Hi Nancy

It all sounds good to me, great work with all of it

I’m in the same boat Tammy. I’m trying to “redo” my fairly educated 16yo horse using Warwick’s methods, since January. While it went pretty well at first, he now also snakes his head around to bite and pins his ears way too often. I am now trying to slow down, only ask questions which I know he can do “say yes”, etc. It’s getting better,…

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First of all, I would like to say that I am extremely happy that I subscribed to your content. It has been a huge help in working with my horse. I am starting from the very beginning, and my horse is responding really well. After many years of searching, I feel like I have finally found structured and truly high-quality content for…

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Hello!

I have a question about engagement. My horse came to me in almost total shutdown (unbeknownst to me). Since then I have uncovered some of his history of being alternately spoiled & handled very roughly. He is a Saddlebred; very sensitive & intelligent. He displays a lot of juvenile behaviors & has no confidence.

Your methods are helping…

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Hi, my new project horse is a 5yr old mustang gelding. I got him a few weeks ago and he was fully wild and untouchable. Through just kindness and hanging out with him I’ve got him to where I can walk up and pet him all over, some basic grooming, and halter. We have not covered things like giving to pressure, leading, flexing, tying. That’s…

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no worries! I will take any kind of advice at this point! lol. I will take things back a bit more slowly, see how he responds. I may have tried to push too fast, once he did it a little, I probably went for more too quickly. Thank you!

Tammy

My mare has gone thru a lot of physical changes over the past couple years. I’ve not ridden in 2.5 years. I started her in the program over 2 years ago but she was pregnant and ran out of gas easily. Our sessions ended with her plunking down and taking a nap.

After foaling the goal was rehab of her fetlocks and suspensory for over 1 year. …

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I agree with Inga as regards continuing the work on relationships and trust. Apparently there are enough “turning towards” moments in the Relationship Bank Account for the horse to be OK to come and hang out and not enough to feel safe about being haltered.

Warwick’s process is very step-by-step gradual improvement based. And the reasoning…

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I am new to Warwick’s methods so I am not sure how well my reply fits. It seems that in both your cases, the horses associate the halter with something unpleasant. Therefore, you probably have several choices.

You could spend more time with the flowchart and/or just hanging out with no expectations, building the relationship and trust. That’s…

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Hi Warwick, As previously mentioned, I have been working on Focus and Bend with some crabwalk. I know that Mini understands because she will do it at liberty and I can be soooo subtle but not so much on the lead. I’m not doing anything different. The willingness is not so willing with the lead. What are the possible reasons for this? When…

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Hi Warwick,

I never got a reply from you when I said he had not other issues when being ridden on the trail, other than the diving for grass..

Did I miss something?

Thanks so much

I am in the same boat, it is one of the reasons I signed up for the program. He is just coming 3 yo and I have had him a week now. before purchasing him I noted he was very cautious of me and the seller told me he has trust issues, but he saddled and rode so well while haltered and bridled. But now that he is here, I have done a few…

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Thank you, I will try that next time. And no, he’s not a difficult horse, it’s just if I could get better at resolving his anxiety, everything would be so much better for us.

Good morning Warwick

Hoping you saw my last reply?

Thanks

Hi Bridget

Yes, but thats groundwork lesson #3, which builds on 1 and 2. So iof #1 isn’t working, #3 will not be.

I meant miscommunication between you and him just in the daily interactions.

Hi Bridget

I don’t see much in the information you gave me to think he’s a problem .

“The second time he kicked out at the flag but didn’t look at me. I tried once more and got the same resul”

When you said “I tried once more” that means you stopped trying when he kicked at you, but didnt look at you. Try being bigger with the flag from further…

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Hi Warwick, you said yesterday in answer to a question from me that it sounds as if there has been a history of miscommunication between me and my horse. You are probably right but I don’t know how to diagnose what I am doing wrong. If I managed to video myself working with my horse at a simple exercise like focus and bend, might you be able…

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I didn´t do with him the “Create connection through the change of focus” bcs previously in videos you mentioned, it is more for horses that they do not wanna deal with people (They have more drive than draw – I watched many of your videos before you redisigned your website). This wasn´t our problem, moreover, I didn´t want to create a new…

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I’ve just added the next 4 Q&As to the Events calendar.

“Also, he seems not be bothered by the flag, when I use it to get his attention when he tightens the leash.

How was he with the flag with the previous work?

Please ask a complete question, try not to partially reference other posts.
Tell exactly what issue it is you are dealing with.

It seems he is more interested in environment than me. So what I should do instead of “Matching steps”? Draw him in by steping backwards when he doesn´t tighten the leash? Get his focus by a flag?

Also, he seems not be bothered by the flag, when I use it to get his attention when he tightens the leash.

Thank you!

It’s difficult to keep it short but I’ll try. He’s an OTTB. He is very different in summer and winter. In summer he’s relaxed and willing to engage. In winter, he’s very susceptible to ulcers and when he’s got the ulcers, he prefers to keep himself at more of a distance. That said, this winter he’s been on a different regime and he has…

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Good morning. You recently replied to someone about pinning as an approach issue. If they are approaching you or you are approaching them. Is a walking by in the same category as approach? So, I would stop as I’m walking passed? My horses are freely in the barn, aisle, or arena and I’m regularly walking by them. Mare pins until I’m…

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Hi Michelle

Yes, I’d go through ALL of the psuhy horse exercises, you may learn something about him you didn’t know.

As far as matching steps, Ill usually only match steps with horses who are snigging the ground like you IF they had just come down from being disregulated. If they were not disregulated right before this, I wouldnt match steps

You need to be effective at getting a change of focus. A kick out is not a change in focus.

BUT, this sounds like there has been sustained miscommunication BEFORE this.

Tell me more about you and your horse’s history.

Hi Warwick, I asked this question yesterday but it seemed to get mixed up with another thread. Doing the CCTCIF exercise yesterday, my horse was fixated on another horse in a nearby paddock, so I had to go right up to him and wave the flag under/next to his flank to try to get any change in focus. The first time he half turned towards me…

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I was always taught that liberty is just the “truth of your groundwork”. “Take the halter off/ take the bridle off and you will find out the truth!!” If your horse is responding to all your training so well that you are never having any pressure on the lead rope and the horse is responding 100% too your body language and energy then when…

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Hello Warwick.

When I started on your new website, yes, I had on the “Dash board” the path for pushy horse. Nevertheless, I thought it will be useful for us only the “Walking Past Your Horse to Create Space.” The pushiness is very subtle.

But now that I think about it… The pushiness is so subtle, though—in rare cases, he’ll nudge me with his…

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I will brave to post a personal insight that is going to sound like an advice.

This has happened to me as well. And I’ve come to the conclusion that often this is the horse indicating that I’m going too fast for my own and the horse’s good.

I will give an example. Currently there is one mare that I am progressing from building relationships…

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Thanks so much. I tried your suggestions today and it was a much quicker and smoother process. Will keep working on it.

I definitely feel that way too! I feel that way because I feel like during groundwork my horse constantly argues with me – on FAB and crabwalk, everything I ask him to do he “does” but it is with a lot of attitude: constantly biting the lead rope, biting my arm if it is near his head in crabwalk, doing what I call “snakey neck” where he…

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I have a horse that is hard to catch and I’ve been doing the change of focus exercise. I can connect with him easily….Ive gone away from the gate like your video says… he comes up to me and I can give him scratches. When I start to pull the halter off of my arm, he turns away. So I can easily get him to come up to me and get curious about me…

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The ear pinning has happened as I approach, yes I stop. It has also happened w him approaching me and I do the flag, thanks for confirming that. It has also happened as he is connecting while muzzling, should I flag then? It’s a very clear ear pin, but confuses me because he enjoys muzzling.

Thank you!!!

Hi Jenny

Concerning ear pinning. Did he approach you or did you approach him?

If he approached you, the flag response is fine, but if you approached him, I would step back.