A horse that is on stall rest can get bored easily and may possibly develop habits you don’t want. To help them out why not channel that energy and keep their mind busy using Clicker Training as it is a great tool. I read where someone said that “Clicker Training is one of the best gifts you can give a horse”, I totally agree.
If you’ve not done Clicker Training with your horse the first step would be getting your horse to understand targeting as this is the basics to getting started. For those of you new to Clicker Training you can watch the video below to help you out.
Here are some things you could do with your horse some you may not be able to do as it will depend on your horses injury. The list below will give you some ideas.
- Touching different objects Pushing a ball – when they lower their head it helps to stretch the back muscle out
- Backing out of your space
- Lower head into the halter
- Stand for braiding
- Accepting the bit
- Accepting wormer
- Clippers
- Ear work
- Getting better at picking up their feet
- Vertical Flexion
- Lateral Flexion
- Moving the Forequarters
- Moving the Hindquarters
- Side pass
Can you touch your horse everywhere? If not this is a good time to work on this. Some horses do not like being touched on the insides of their back legs, udder, sheath or under the tail. Under the tail can be a big one as I’ve seen horses that were well trained but let them get something under that tail and it is a rodeo.
If your horse is allowed out of the stall for hand walking some of the horse agility obstacles would be great for them. Also working on walking at a slow to medium pace plus stopping when you stop.
Just keep safety in mind when doing the exercises in a confined stall. I would also consider what I’m feeding the horse because if you are still giving them the same amount of grain as you were when riding them it is going to cause them to be hyper.
Would you like to get started with Clicker Training? I offer online classes where you can learn from the privacy of your home Contact me today to setup your lessons.