Articles: problem-solutions

Do you ever run into the problem of not having enough time to spend with your horse? It's something that can plague all of us. We wish we had more time to go out and spend time with the horses. Perhaps the weather has kept us inside, or late working hours brings us home too late to spend much time with the horses. It's a very common complaint I hear from a lot of folks. When this happens, does it seem like your horse becomes resentful of you? When you approach him, he'll turn and walk away or pin his ears at you?


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Do you have a horse that likes to rush downhill? This can get unnerving on steep hills on the trail. Here are some tips to solve this problem. I have been riding my mare a lot in the recent weeks, and a big majority of this has been some pretty steep mountain side riding. She is doing really well for the majority of everything I have asked, but there is one issue I have a question on. When going downhill, she wants to trot. This mare NEVER wants to go faster than she has to. Now, my thought was that she is still weak in her hind end and so she doesn't yet have the muscles to keep us slow.. but I wanted to have an outside opinion.. She wants to start trotting down some inclines that really spook me, and she really NEEDS to walk! Should I just keep doing what we are doing and perhaps just go around some of these inclines if possible? On the road its not such a big deal, I can get her attention and keep her slow.- Nichole via Facebook


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What is the trick to successful trailer loading? How do we get our horses to crave the trailer and love hauling. How do we get our horses to load from 65 yards away? This post talks about the tricks and techniques that we use to load our horses and how you can use them as well. Today we have two trailer loading questions from Facebook This question is from Julie:


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You enter your horse’s stall or corral, he flattens his ears, flares his nostrils, swishes his tail and threatens to kick or bite. He's sending a clear message: "Get OUT!". Does this look familiar? If so, your horse is exhibiting a normal horse behavior of dominance. Perhaps he only displays this aggression when you bring his food. You’re worried that he’ll eventually hurt someone. Why does he do this and what can you do about it? Aggression toward people is especially common with many horses who have a history of abuse, or who are confined to small corrals or in stalls, but can also be common with horses that spend a lot of time around people. Horses can get used to people to a point where they start viewing us a other herd members. Aggression is often manifested around food, or it may just be whenever we enter their stall or corral. If we don’t curb this behavior, it can be dangerous. Horses outweigh humans by over 1,000 lbs, it is easy for them to hurt us, even if they don’t mean to.


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