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There is a lease horse in my barn that is "not trained to whip". I had never heard of this and after watching, I have to agree that the horse is not trained to whip. He ignores whip when used correctly and if it is done to get his attention he resents it and doesn't take it as a helper aid.

How do you train a horse to whip???

I inadvertently desensitized my horse to the whip when I was using it as a target, and because I was using a variety of whips and sticks he did a great job of generalizing that to all whips. So I just started over using the same clicker training that I'd used to teach him to target, but the next time around I taught him to move away from the whip instead of following it.

I could have used pressure and release to teach it just by getting the beginnings of moving away from the whip and then developing that, but he understands clicker training much better in that context, so I used that.

Sounds like the lease horse just needs the entire behavior of moving away from the whip broken down more so it can be taught in much smaller increments?

I can't imagine that someone would be so irresponsible that they'd teach a horse to target a whip and then fail to tell those who were going to be handling the horse that he didn't know how to move away from a whip, although you never know.

The handler (on the ground) starts with work in hand (i.e. a mobile turn on the forehand works well). The progression is touch/vibrate lightly and faster/and thwack. If the horse were to kick after the whip that is met with a biting actions. If the reacts, it is rewarded (stand/stoke/etc). (But previous to that work the horse is stroked all over with the whip, to make sure it is calm with its use.). Then that same progression is used when ridden. If there is no reaction to the leg, then touch with the whip, or vibrate, or thwack; and only then re-use the leg (of course the rider cannot grab with the hand IF/when the horse does react. It takes less than a week to create a horse which listens IF the progression is always followed (and the horse is up and open. mho

galopp wrote:The handler (on the ground) starts with work in hand (i.e. a mobile turn on the forehand works well). The progression is touch/vibrate lightly and faster/and thwack. If the horse were to kick after the whip that is met with a biting actions.

This will also work without the thwacking or biting part just by threatening the horse with faster movement of the whip toward him. It's a slight movement of the whip I want my horse to learn to respond to anyway, because there's no way I'm ever going to thwack or bite a horse with a whip when he either doesn't understand or feels blocked.

galopp wrote:The handler (on the ground) starts with work in hand (i.e. a mobile turn on the forehand works well). The progression is touch/vibrate lightly and faster/and thwack. If the horse were to kick after the whip that is met with a biting actions. If the reacts, it is rewarded (stand/stoke/etc). (But previous to that work the horse is stroked all over with the whip, to make sure it is calm with its use.). Then that same progression is used when ridden. If there is no reaction to the leg, then touch with the whip, or vibrate, or thwack; and only then re-use the leg (of course the rider cannot grab with the hand IF/when the horse does react. It takes less than a week to create a horse which listens IF the progression is always followed (and the horse is up and open. mho

Thank you. I will pass this along.

Kande, of course it will work with minor progression (action of body of handler/etc) the more clearly the horse is introduced and the concept has follow through initially. It is still the idea behind it.

I passed this on to the rider and watched this horse today. The rider was holding two whips and that seemed to be a little better. I don't think the horse was reacting correctly yet but I think they will get there.

galopp wrote:Kande, of course it will work with minor progression (action of body of handler/etc) the more clearly the horse is introduced and the concept has follow through initially. It is still the idea behind it.

I was thinking that one would start on the ground so that they could tap into what the horse already knew (leading, trainer moving his feet, voice cues...) and would then develop the response and associate the whip cues.