14/09/2026
When horses have a few unwanted behaviours, it can sometimes feel overwhelming.
Where to begin?
This might help you to see it more clearly, then you can make a simple training plan.
1) Write a list of in-hand (handling) issues. Like this:
Bargey
Head butts me
Aggressive around food
Hard to catch
Won't stand still
Bites
Won't load
Hard to shoe
Impossible to worm
Then give each behaviour a 'severity rating' from 1 - 10 (1 = mildly irritating, minor, occasional. 10 = a big problem, scary, often, possibly dangerous.
For example, bites 7/10
Then do the same for all ridden issues. Here's an example:
Bolts
Head shakes
Tense
Rears
Bucks
Won't do leg yield
Jogs
Won't go
Leans on the reins
Then do the same rating of 1 - 10 for these ridden issues.
This gets you to acknowledge all of the issues, and to separate them into in-hand and ridden categories.
That's a good start towards clarity, and a plan can be built on that base.
When I receive this behaviour list from prospective students, I analyse it and split it into root causes. There are only a few root causes - training deficits in either the stop, go or turn responses, insufficient habituation, and/or incorrect negative reinforcement.
From this I form a clear training plan - usually prioritising safety issues, and most of those are related to the stop/deceleration responses.
It makes sense to spend a couple of sessions resolving all the handling issues first, and then the ridden issues, because the in-hand training pre-trains the under saddle responses. Also, it's safer, clearer for the student, and easier for both horse and student.
So, we start at the beginning, and make rapid progress through all of the issues, until we have resolved every issue, and reached every goal. We can literally tick every stage of the training process, and I teach the student how to do it too, so they become competent and confident in their skills. It's a very hands-on process.
