Zen Horse

Training Tip of the Week: By Clinton Anderson

If worming your horse has become a nightmare, try sweetening the deal with the following steps to worming success.

Plan ahead several days before you actually need to worm your horse and spend a few minutes each day working through the following steps. Throughout this process, remember to use approach and retreat. Don’t tie your horse up, but instead work with him in an enclosed area like an arena or round pen where he can move his feet.

Step 1 Desensitize your horse’s face and mouth by rubbing your hands all over his face and putting your fingers in his mouth. You have to be able to do this step without resistance before you will be able to worm your horse.

Step 2 Desensitize the air space around your horse’s head with the wormer by moving the tubeall around his head on all sides without touching him.

Step 3 Desensitize your horse’s head and mouth with the wormer by rubbing it all over, just like you did with your hands and fingers.

Step 4 Teach the horse the cue to open his mouth by inserting your thumb into the corner of his mouth. As soon as he opens his mouth, take your thumb out. Use the approach and retreat method when you do this.

Step 5 Insert the wormer into the horse’s mouth, and then retreat. When you take the wormer out, rub the tube all over the horse’s face. After you rub his face, put the tube in his mouth again, and then take it out. Repeat this process until the horse is comfortable with it.

Step 6 Repeat Step 5, but this time, actually give the horse the wormer. If my horse is really hard to worm, I’ll first put honey in the dispenser and “worm” him with honey for five days so he associates being wormed with something that tastes good. On the sixth day use the actual wormer, and then follow up with a few more days of “worming” him with honey to help your horse remember worming as a sweet experience — even if he did get that one bad batch of honey!

Happy Trails,

Danna