Ever try to clean a new horse’s ears? Just as folks have sensitive parts of their bodies, horses have parts they would not easily let you touch. The difficulty is, when putting a horse thru equestrian training—or even though you simply wish to rear the horse and not make him go thru equestrian training—you’ll also need to look after her health and overall welfare. This comprises cleaning and applying medications and ointments on spots she could be too shy to let you touch—like her ears.

During your equestrian coaching regime you’ll discover that you have got to apply 3 things in order to teach your horse whatever it is you want her to learn: Restraint, Reward, and Repetition. Actually as early as now, when you’re only acclimatizing your horse to her new environment and what’s to become her regular routines for holistic care, you already need to apply these three ideas.

For the most part, your horse will not let you touch her ears because she’s innately wary of you hurting her. The key to making her comfortable with such routines as cleaning the inside and outside of her ears is to let her know that you are not going to hurt her. To be well placed to do that, you both must be in a safe enclosure where you can work on her ears. Start by placing your hand on a part of her face she permits you to touch. If you have been into horse riding for a long while now, you ought to know which parts are OK and which would simply make her turn away from you. Stroke her face in a manner that naturally brings your hands close to her ears. Your action would then transition into a stroke that goes past her ears. You’ll notice the slightest touch can make her move her head and her ears away. So on your part; you need to brush your hand over her ears quick enough such that you move your hand away before she can react. Do this frequently until you believe that you can do it slower and slower still until she understands that you’re not going to harm her or her ears.

Then you will need to concentrate on doing just about the same only this time you want to touch the exterior of her ears, beginning from the tips. Then work your way to the inside of her ears. Eventually, you must make her comfortable to the feeling of both of your hands really firmly but gently holding her ears and touching its insides.

The restraint, reward, and repetition cycle is always at work when you do this—restrain her gently if she moves away and put her back to the first position she moved away from, reward her every correct response (in this case, each time she does not move away) by praising her, and repeat the process until she feels the entire routine is safe, and eventually, to be expected. Also, do not expect that you can just walk up to your horse and grab her ear the next day—you’ll need several days or even up to a week of this to make her feel totally comfortable with it.

Before you introduce a new horse to the fundamentals of equestrian coaching or horse riding, you must ensure she’s kept healthy and well. And even before that, you want to let her know she doesn’t need to move away from you whatever part of her that requires cleaning or tending to.

Horses are Heather Toms’ passion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100’s of articles with other horse lovers… like all things about stable rugs