DEWORMING

Do you wake up dreading the day you have to worm your horse? You know it's going to be a battle, you know neither of you is going to like it, and that you're going to end up with most of the wormer on the ground and the rest all over his face or yours. If this sounds familiar, rest assured that you are not the only one with this problem. It happens to more people than would like to admit it.

Most people have problems when they worm their horse because they go about it the wrong way. They, put the halter and lead rope on their horse and try to restrict the horse from moving, or back the horse into the corner of a stall, tie him up, or cross-tie in an effort to restrict him in some way.

If people would worm their horses correctly by allowing the horse a chance to accept the wormer, none of these restrictive methods would be needed; and the horse would actually learn to enjoy being wormed, standing quiet and relaxed. The main reason most horses don't accept the wormer is because their owners try to force the issue.

Imagine standing quietly, knowing who I am and not being frightened of me - but all of a sudden, I walk up and try to stick something foreign in your mouth. I guarantee your first reaction would be to pull back, try to get away from me and close your mouth tightly. Now, you know me and know that I'm not going to hurt you, but you definitely did not want me to stick that foreign object in your mouth. So you become defensive about the whole thing. That's exactly the way your horse looks at this worming situation. He's never had a chance to accept the wormer for what it is - something that is not going to hurt him. So he immediately closes and shuts his mouth.

Imagine further that you are restricted from moving away from me when I tried to put this foreign object in your mouth. This would only serve to make you feel more uncomfortable. Even if I succeed in putting the foreign object in your mouth, the next time I come at you with something and act like I'm going to put it in your mouth, you will be twice as defensive because you suspect what's coming. Again, this is how your horse feels.

Have you ever noticed that a lot of horses become progressively worse until they are almost impossible to worm? That defensiveness in the horse keeps building because every time the horse is wormed, only every 10-12 weeks, the same thing happens. It just keeps getting worse and worse for both of you.

THE TEACHING PHASE

Break the worming process into smaller steps so that your horse can understand and accept. Eventually, he may even enjoy being wormed.

The more steps you break a task into, completing each step with your horse before moving on to the next one, the easier solving the problem becomes. The whole trick to horse training is to avoid looking at the symptom, and learn to look for the cause of a problem. Look at the tiny little components that create the end problem, and fix them. Usually by the time you fix the little pieces, the entire problem is solved.

Step #1

Desensitize your horse around the muzzle and head. Let's face facts - if you can't even rub your hands all over the horse's muzzle, lips, head, eyes, ears, etc., without him becoming defensive or afraid, you are never going to get the wormer in his mouth, let alone get him to accept it. Therefore, you must make sure that your horse is comfortable with this first. Don't rub soft and ticklish-like - actually put a little pressure on him and really rub all over his mouth and face. Don't rub him to the point that it becomes uncomfortable for him; but definitely make sure there is no resistance in his acceptance of your bare hands.

Step #2

Get the wormer out and keep the cap on while you let your horse smell it. Once he is done smelling it, put the wormer between his eyes, and rub it on the center of his head. Start small and, as he becomes more comfortable, rub it over a larger area between his eyes. Then start to work your way down the middle of his nose, around and under his eyes and over his cheek; gradually working your way towards the muzzle. As you start working your way towards his muzzle, try to have wormer flat against the horse's face all the time. Just keep moving it. Don't act like you're trying to sneak it down his head and put it in his mouth. Keep moving it at a rhythmic speed. At this stage, some horses will start to understand what is going on, and they will begin to think you are trying to worm them - especially if they have been resistant for a long time. If the horse throws his head up or starts to move his head around, just ignore it and keep rubbing him all over. Don't try to keep it in one main area - rub it all over. If he really becomes resistant, take the wormer away from touching his face and wave it around the end of his nose. Do this until the horse will keep his head still. When he keeps his head still, take the wormer away and rub him between the eyes with your hand as a reward for doing the right thing. Remember, reward the slightest try so your horse will know when he has reacted correctly. Repeat this lesson until there is absolutely no resistance and you can rub the wormer anywhere around your horse's face and muzzle without any resistance. Remember, a lot of horses that have a problem with worming have built up the resistance over several years. So, it may take a little bit of practice to get them over it.

Step #3

Once your horse is comfortable with the wormer being rubbed all over his face and muzzle and you can move it without any resistance, the next step is to see how he handles something being in his mouth. Can you put your thumb in the corner of your horse's mouth and just leave it there? If you can't stick your thumb in without your horse having a resistant attitude towards it, he is going to be a lot more resistant when you try to stick something bigger in his mouth, especially if you point it towards the back of his throat. If this is the case, put your thumb in his mouth and just let it rest there. Once you insert your thumb, if he starts to open and shut his mouth and chew on it, or act as if he is trying to spit it out, leave your thumb inside his mouth and hold on to the side of the halter to keep a steady pressure on his head. Leave your thumb there until he stops moving his head and relaxes his mouth. This could take as little as 30 seconds or it could take 5 minutes - but as soon as he relaxes his mouth, slide your thumb out and rub him on the face as a reward. Most of the time when you insert something into a horse's mouth, they will try to use their tongue to spit it out. Don't take that pressure away - that feeling of something being on his tongue - until he relaxes. Make sure you can do this before you move on to the next step.

Step #4

Keep the cap on the end of the wormer, and put the wormer inside his mouth. Stick the wormer in so that it is not pointing toward the back of his throat, but rather across his mouth like a bit. Again, all you are trying to do is desensitize him to the wormer and convince him that nothing is going to hurt him. When you stick it in, he will more than likely have a little bit more resistance and try to spit the wormer out, moving his tongue around while opening and closing his mouth. Yet again, try your best to have the wormer stay still; and don't take it out until he relaxes his mouth and stops chewing on it. As soon as he does that, take it out and pat him. Remember the trick: approach and retreat - approach and retreat. The more you do this, the quicker he will realize that the wormer in his mouth is not going to hurt him and that you are not trying to jam anything down his throat. Give you horse a chance to understand. If your horse gives you a lot of resistance at this stage, it could be because you skipped a step and you haven't gotten him completely comfortable with your thumb in his mouth or the wormer being around his face. Make sure you don't cheat and that you go through all of your steps - or you will not get the desired results.

Step #5

Once your horse is comfortable with the wormer in his mouth, the next step would be to put the wormer in his mouth and, once he is relaxed, point the wormer toward the back of his throat and dispense the wormer. A little success tip here is to use an empty wormer syringe the first couple of times. Fill it with something that he enjoys - molasses, applesauce, sugar water. That will be a nice surprise for him because when the liquid goes into his mouth, it won't taste bad - it will taste good. Once you have dispensed the treat into his mouth, slowly pull the wormer out and let him chew on it and savor the taste for 10-20 seconds. Once you feel that the horse has swallowed the treat and has started to enjoy it, you might refill the wormer and repeat the process. Do this 3-4 times in a row until he begins to catch on that what is in the wormer is really a good deal. If at any stage you have problems, go back through the steps.

If you are disciplined enough to do this exercise 2-3 times each day for 7 days in a row, by the end of the week when your horse sees that wormer come out of your pocket, he will actually run over to you and beg to be wormed.

Now, here is where the trick comes in. Once your horse really wants to have the wormer in his mouth and he thinks the wormer is a great thing and what's inside is even better, you replace the treat with the actual worming paste. Go through the same steps, put the wormer in his mouth, dispense the wormer and pull the wormer out. Now, in his eyes, it doesn't taste as good as the treat; but it's kind of like just one bad apple in the bunch. What you do after he has swallowed the worming paste is re-fill the wormer with the treat and give it to him to reinforce in his mind that the wormer usually is a good thing, it was just bad that one time!

If you do this every day for 7-10 days in a row, you will be amazed how much your horse will look forward to being wormed. Then when the horse is due to be wormed again, instead of doing it 7 days in a row, you can use the treat for 1-2 days prior to when you actually worm the horse. On the third day, give the horse the real wormer followed by a treat and reinforce the day after with the treat again.

Eventually, you will get to the stage where you will just walk up to your horse and give him the wormer without any resistance at all. But it doesn't hurt every once in a while, especially if your horse catches on that the wormer is not as good tasting as he expects it to be, to go back and give him a little bit of incentive with a tasty treat in the wormer. If you perform the procedure in the steps that I have given you, even if you skip the part about putting a treat in the wormer, you can still get most horses wormed relatively easily in one short session. I only mention the treat in the wormer as a way to really reinforce to the horse that the wormer is a good thing and that it is something to be looked forward to.

The main reason horses don't accept wormer is because of the way it is offered. If you jam something in anybody's face, their first reaction is to become defensive and back away from it. The more you try and jam it down their throat, the more they want to back away and not take it. So, break it into steps and make it easy for your horse to understand.

COMMON MISTAKES

1. Being in a hurry and not following the steps - jamming the wormer down the horse's throat or restricting them.
   Remember, the more you restrict the horse's movement or try to restrict their head and neck when they want to become defensive or are frightened, the more they are going to fight you. Make sure that you break down the steps and do exactly as I said, and you will eliminate 99% of the resistance in a very short time.

2. Every time you pull the wormer out, your horse immediately starts throwing his head around - even before you get the wormer to his head or you touch him with the wormer.
   If you can't even get to that step, don't worry. Keep moving the wormer around in front of his nose and act like you are shoeing a fly away from his nose - just keep waving it around. The more you wave it around, the more the horse will move its head. You should just keep doing this, and pretty soon your horse's head will move less and less. Keep moving the wormer. When the horse's head is completely still, you will continue to move the wormer all around - really act like you are shoeing that fly away from the end of his nose and around his muzzle. The horse will learn that all he has to do is keep his head still and you will eventually stop moving your hand and pat him. Then when you pat him, rub him and repeat the procedure. Do this 2-3 times until he is desensitized with the wormer being around his face. Then move on to the next step, place it on his head, rub it and work you way down to the end of his muzzle. Approach and retreat - if you start to slide the wormer down his face towards the end of his nose and he gets defensive, rub it further up on his head where he is more comfortable with it. Then go back towards the nose - rub it up - go back down and up again - up and down. Remember, the trick is to approach and retreat - go down and come back up. Pretty soon, the horse just doesn't worry. The main thing is that when you show your horse what you are trying to do to him is not going to hurt him, defenses will come down very quickly and they will relax. But if they think something is going to hurt them or if you do hurt them, it's going to take a lot more effort and they are going to give you a lot more resistance.

3. Your horse doesn't seem to be accepting the wormer.
   For starters, ask yourself some basic questions. Are you breaking it down into enough steps? Are you completing each step before moving on to the next one? If you skip any of the steps or don't break the steps down into smaller steps, your horse may become defensive and not want to do anything. If your horse is really bad, maybe you have just a plain disrespectful horse that needs some more groundwork before you work on this. I would recommend that you don't work on this when you first bring your horse out of the stall where he has been locked up for 2-3 days. Make sure that you do this at the end of the riding or groundwork session. That way you and the horse will be in a lot better frame of mind. The last thing you want to do is pull your horse out of a stall where he has been locked up for 4-5 days and he is jumping off the ceiling because he is so fresh and try to pick a subject like this where you know you are going to have some problems. Also, I will address this in the same way if a horse has never been wormed before - a young weanling or yearling. Even when a horse doesn't have any problems worming, break it down into steps. If he doesn't already have a problem, each step shouldn't take very long to complete. Treat it all the same - whether a horse has a problem or not. Break it down into steps for him and you will never have a problem.

4. Your horse isn't understanding or doesn't get it.
   The main deal is - and this is something people don't want to hear, but it is the bottom line - if your horse isn't understanding or doesn't get it, it's because you are not offering it to him in the right way. I have never found a horse that I couldn't get to accept a wormer easily within 10 minutes, because I present it in the right way. So every time you feel frustrated that your horse is doing the wrong thing, it's usually because you are not offering it to him in the right way and you are cheating on your steps. If your horse is doing well, it's because you are offering it to him correctly. If your horse is doing badly, it's because you are not offering it to him in a way he can understand. Our job as horse trainers - and as horse owners - is to get our horse to understand. Use your imagination - whatever you have to do to get the job done. Present it to your horse in a way that's easy for him to understand and you will get the results you desire.