You go to pet your horse and he bites at you.  He does this constantly.  You timidly ride your horse hoping he won't get so spooked over the littlest thing this time. But sure enough, you ride past that same bush and you can feel your horse tense up fifty feet before you get to it. Not only that, he slows down before he gets to it. He swerves his body away from it and he's ready to jump out of his skin.  Suddenly, he bolts past it and you're hanging on for dear life wondering why you even bought this crazy animal.

These scenarios are fairly common for horse owners. How  do you get a horse to stop doing some kind of bad habit?  Interestingly, the horse doesn't know it's a bad habit. He doesn't know if something is good or bad. He just follows his instincts and does what nature tells him to do.

If that's the case, why does he do it then? After all, if you have a horse that bites, balks, bolts, bucks, kicks, shies, spooks, etc., why does he do it in spite of your vigorous attempts to stop it?  The answer may surprise you. 

Let's say that you're teaching the horse to drive. Let's say further you've done the necessary prep work by teaching him to stop, move forward, getting used to the harness, and so forth.  Now you've got him hitched up and for the first time he's going to pull the wagon you have him hitched to. You get in the wagon, grab the lines, and tell him to "get up."  Eager to please you, the horse jumps forward and then stops. The weight of the wagon surprised him. It kept him from moving freely because he now has to pull weight instead of just moving his own body without constraints.  Right about here is where most horse owners mess up their horse. It's here where the horse learns to balk.

As the horse pulls forward, the wagon moves an inch or two then stops. Then the handler raises his voice volume and says "Get up!" The horse may or may not try again. If he does try again, and the wagon weight stops him again, and the handler gets upset and starts tapping him with a whip and yelling "Get up" then this horse is on its way to balking.  When he balks, he'll just stand there. Often he'll turn around and just look at you. His senses even seem to be blunted...like he's in another world. No amount of harsh talk and hard tapping on his butt with a whip is going to get him to move.  Congratulations, you just taught your horse to balk.

Many horse owners would say "But I don't get it. Why did he do that?"  The answer lies in understanding horse behavior.

You see, the first time the horse has to pull a wagon, something he's never done before, he jerks forward and the wagon weight stops him from moving as freely as he's been used to, it's a shock. It surprises him. He doesn't quite know what to think of it. And knowing a horse's nature, it's probably frightening and confused him.

So what you must do is keep this in mind and help your horse deal with it. How you help him deal with it is treating him kindly when the wagon doesn't move.  When you're in the wagon and he steps to move but the wagon holds him back, you should get out of the wagon and go caress him. It may sound funny, but tell him you know this is a little difficult but that he can do it.  Why tell him he can do it? Does he really understand words? No. I'm simply saying you must be sympathetic with your horse. Talking to him like this will help you be sympathetic and talk soothingly to him.

As you can see, it is the owner, not the horse, the reason a horse forms a bad habit.  He is just doing something that comes natural to him.  But just as with kids, through positive re-enforcement, you will have a companion that will listen to you and do as you wish....most of the time.