ZEN HORSE

Clinton Anderson's

Training Tip of the Week:

Stopping a Grass Snatcher

If your horse snatches at grass on the trail, he’s telling you that you don’t have enough control over him. Instead of focusing his attention on you, he’s too busy eyeing up his next snack. Fixing the problem is easy enough, you just have to be a better leader for him and take control of the situation. How can you be a better leader for your horse? By moving his feet forwards, backwards, left and right and always rewarding the slightest try. You’ll correct your horse’s unwanted behavior by making the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult. When you go to correct your horse, don’t think “How can I stop him from eating on the trail?” instead, think “How can I make it uncomfortable! for him to eat grass?”
Let him commit to the mistake.Even though you know that your horse is going to try to grab a mouth full of grass, don’t baby-sit him by having a tight hold on the reins. Instead, put him on a loose rein and dare him to try to grab a snack. When he does, immediately correct him by moving his feet forwards, backwards, left and right. Constantly moving the horse’s feet and changing directions will get him to focus his attention back on you and use the thinking side of his brain. Although it doesn’t matter how you move the horse’s feet, as long as you do so with energy, one of the easiest ways to get the horse moving is by doing a series of serpentines or constantly circling and changing directions. Let the horse know that he doesn’t have time to be eating grass because he’s too busy listening to you and moving his feet. Work the horse for five or ten minutes – until you feel that he’s huffing and puffing and! wanting to stop. This doesn’t work if you let the horse eat for five minutes, and then barely get him to move. If you let him drag his feet, he’ll be too busy chewing on the grass and dreaming about fairies to pay any attention to you. After you’ve made him hustle, ask him to walk forward again on a big loose rein. If he goes to snatch grass again, repeat the same process moving his feet. It won’t take long for the horse to realize that every time he tries to grab a snack he has to work hard, and if he walks along paying attention to you, you’ll leave him alone. Since horses are basically lazy creatures, the worst punishment you can give him is making him move his feet and work.