HEAD LOWERING with VAQUERO

Ahhhhhh head lowering on command is such a great tool for your tool belt when working with a horse, a horse of any size or age, especially a tall 16 handed horse named Vaquero (and I'm a tall 5 ft 10 inch woman)! Head lowering is great for putting fly masks on/off, brushing those itchy ears, putting the bridle or halter on/off, and lowering his head maybe when you want to kiss your dear horse on the forehead and tell them how much you love him! Head lowering is not only helpful to you to put things on or to do things to your horse but it also releases endorphins and calms your horse so it's a very valuable skill to teach your horse and clicker training your horse to lower his head is such a fun and great way to get that head lowered in a positive and creative way. There are many head lowering games....Besides if you practice lowering your horses head while your together you are also declaring that you'll be the leader, the one in charge of looking out for danger, you tell your horse that he can relax with you - it's a beautiful bonding experience and it's just simply head lowering....

Before you begin - your horse will need to know about the clicker and do the intro targeting lesson from my click, treat, reward system....(look for an abbreviated version in the blog where I soak Vaqueros hooves or if you're local come to a clicker course at my farm or a local farm or contact me and I can come and teach you the first lesson of targeting which is done in a specific way, it is the very important foundation of clicker training !) Once that is established then you can proceed :

STEP 1 - place your hand with a calm pressure (depends on hour horses comfort) on his pole, then wait for him to lower his head / now what if your horse doesn't like you to touch his head? Well, that was Vaquero that first week I had him when I was soaking his hooves...I planted the seed to head lowering while brushing him and any time I had the brush near his pole, he'd get a click and a treat....I did that for the next week or so whenever I groomed him. This day was my first time actually asking for head lowering with the hand on the pole and he did great!! He's so smart and confident and we're on a nice path of learning...scroll down to see the results...

STEP 2 is waiting for the lowering, start with just a little downward movement and click and reward that, work your way up to clicking when the head gets lower, vary when you click too - what I mean is to click when he lowers his head a lot or just a little or wait for him to stay down for longer (with your head on his pole) before you click - this trains your horse to really wait for you and then he doesn't anticipate your requests, he really starts to pay attention and doesn't get bored.

I had trained Radu (my extra tall fellow at 17.2 hands) to head lower with this cue - I raised my hand up in the air and pointed my pointer finger downward, it was so helpful and really fun!)

STEP 3 is the delicious treat which rewards your horse for his listening and cooperation, and Vaquero loves his cookies! Remember to deliver the treat in such a manner so that your horses head is in front of his shoulder and he is in balance, here Vaquero could step his front left hoof back into better balance, and be straighter in his neck before i actually released the cookie...(I'll do that as we practice) Being as specific when you do this type of training is great, but don't be afraid to make any mistakes, especially when in the "learning phase", as Vaquero improves his head lowering I will make him stand better for his treats, I need to keep him excited to learn ....