Our first steps in fixing a problem!
He has never acted like this! Never bucked a day in his life! Been doing that since last week. We believe there is two things that can change a horse’s performance behaviour... pain and dominance. We have found in most cases its one or the other or both.
In most cases, horses want to please you. It is un-natural for them to have a normal pattern or performance record and then all of sudden break it. An easy example for me to use would be refusing to enter the arena, refusing a jump or obstacle, ducking out, bucking or any other out of ordinary behaviour that developed suddenly.
When a problem horse comes to us, the first thing we want to check is their pain/health. Are they body sore? Sharp teeth? Poor fitting equipment? Anything that could be causing the horse pain when we are asking them to perform a certain activity. After we have checked for soreness we move on to their attitude, if pain isn’t the problem 9/10 times dominance is. This is where our program works its magic! We start from the beginning. Laying a solid foundation and single out the root of the problem. Common root areas are speed, body control and submission. After we find the root, we fix the problem!
After a horse has been working in pain for some time they can develop dominance and fight towards the exercise. First, we have to eliminate the pain, secondly, we have to show them that it doesn’t hurt anymore and make sure we have control of their body. The amount of time it takes for a horse to resume their previous performance depends on the amount of pain they were in and for how long, or how long they were able to get away with the behaviour.
We have come across countless problem horses in our business. Whether its camps, training, lessons, clinics, DVDs or our online programs, we have used the TTT program to fix them! But we can’t take all the credit! We have always had the help of a good equine therapist, farrier and vet. We feel that mental health is just as important as physical health, for horse and rider! We use the TTT method for our horse’s mental health and the bible for ours.
