What do you do "wrong" on purpose?

[lintesia]

@Ajierene

Um, I duck under horses’ necks ALL THE TIME! Like, how do you get to the other side?

Oh dear… this is wrong?

[GraceLikeRain]

On a short horse I will ease myself directly on to the back from a tall mounting block rather than stepping down into a stirrup iron. I did this once while trying out a horse out of habit and got chewed out by the seller…still don’t totally understand their logic. Even a well-fitting saddle is liable to shift when you step down into a stirrup on a small pony from above.

I rarely use a noseband on my dressage horse. When lunging I run the line through the near ring one complete time and then clip it to the other ring. The loop keeps the line from tightening too much and creating a nutcracker effect.

Pony gets gobs on gobs of treats every time I handle her. The day she mugs me I’ll start worrying but so far no issue.

Despite the common wisdom that a horse can’t learn while being sedated, I’ve taught two horses how to clip while they were sedated and they clipped for life going forward.

@Training Cupid I absolutely will do that as well. It is very convenient for stabilizing a hand on an unsteady horse or to prevent a backward thinking hand when a horse is fussing.

”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹

[punchy]

I used to gallop at the track in thin soled sneakers. I liked to wrap my toes around the stirrup, and you can’t do that in boots. I don’t gallop anymore though so…

I have a couple of friends who, when they see me holding my tacked horse, absent-mindlessly start fiddling with my saddle to pull it forward. They say, ‘your saddle slipped’. But I believe my saddle to be in the correct position, i.e., not sitting on top of the horse’s neck like where my friends put their saddles. We have agreed to disagree about where the saddle should sit, but sometimes they forget and try to ‘fix’ it.

[Ajierene]

@lintesia

Oh dear… this is wrong?

Apparently, according to @Texarkana … this is why I was never in Pony Club - my trainer came up through Pony Club and helped out but I heard WAY to many crazy stories so never participated much (didn’t meet my trainer until I was an adult so I wouldn’t have been a member but a volunteer), and never recommended it to my niece, who loves horses.

[Texarkana]

For the record, I don’t know if Pony Club tells you not to duck under their necks. But it’s the kind of thing that I have always discouraged in any beginner lesson program where I taught (because I was likely told to do so by someone, and you want little kids to have appropriate respect), but just about every horse person does it in their day to day.

There are a lot of horse “rules” like that, where you are discouraged from doing something when you’re green or you’re working with unfamiliar animals, yet nearly everyone violates said “rule” with their own animals.

[Renn_aissance]

@Texarkana

There are a lot of horse “rules” like that, where you are discouraged from doing something when you’re green or you’re working with unfamiliar animals, yet nearly everyone violates said “rule” with their own animals.

Yes, when you’ve done this long enough, you can do all sorts of things your very first childhood instructor would despair of!

As I like to say to our juniors, “I can do it and you can’t because I’m an adult and I pay for my own health insurance.”

(Usually in reference to things the barn insurance or sanity policy permits adults to do that are verboten for juniors, like jumping outside of a lesson or hacking out unaccompanied.)

[Dutchmare433]

@Renn/aissance

Yes, when you’ve done this long enough, you can do all sorts of things your very first childhood instructor would despair of!

As I like to say to our juniors, “I can do it and you can’t because I’m an adult and I pay for my own health insurance.”

(Usually in reference to things the barn insurance or sanity policy permits adults to do that are verboten for juniors, like jumping outside of a lesson or hacking out unaccompanied.)

There’s definitely merit to learning how to do things the correct/safe way, so eventually you can choose when/why/how to take short cuts.

I think a lot of the stuff mentioned on this thread is normal and appropriate training stuff—leading or mounting from both sides.

I have been very thankful a few times—working with one young stallion in particular (who was later gelded, no worries)—that I had learned how to do things the right way, and it reminded me how much I take for granted with some of the horses I work with.

With my younger horse I’m relatively strict, he only gets hand fed treats when I am riding and only if I poke his shoulder will he turn around for a sugar.

My older horse is a delight and yeah, I let her rub her head on my hands when I take her bridle off. I also let her nuzzle me if I find one of her good itchy spots.

[RedHorses]

@Renn/aissance

I school horses to be used to being mounted from both sides. To me that’s manners.

I cross tie with the throat latch of the halter unclipped. My horse’s vision is declining in one eye and if he catches something out of that eye he will go backwards to turn his head and understand what he’s seeing. I don’t want him getting hung up in the ties if he does this- I would rather he be able to back out of his halter. (For this reason most of the time I ground tie him instead, but at a barn with impressionable beginners I don’t want to set the example of leaving a ground tied horse unattended.)

Please snap that clip to either the ring under his chin or the upper ring on the off side. A dangling clip could take his eye out if he shook his head and set that clip swinging.

[Chall]

Ducking under a horses neck when it’s tied.: I never knew it was dangerous until I saw a video (Warwick Schiller) about it.
Your head is between a horse’s neck and his knee. If he lifts his leg (fly stomping, whatever), your head is caught between head and knee of the horse.
Can result in facial or jaw fractures. If horse is tied to a fence and you duck under, horse spooks (usually backwards), hits end of rope and usually jumps forward, smooshing you into the fence.

[Curly_Feather]

I have taught mine that moving his feet while I am touching his legs is a very big NO. He is not allowed to flick at flies or move when I am doing anything near his feet. This, of course, also means that he won’t ever lift his feet for me to pick, but that is fine because it is mostly done by the groom, who just has to touch a foot for him to lift it.

I also don’t hold the lunge whip in driving position, it is held back behind me, like a normal whip.

I’ve never liked leading a horse from the shoulder. It feels too close and not safe, and I also don’t like having half of my vision obstructed by the horse at my side. So mine leads on a slack rope, behind me and off to one side (not allowed to be directly behind me). But I’m lucky in that I’ve never had horse-kites, mine have always been easy to teach this way.

[Renn_aissance]

@RedHorses

Please snap that clip to either the ring under his chin or the upper ring on the off side. A dangling clip could take his eye out if he shook his head and set that clip swinging.

Yes, of course! There’s “wrong” and then there’s “stupidly unsafe.”

[Mersidoats]

When I lead, horses are behind me, between 4-10 feet. I do not lead at the shoulder.

Put bridles on over halters - makes teaching greenies to lunge gentler, can clip into crossties and THEN take the bridle off. I started doing this when I saw someone take her horse’s bridle off in the aisle, and he bolted. Took a while to catch him.

Breeches and boots in a western saddle, especially if I’m ponying or teaching someone to pony. I want that stick and boots give me protection from a nip or a kick!

Sunglasses in the show ring. This is florida. I’m not riding blind.

Duck under necks, walk behind horses - when they are tied/crosstied. In the field, I expect them to yield their space to me.

My horses “self load” into their stalls. I stand to the side, hold the end of the rope, their cue is a lifted arm, and they walk in. Safer for me - I’ve been run over by a horse that I was leading into the stall - she spooked and mowed me down. No thank you, not again.

I will be teaching my greenie to handle being mounted and dismounted from the right. This thread has inspired me.

[Sleipnir]

@endlessclimb

I’ll use a chambon AND really loose side reins at the same time. I want the head down, but I don’t want the nose 100% free if I’m working on finding contact. But without the chambon, the horse can just cavort around with their head in the air.

^another “wrong” thing.

I’ve also ridden in a chambon. I can’t figure out why people would say it’s unsafe under saddle while a neck stretcher is, so I just got on. I looped the strap on a breastplate so it couldn’t get too low and off we went.

Instead of a chambon + side reins, try a de gogue. It solves this problem.

[4maresfarm]

I take the nose band off my bridle in the summer. No matter what type of nose band I use, my sensitive, thin skinned chestnut always gets hairless marks from it. Only in the summer though.
Of course, if i show (rarely) or clinic/lesson, I would put it on for that day.

[kande04]

Whenever I do anything that could be a safety risk when someone is watching I mention that unless they know the horse well and know he’s okay with it, they should do it the safer way, and why.

IOW, I duck under my horses’ necks when they’re tied, or bridle them tied, but wouldn’t do it in front of children or with a horse I didn’t know well.

I almost never counterbend when I’m riding because that’s how mine want to go.

[anon40672407]

@Mouse&Bay

Oh, always! Me too. I grew up training dogs and am used to giving instructions on the left. My poor horses have all figured out that they need to lead on the right or left as required.

I mount on the left, but I always dismount on the right. Evens out the strains on the saddle tree, and keeps both legs up to snuff.

[lorilu]

In addition to a few behaviors already listed, :winkgrin:, I unclip both blanket leg straps from the left. That means I don’t have to go to the off side to complete the blanketing. (I cross them not loop them, another thing I guess, but that’s how I was taught). ALso, I do the body sircingle first, then the leg straps, and then the chest last - jsut in case they dart off. I PERSONALLY know a horse broke his neck when he darted out fo his stall mid-blanketing.

[Texel]

I absolutely refuse to tuck my hair in my helmet, and I avoid tying it back while riding as much as possible. Apparently there’s a surprisingly large contingent of people who find this utterly offensive.

[Beck]

@Texarkana

For the record, I don’t know if Pony Club tells you not to duck under their necks. But it’s the kind of thing that I have always discouraged in any beginner lesson program where I taught (because I was likely told to do so by someone, and you want little kids to have appropriate respect), but just about every horse person does it in their day to day.

There are a lot of horse “rules” like that, where you are discouraged from doing something when you’re green or you’re working with unfamiliar animals, yet nearly everyone violates said “rule” with their own animals.

I have never known anyone to duck under the neck. Not in 50 years of being around horses. Must be a regional thing?

[Beck]

@Nezzy

I hook the crossties to break away at the wall instead of at the face. I do this bc it gives me something to catch him with. It also prevents the breakaway latch from snapping him in or near the face.

I don’t want the tie flying around, whacking the legs, if the horse breaks it and runs off!