{"id":30696,"date":"2021-12-03T07:02:23","date_gmt":"2021-12-03T07:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teddiezieglerhorsemanship.com\/academy\/course\/building-trust-while-grooming-3\/"},"modified":"2022-10-28T06:24:35","modified_gmt":"2022-10-28T06:24:35","slug":"bo2-02-16","status":"publish","type":"tva_lesson","link":"https:\/\/teddiezieglerhorsemanship.com\/academy\/course\/bo2-02-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Building Trust while Grooming"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Interactions with your horse, right from the beginning, mean a lot to your horse. This is where he is trying to figure out if you are trustworthy or not and how he should proceed depending on the answer to this question.<\/p>\n<p>Everything you do with your horse is either helping or hurting your relationship. We want to always go in a positive direction and if for some reason something happens to accidentally change your horse\u2019s perspective of you, there is always a way back if you started with trust.<\/p>\n<p><span><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" width=\"290\" data-init-width=\"290\" height=\"300\" data-init-height=\"300\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/teddiezieglerhorsemanship.com\/academy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/jazz-290x300-1.jpg\" data-width=\"290\" data-height=\"300\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>After your first introduction of the day, and after you just hang out for a bit (even 10-15 minutes), now you want to do something. Your horse should be starting to trust you now and you don\u2019t want to force him to do anything and lose that trust.<\/p>\n<p>So, the next step would be showing your horse that you are also trustworthy to be around when the two of you are close. You will really need to use your powers of observation more closely here. I want you to pull out your grooming brushes and continue to build that trust between the two of you.<\/p>\n<p>You can groom your horse right there in the paddock or pasture if he lets you or you can put a halter on him and bring him to a safe, comfortable location where he is relaxed and start grooming there.<\/p>\n<p>Start grooming with a soft brush and go to the areas that your horse is comfortable. Slow, soft, medium-length brush strokes will do. If he is most comfortable on his neck, start there.<\/p>\n<p>Watch his reactions. Is he relaxing and enjoying the grooming? Is he getting more energetic and prancing around? If he is relaxed, keep going. If he is upset, go back to what he\u2019s comfortable with or slow down and see if that helps calm him down.<\/p>\n<p>Use both your brush and your hand to touch and stroke your horse. This helps him learn that your touch is gentle and he can trust that you won\u2019t hurt him with your hand. You\u2019ll be using both hands here. One hand to touch and caress and one hand with a \u201ctool\u201d, a brush, to clean.<\/p>\n<p>Not only will this help build the trust between you both, but it will also help your horse stay clean, keep bugs off him, allows you to check his body for cuts or scratches, but also helps him scratch places he can\u2019t reach by himself. You may even see some \u201cmutual grooming\u201d here with your horse showing you that the trust and the bond are happening for your horse too.<\/p>\n<p>Once your horse is happy and relaxed continue using both hands and grooming his entire body. Groom the areas that you know he is comfortable with and then slowly go to the areas that he may be particular about. Watch if your horse moves his legs away, or puts his ears back, or shakes his head a bit. These will tell you to back off a bit and go back later with just your hand.<\/p>\n<p>After doing this each time you groom your horse, he will have begun to trust your personal touch, trust you being close, and trust you with a \u201ctool\u201d in your hand. This will go far to building trust when done properly. Spend some good quality time doing this with your horse. It should be enjoyable for both of you.<\/p>\n<p>Here is another video that shows continued use of grooming to build trust with your horse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-30696","tva_lesson","type-tva_lesson","status-publish","hentry","tva_courses-bo2","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teddiezieglerhorsemanship.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tva_lesson\/30696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teddiezieglerhorsemanship.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tva_lesson"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teddiezieglerhorsemanship.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tva_lesson"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teddiezieglerhorsemanship.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}