still, I'd like to get an idea of what to expect, if anyone's been in a similar situation.

 

*That is, she rides the horse, while the dogs & I walk/run along. She says she's getting exercise :-)

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I guess the first question is how does the horse feel about dogs? My horse really dislikes them and will nip at them as they pass his stall. We then move on to sibling rivalry, the horse doesn't like Buster even more than the barn dogs because it takes attention away from him. Buster has learned that trying to get between me and Petey is not a good idea, he jumped up to bite the horse on the nose only to find that horses have teeth also. I would just take it slowly since your dog looks to you, and you don't want him chasing after the horse because you are riding. When we rode out with the barn dog, she always went first and lead the way, rather than have her run behind the horses. As for the exercise comment, riding takes a fairly high level of fitness and you do work hard when you ride correctly, you will be finding that out :rolleyes::D

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Talking solely from general doggy experience here, no specific horse claims. If she doesn't have a good solid down/stay/chill out command, get one on her now. Work away from her, down at a distance, down while you're doing enticing things like running around waving your arms, yelling, etc.

 

And frankly, if you've never been on a horse, you're in for a bit of a shock. It's a LOT more work, physical hard work, than you might think. Balancing on top of a barrel while it's rolling along is a good analogy. You'll be surprised at how sore you are after a half hour in the saddle.

 

Oops. I see that TD has already posted a similar thought. I'd get myself used to riding before I introduced the dog coming along.

 

Good luck, and I wish I could go riding again . . .

 

Ruth

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It's great that your dog already has horse manners, just make sure the new horse has dog manners. The Fat Mare (my older Arabian) HATES dogs (and goats, and all sheep but one ewe who stood her down). She won't hesitate to make valiant attempts at stomping them into the ground, so I have to be careful when we're out riding with dogs. So long as I'm aware, The Fat Mare usually behaves.

 

Also be aware that how a dog acts around a behaving horse can be very different than how the dog will react in a run-away/bucking fit/etc situation. It really helps if your dog knows to stay out of and get out of the way of an oncoming horse.

 

And yeah, be prepared to be S-O-R-E for a while :rolleyes:

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Good luck on your new endeavor! Learn how to ride separate from training the dog to mind you while riding (doing two new things at the same time is never good). One of my clients has an ACD pup and trail rides Quarter horses. I encouraged her to work on training the dog on basic obedience around the horses first, then to train her dog to listen to commands at a distance (without involving the horse), then to work the dog while on the horse while her husband acted as a back up man on the ground. If the dog needed to be corrected, the husband could hold the horse while she quickly got down and enforced her command. This helps to proof the commands from horseback and prevent the dog from learning that a person on a horse can't (or won't) get down to correct the dog. Set up training sessions where your goal is to work the dog around the horse rather than just hoping you can train him from a distance while on the trail.

 

Have fun and happy trails!

Lisa

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I used to do a lot of trail riding with my dogs along. That was years ago when I did more riding and before I had border collies. I had a couple of rough collies and a hound that would come along and loved to go for a good run. It helps a lot to know that the horses are not bothered by dogs at all. Mine was fine whether the dogs were running in front, beside, behind, he didn't care. He would even put up with the hound leaping up to his face barking and yelping, which she did whenever we stopped moving. I don't do much riding anymore and where I live now there would be more road riding to get to the trails so I haven't taken dogs along with me for quite a while. I'm not sure if I were to try it with the border collies if they'd want to "work" the horses and I think I'd probably want them to learn to go in front, rather than wearing at the heels or getting the idea of chasing.

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Thanks for all the replies. On a few of the points:

 

1) I'm not sure how the horse is with dogs (I haven't actually met her yet), but I think/hope the friend (who has four dogs) would have made sure she's ok with them. The horse is actually coming from a friend of my friend, who has more horses (seven, IIRC) than his land can really handle, so I think she knows quite a bit about it.

 

2) Niki shouldn't have problems wanting to work the horses. She doesn't seem to have any herding behavior at all, and reserves the BC "eye" for "so throw the darned ball, already!" situations. She does tend to travel ahead of me when we're hiking, so that should be good. But getting her to do a down/stay sounds like a good idea, if I can do it. She's not been really what I'd call a trainable dog. She's smart, and picks up things quickly when she wants to, but if she doesn't want to, you'd think her head was solid granite.

 

3) As for the fitness thing... I do expect to use different muscles, but I can't help but wonder why anyone bothers to ride, if riding a horse is as much exercise as walking/running alongside?

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3) As for the fitness thing... I do expect to use different muscles, but I can't help but wonder why anyone bothers to ride, if riding a horse is as much exercise as walking/running alongside?

 

 

Because of the grand partnership that you develop with the horse. Once you have gotten the riding bug it doesn't leave you. There are times when you just long to sit on a horse, to have that unspoken partnership and understanding. Kind of like what I am learning to have with my dogs when working sheep.

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Sure, that applies to people who ride for fun, or to do things like, oh, calf roping & other cowboy stuff. I was thinking more of the past, when people rode horses for transportation.

 

Well, horses can go a lot faster and farther than humans. :rolleyes: And they can carry and pull a lot more of your stuff than you could alone.

 

Once you become proficient, riding won't take nearly as much effort on your part as it will at the beginning.

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Once you become proficient, riding won't take nearly as much effort on your part as it will at the beginning.

 

I'd imagine that would be the case. Which kind of circles back to where I started: friend is riding her horse down the trail, I'm walking/running along, she says she's the one getting the exercise.

 

And on top of that, she makes me carry the lunch :-(

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3) As for the fitness thing... I do expect to use different muscles, but I can't help but wonder why anyone bothers to ride, if riding a horse is as much exercise as walking/running alongside?

 

Because you can FLY!!! At least on my little red mare I can. She's got a Morgan turbo trot that puts most horses following in a hand gallop, and if you don't think that's work to stay on, please come ride with me. :rolleyes: My dogs LOVE going out for a ride even more that walks and bike rides. We can cover 10 to 15 miles in a few hours in hilly terrain and I've got happy sleeping pups on the way home in the truck.

 

Teaching horse manners can be tricky with BCs though. My two were given the strict commandment of "Thou Shalt Not even LOOK like you want to herd a horse" and I have no problems with them with the horses in the pasture or out on the trails and they are high drive dogs. Alice's littermate didn't get as much of a firm hand from her owner and she turned into a heel biter on the trails. That dog can no longer be trusted on a ride and her owner's horses will now kick at any dog that gets near them.

 

As others have suggested, you need PERFECT recall, and a good down on your dog. Careful with your down, however, if it's a down/stay you could get your dog trampled in traffic. What also helps is to be able to direct them by pointing to get them off of the trail, or to the side of the road if someone or something needs to pass. And a little agility training can wow your friends if you get your dog to leap up onto a stump and lie down to pose. :D

 

And by all means, make sure you're in complete control of the horse before you take your dog along. You have to be able to ride AND keep an eye on your dog. And yes, some horses are dog stompers, if it turns out yours is trash the idea all together, unless you like seriously risky living for both you and the dog. Take it slow on your first rides, watch the dog carefully when you pick up speed and make sure that invisible prey drive doesn't suddenly materialize. Also, if you're riding in brush, the horse has to be pretty darned near spook proof because the dog will inevitably dash in and out of the brush, appearing and disappearing and making noises in the bush like some-kind-of-prey animal trying to find a horse to eat. If your dog is ahead of you, WATCH them. Even bright BCs can get so distracted by that interesting scent on the trail that the forget that there's 1000lbs of animal coming up on them. Which reminds me, you'll also have to get your horse used to you yelling verbal commands at your dog when you're onboard. It took my very sensitive, very reactive horse awhile before she realized I wasn't yelling at HER when I would call or command my dog.

 

Can you tell I've done this a bit? :D

 

Suddenly I feel like saddling up.

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I'd imagine that would be the case. Which kind of circles back to where I started: friend is riding her horse down the trail, I'm walking/running along, she says she's the one getting the exercise.

 

And on top of that, she makes me carry the lunch :-(

 

Uh.... ehem, well, er... uh... really cantakerous horse? really green rider? fibbing? :-/

 

Oh, there is this sport called "Ride and Tie" where two people and one horse in each team compete in a cross country race where at some non-specific point in the race they switch who's riding and who's running. Perhaps she's wanting to prepare for that and hasn't told you about it yet?

 

Yeah, that must be it. :rolleyes:

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Riding is very addictive. And for the sake of saying, it doesn't feel like a workout at the time. It's the NEXT day that you realize you have used muscles you didn't know you had!

 

The dog should be fine. Most dogs don't flip out when you get on a horse. They aren't stupid, they don't think a monster is kidnapping you. You will prob. only start at a walk/trot anyway, if your dog has horse manners already, it shouldn't be a big deal. Just make sure someone is there to help if you need it. Have fun, be careful!

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Riding is very addictive. And for the sake of saying, it doesn't feel like a workout at the time. It's the NEXT day that you realize you have used muscles you didn't know you had!

 

Sure, but I'd get the unused muscle soreness from any activity that uses muscles that haven't been exercised in a while. I get it at the beginning of each winter, for instance, when I start cross-country skiing and use the inner thigh muscles in a way that they're not used by all the summer hiking, biking, &c. But I'd still be able to sustain the same level of cardiovascular workout: that is, if those particular muscles were up to it, I could ski the same distance (or for the same time at same heartrate) as I could hike.

 

What I'm saying is that I doubt that riding a given distance gives you the same amount of cardiovascular exercise as walking/running the same distance at the same pace.

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What I'm saying is that I doubt that riding a given distance gives you the same amount of cardiovascular exercise as walking/running the same distance at the same pace.

 

I wouldn't think so if you are just walking down a trail, but if you are working on long trotting and posting for a couple miles, than I would say you may be burning more calories. There was an article out a few years ago in a horse magazine, I'm sure there's been several over the years that was all about burning extra calories while riding and it had great exercises to do w/ your upper body while you were moving down a trail. Now I wouldn't start your riding with these goals, but as your horsemanship skills improve you could look into this and I bet you'll find that you'll be sweating up a storm.

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