Getting a horse to lie down on request.

[Willem vd Mescht]

First the horse need to learn to go down on his one knee. Like the bow that the circus horses do.

[Willem vd Mescht]

Preparation

The horse need to be able to give at least one step back from just a light touch on his chest.

It would help if you can teach the horse to move his hind legs a little bit back without him moving his front legs. This is not essential, but it does seem to make it a little bit easier for the horse to go down on his knee. I've found that even if you don't specifically teach a horse to move his hind legs back, he will do so by himself once he start to get what you want from him.

The horse need to be used to having ropes round his legs so that he don't panic should he get entangled in the ropes. We are of cause going to do it in such a way that chances that the horse do get stuck is not likely.

It would also be most helpful to teach the horse some clicker training. Finding a clicker around here seem to be near imposable, so a simple whistle will work just as well. I like to eventually replace the clicker/whistle with my voice and a simple "good boy". Once the horse learns that he has to do something to get his treat you will find that he will start thinking about what he must do to get the treat and he will spend less time pushing you around to try and get his treat.

[Willem vd Mescht]

Tools and equipment

A halter, lead rope, preferable one that is a bit longer than the standard lead ropes. I use a 12 foot rope, but 9 feet should be long enough.

A long narrow peace of soft cloth. About 10cm wide and 60cm long should be enough. These measurements are not important and I only put it down to give you a rough estimate of what I have in mind.

For the bow itself the horse will need to be saddled, but during the initial stages a saddle is not needed.

Most importantly, you need an area to work in with a soft surface, grass or sand. Sand would be best. You don't want your horse to hurt himself when he first touch the ground with his knee. You can test the surface by crawling around on you hands and knees. If you not comfortable with that your horse probably won't be either.

[Willem vd Mescht]

Lifting the leg

For safety and the horses comfort I like to tie a peace of cloth round the horses pastern (wrapped round a couple of times), instead of tying the rope directly round the pastern. It could be any front leg, but most horses are taught to bow down on there left knee, so I will go with the left front pastern now. Then run the rope through the peace of cloth, eliminating the need to tie the rope with a knot round the pastern. That way should you or the horse get into trouble, it is easy to just slip the rope back out.

Now you will need to get the horse to lift his leg, when you tap his leg lightly with the whip. Tapping the leg will then also eventually be the horse's queue to bow. Initially you'll have to lift the leg with your hands, but over time the horse should lift his leg himself. Use the rope to hold his leg up for a while. Once the horse is comfortable and calm with this you can continue.

[Willem vd Mescht]

Backing

At this point you will have to saddle your horse. Run the rope tied to the horse's leg through the stirrup iron closest to you or round the horn, if you are lucky enough to have a western saddle. Ask your horse to lift his leg again, but this time hold his leg up by pulling <b>down</b> on the rope. This action will put pressure on the saddle, encouraging the horse to bring his back down.

Now while holding the leg up in this way, ask the horse to move back. At first just a gentle rocking back is enough, not an actual step. As you keep on practicing this, over several sessions the horse should go back and down on the knee.

[Willem vd Mescht]

The unassisted bow

From here you start assisting the horse less and less, i.e. less presure on the rope holding up the leg, until he can do it all by himself. At this point where it would be usefully to have taught your horse with clicker training, cause he is less likely to want to do this maneuver by himself without a reward. It can also by useful to do this exercise before feeding time and allowing your horse his feed only once he did his trick properly. At first making it as easy as you can for him to be successful and as you progress giving him less help to complete the task.

Don't let him struggle for more than 3 or 4 minutes before he get it right. If so, you are not giving him enough support, but if he manage within seconds you should help him less the next time.

At some point you can stop using the saddle and only hold his leg up lightly with the rope in your hand. <b>Do not</b> hold his leg with only your hand, always use the rope. This is so that you can stand upright while he is doing his bow. Also, holding his leg with your hand will lead to confusion with other activities such as cleaning his feet. If your horse do try to bow while you are cleaning his feet, a hard poke with the finger in his stomach usually stop the behavior.

[Willem vd Mescht]

Laying down your horse

Now to be honest I haven't yet got this far, but here is the theory as to how it should work.

Once your horse can bow comfortably without assistance, it is time to ask him to lie down. Run the lead rope on the far side and over the horses back, back to you. Ask your horse to bow and ask him to hold the position by pulling back on the lead. Once the horse will hold the position for you until you release him without trying to fight it, the next step would be to ask him to hold the position indefinitely. Since this is a very uncomfortable position for him to be in and he can't get back up, his only other choice would be to lie down.

Once he is down, praise him, but stay calm and make it as pleasurable experience for him as you can. Give him treats. When done, take the halter off and let him get up by himself when he is ready. Later on you can ask him to get up.

When the horse lay down for the first time you need to be prepared for the fact that he might get up as soon as he go down. Be ready with his treat and give it to him before he get up, once he get up, do not give him any more treats, just leave it at that and try again the next day. You don't want to reward him for getting up.