How to Get Your Horse to Step Through Mud

Clinton Anderson from Downunder Horsemanship has developed an effective method to train horses, regardless of their age, history, or any behavioral issues and past traumas. Join him on his weekly endeavors of tackling some of the most challenging situations with problem horses, and with problem owners. This week, Clinton shows us how to get your horse to step through the mud.

Clinton begins this week’s episode by introducing his audience to Elvis, one of his favorite training horses. Clinton takes Elvis to a body of water that’s a bit muddier than usual. It’s not uncommon for horses to be hesitant to walk through the mud. It’s not so much the mud that’s the problem, it’s more so the fact that their feet move. When a horse steps down into the mud, their feet sink and move down and then when they lift their feet up, there’s a suction feeling and noise that’s unfamiliar to many horses. Even if you don’t have a muddy place to practice with your horse, you can still improve their training and reduce the fear factor. All you have to do is move their feet around and get your horse to use the thinking side of his brain.

When you’re training for something like this, you don’t want to just walk straight into the mud. Instead, you will want to trot up, turn into it, and go back the other way. Elvis is a bit kooky when they do this. He turns into it and goes back the other way. He just literally took a right and said, I want in the water. This is because Clinton resets him in the water, so he’s figured this stuff out fairly quickly.

So, there’s a little bit of mud around and Elvis is kind of sinking down. If he gets worried about it, Clinton will just bend him around and get control of the speed again. If it was really muddy, Clinton may have to get him out of it himself. However, for now, he’s just going to keep walking Elvis around until he gets used to the feeling. It’s something that a lot of horses would try to escape, but due to Elvis’ previous training, he did it quite well. However, he tried to escape pretty quickly, which is something you want to work on. So, Clinton repeats the process, bends him around, and then tries to maintain control of Elvis’ speed. The goal is to make sure that Elvis isn’t panicking. How do you do this? Repetition.

If your horse is trying to escape any situation, bend him around on either side of the obstacle and make him wait. Once you teach this to your horse, it takes very little effort to get him thinking. Your horse may be in a little bit of a hurry to get through the mud but make him wait. You want him to creep through the mud so that you have control over his movements. Don’t be afraid to keep doing the same thing over and over again. If your horse wants to investigate, let him. This shows that your horse is smart, actually thinking, and has some common sense. Continue to go back and forth through the mud and if your horse needs to rest, let him rest in the mud.

To help strengthen your leadership as a horseman and control your horse on the trail, join Clinton Anderson’s No Worries club today. For $19.99 a month, you get up to a 50% discount on any of your purchases. Plus, you get eight digital videos and four digital journals a year, and access to the No Worries Club website, the largest collection of method material and resources in the world. If you want the ultimate experience, the premium membership is for you. You get all the benefits of the No Worries Club, a printed copy of our No Worries Club quarterly journal, and access to all of the method and the professional series kit training videos. Altogether, that’s thousands of dollars of horse training, and 20 years of horsemanship delivered right to your fingertips. With the new No Worries Club, you can be assured you’re going to get exactly what you need at a price that’s right for you. It’s a free download. So, what are you waiting for, mate? Get started today.

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