Differences in starting Young Horses and Restarting Old Horses: Jasper, Part 1

A friend of mine stopped by a few days ago and asked what I had been doing. I replied "in the process of starting a 4 year old and just picked up an older horse and will be re-starting him." My friend asked "what's the difference,....starting a horse and re-starting a horse?"

Good question! It's really nothing I have thought about defining or differentiating before. So off the top of my head, as I recall, I said "from my perspective, young green horses are most often a clean slate with less human baggage attached to them, and seem to be trying to understand what you want from them in order to get peace, a break from pressure and feel good and feel safe. Older horses, also want peace and safety, but it seems to me that these older horses, some of them, not all, can be a bit more defensive or appear resistant, based on what they have come to expect from humans. Sometimes they can tell you where they have been. However, I can only get fleeting glimpses of that,...I suspect there is much more to learn about that."

Something bothered me about my reply, so later on I started to unravel that and figure it out. I think most of us accept that horses live in the moment and we have all seen horses that have been handled pretty rough that are still good minded. But we have also seen horses who have been pulled on by their reins, perhaps being ridden for years in a long shanked bit, seated too deep in their mouth and being jerked and pulled on by their rider. And then a rider with soft hands, maybe using a snaffle bit seated just at the corners of the mouth, begins to pick up on the reins and the horse's head jerks up in reaction to a learned memory that a sharp pull or jerk is coming next. So I'm thinking both can be true, the horse can be a product of it's less than refined handling but also live in the moment, and its in that moment that measured asks, good timing on the release, and building that good responses with softness can be built. I am the farthest person from and knowledge about psychotherapy, but maybe this is something learned people call building new neural pathways?

Well, I'm not going to let things I don't understand like that get in the way of starting/re-starting/developing (whatever term best describes it) an older horse. I had just brought the older horse in. He's a 16 year old, solid sorrel gelding, 15.1 hands high. What I was told about him was: he doesn't come to you, but easy to get a halter on; can't hard tie him as he pulls back; doesn't like to be petted or rubbed on; but puts up with humans and is very rideable, but difficult to get into a canter.

This horse, whose name is Jasper, had plenty of old scars on his face, chest and hip. The ranch I bought him from did not know much about him, and nothing about the origin of the scars, but that bodily roadmap made me like him immediately as his face and body are pretty much the same. Another thing that stuck out about him was he had the most intense side eye.....it seemed to be that he was looking at you with distrust. So home he came with me. He walked right into the trailer and I did not hard tie him, instead just fed the lead rope through one of my Functional Tie Rings and closed him in the slant load. An hour later I got him home and he had pushed so hard on the slant load gate latch mechanism that he jammed it up pretty good - and yes, I had put WD-40 on it before I left to pick him up. So, I had to fetch a hammer and piece of wood to free it. The noise gave him some trouble and once the gate freed up, he felt the lack of resistance on his hip and came flying backwards out of the trailer. I was ready for it, stepped aside and grabbed the lead rope feeding out of the tie ring as it dragged past me. Okay got it. That's all fixable or at least getting him much better.

Anyway, so what am I doing different with him than I would a basically untouched 3 or 4 year old? Nothing really. Pretty much left him alone in his pen for the first two weeks as I transitioned him over to my feed program, put him on Platinum Performance CJ supplement, and worked on him giving to pressure on his poll and his nose with my hands. It seemed to me that he hadn't ever been asked to give to pressure, let alone present any softness, but I was going to need that as I began two days of ground work. I'll continue Jasper's progress in a article in a few days.

New Horses and Good Rope Halters

Before I write about rope halters, I wanted to just note briefly that along with my 4 year old who had a delayed start, I am also re-starting an older horse that I picked up from a ranch in Southern New Mexico. The ranch manager and head wrangler is a young woman who asked to shadow me starting and re-starting horses at my ranch, so of course I said yes, by all means. Anything I can do to help, directly or indirectly, someone who is serious about a life with horses is a no brainer. For the past three weeks, working one day a week with her, I have not had the time to write about that, nor takes very many pictures and virtually no video yet. That will be coming in the near future. So,....about those rope halters.

A good rope halter is a necessity for me. While I have had many different halters from various makers, the 'go to' halter has always been from Double Diamond Halter Company. They still make and offer great halters and lead ropes for that matter, but you have to buy them from a distributor such as saddle shops and tack stores that offer quality gear. Other sources of good halters,...Craig Cameron comes to mind, offer very good rope halters as well. However, if you purchase a rope halter and lead rope for $15, you are very likely not getting a real good quality item there.

Lead ropes usually last longer than rope halters, so sometimes you can buy the halter without a lead rope and just use your old lead rope, especially if it's good quality. I use tied on lead ropes, so I never have the potential problems of a metal snap, such as dirt impinging the spring loaded mechanism, or the snap breaking. I like a 14 foot lead rope, however about half of my halters have 12 foot leads. Some people don't like that much rope to handle but I'd rather want more length than I need in the moment, than not enough. And just the other day, I used a 18 foot lead on a very reactive horse that I was asked to work with.

About a year ago I discovered 310 Ranch Life Halters and Leads. They offer 12 foot lead ropes, which are great quality, albeit without a leather poppers on the running end. But the halters have a long tail (that goes over the bridle path also called a poll latch) to tie through the loop on the end of the throat latch. These tails are longer than all of the other rope halters I have which make them easier to feed through the tie loop, fits horses with bigger heads, and allows a overhand knot at the very end of the poll latch so you can slip it over a horse's head one handed if you are putting a halter on another horse while you are horseback.

310 Ranch Life also offers other products as well as instructional videos on roping and such. And as usually, I do not get paid not otherwise compensated for advertising anything, just passing along gear, equipment and information that I think is good quality and useful.

Restarting Monte, Last Day and Postscript

On the last day that Monte's new owner was here, I showed her how I went about loading Monte in the trailer. He had only been in a trailer once since he was brought home seven plus years ago. When I started to get him ready to load the week before, he was hesitant to load, initially putting his front feet in the trailer then stepping back.

So I just waited on him. Asking him to step up again on a soft lead, put both front feet there and keeping them in the trailer, for several times, was a good start.

When he was good about just keeping his front feet in the trailer, then I would softly touch him on his barrel (I got Monte used to my hand, the poppers on the lead gently swinging up sand touching him, and the flag as well), where the rear cinch would go, in order to get him to bring a rear foot up preparing for a step into the trailer. If you have done your work sacking him out with the flag, this works the best or even use just a stick to extend your reach. This step is often skipped by some and results in a horse's having to jump into the trailer creating nose and anxiety, and we all want a nice calm horse stepping into the trailer without any drama.

Once I had a rear foot step forward, the opposite rear would follow by itself or with another touch on his barrel. Then I could ask for a step into the trailer using a bit of feel on the loose lead rope. Many horse's have issues with backing up in a trailer and having that step down. While this is not a trailer loading article, if Monte wanted to backout on his own without me asking, I let him, and I waited on him to figure out the stepping down business. Soon he was stepping right into the trailer and waiting on me to ask him to back. What we did not video was sending Monte into the trailer, that is standing outside the trailer and using a loose lead, asking him to go forward into the trailer, which he was a champ at. I had worked on trailer loading, prio to Arlene getting here, so by the time we shot the below video, Monte was good and calm at loading. I trailered him to the Mobile Vet clinic, a few days before, for a Coggins blood draw, so the time we got to his new owners last day here, he was just as good as could be loading and unloading.

When the transport rig showed up, Monte stepped right into the slant load and was a gentleman about it. I am going to miss him. He had the kindest eye of any horse and all the visitors to the ranch always gravitated to Monte. He is now at his new home, running around a 10 acre turnout with his new barn mate, a 16 year old mare.

Restarting Monte, Part 4

Once in the saddle, beginning on Day Two of Monte's restart, I worked on lateral flexion and untracking his hind end using as minimal leg pressure as I could because he was , at first, very reactive to it. I need the lateral flexion to control direction and the hind end untracking (often also referred to disengaging the hind end) to do so many things from stopping him to turn arounds.

In the beginning Monte would jump sideways from any pressure with my leg to untracking his hind end, but from Day Two to Day Three he made good progress responding softly to my ask for his hind end to untrack....again something we could build on. As for lateral flexion, Monte would give me his head and neck pretty softly, but would also untracking his hind end without me asking for that, which is real common.


I think there are two basic things to remember here, 1 - when you ask for lateral flexion as soon as he gives you that and is soft, meaning no brace or pushing on you, then the release have to be immediate (the all important timing and recognition of softness) and the pause, before asking, again is sufficient. I have seen some riders ask for lateral flexion, left then right, then left then right, without any pause whatsoever, so the pressure just runs into each other becoming one long pressure where the slight and short releases and non existent pauses don't mean anything to the horse. 2 - when you ask for lateral flexion, if the horse untracks his hind end, wait for him to stop, then when he is not moving nor leaning, give him the release. With Monte he was not 100% consistent with always giving lateral flexion on the ask, but he understood enough to be able to build on that. I did not expect anything different, but he was better than I was expecting.

So now we are moving onto directional control with forward momentum. Since nothing I had done with Monte so far involved using both my legs at the same time, it was easy for him to quickly understand that slight pressure with both legs, using my calves, was asking him to transition from the walk to the trot. He is a naturally forward horse, unlike some, so it was really easy to get him to move out. In the beginning he would jump out being reactive to pressure, but I minimized that concentrating on as light as pressure as possible on his barrel and giving him a loose rein. What is not shown in any video is earlier is when I was sending Monte around from the ground I would pickup the stirrup with my free hand and touch him on his barrel preparing him for the cue to go forward from the walk to the trot. This is good to do on young horses as the first time they experience pressure on their barrel from the stirrup or your calf/heel on the ground they will better be able to handle that from the saddle....normally.

For directional control at the trot, I was first using a direct rein, then the inside leg to untrack in a turn, then I added a neck rein or using the outside rein first before the other two cues. Later on he could turn with just a neck rein. What we did not video was Monte's trot to canter transitions which were pretty smooth. Not flawless, but something to build on after just 10-12 rides.

Restarting Monte, Part 2

Continuing with Monte, I worked with him to understand the slight differences in asking for a front foot to step out and being sent following a loose lead rope. This was really just checking in on him as I had been leading him to turnout almost on a daily basis and he was good about following a soft ask to step out past me and walk off. However, I did spend that time going back and forth being asking for a front foot to step out and being sent so those slight changes in the feel of a lead rope were very evident to him. In clinics I often ask riders on the ground to send their horses past them and continue at a walk a fairly small circle. Many people will step out of the way of their horses and abruptly take up the slack in the lead never giving their horse a chance to follow a soft feel on a loose lead. And in annual Arena Challenges I ran, I sometimes had a final a task where the rider dismounted and sent their horse past them between two barrels. Often, the vast majority of riders could not do this simple task as they always led their horses someplace as opposed to getting them good as being sent. Being able to send your horses is a valid deal as you may have a gate or a trailer where can't go first and lead your horse through or into. So the short video below was just a reminder to checkin with Monte from time to time on being sent, and untracking him as if you send a horse through a gate, I want a horse to be able to untrack and face up as I latch or close the gate.

Being able to get forward momentum is very necessary to make progress with a horse. They need to be able to trot and lope and to do so without the rider constantly pulling on the horse's mouth. I want to be able to make subtle cues to go from the walk to the trot and want the horse to softly, but responsively go into that gait. I would think everyone wants that. In the beginning Monte, being very reactive, would be troubled when asked for the trot he would jump into a stilted, choppy anxious trot. Not what I wanted but I would let him continue until I saw the slightest sign of anxiety reducing then ask him to face up. Then ask again. Also in he beginning I would give him a good pause before asking his front to step over and go the other direction. His head going up and bracing, soon gave way to a much softer head and neck, something we could build on both on the ground and in the saddle.