If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Itching to teach your mare some dressage necessities? Don’t take things too fast—don’t forget to do some basic horse care and health maintenance—like checking her mouth. Are you employing a hackamore because your mare will not permit you to touch her mouth? Did she injure her gums and now you need to treat her injuries? There will be a point that you’ll need to check her mouth. Don’t wait for an emergency to happen before you start training her to be content when you’re touching her mouth.

How do you go about training your horse to permit you to touch her mouth? Commence with a halter placed on your mare. Stroke her face ensuring you’re only touching the area where she permits you to touch. Then, slowly and with single strokes at a time, let your touches come close her mouth, ensuring you move your hand away before she reacts negatively. By rubbing her neck or thru your words, praise your horse each time she accepts your touch. When she turns her face away with your hand still touching her mouth, it suggests it is too early for you to let your hand stay longer. Go back to stroking the spot you started on and repeat the procedure , but this time remove your hands quicker. When your mare is eventually accepting you stroking her mouth, start letting your hand stay there a bit longer until she accepts your laying your hand on her mouth. Practice the lesson on the opposite side of her face as well, take breaks between each lesson, and always fuss over your pony for any improvement she shows.

Rub round her muzzle and try and touch her longer each time but don’t go too far as you may come off as annoying to your pony. When she’s eventually comfortable when you rub round her muzzle, you can carry on to rubbing her outer lips and in between them.

Hold her head by placing your right hand under her neck and putting your hand where the halter strap is—on her nose bridge. Rub the insides of her lips with your free hand. Then, using one finger, rub the outsides of your her gums and bars. As she grows comfortable with it, go on to rubbing the top of the bars. If she resists, return to the point at which she’s happy and try again; slower and gentler this time. Patience is the virtue by which you defeat the pride of a horse.

Horses have a spot where no teeth grow; it is between the molars and incisors and that’s the only spot where you need to place your hand when touching the insides of their mouths.

When your horse is comfortable with one of your fingers touching her bars, add another finger till it’s possible to get your whole hand into her mouth and she doesn’t resist. Do this exercise frequently after grooming—before you go on to your horse riding until she accepts it as part of daily happenings.

Horses are Heather Toms’ passion and she
enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100’s of articles with other horse lovers… like all things about horse rugs.

Tags: Horses