Training aids

van Wolf

van Wolf

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Jan 30, 2018
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Hi there, I'm currently doing a college assignment on animal training aids and I need some advantages, disadvantages and handler health and safety risks for the following training aids...
  • Halter
  • Bridle and bit
  • Long line
Any help is appreciated!
 
I have thought about some of the pros and cons for the halter and the bridle and bit, but I haven't had any luck finding risks to the handler for any of them, or the pros and cons of the long line, which is why I thought I'd try asking people with more knowledge in this area (I don't know much about training horses as you've probably guessed).
 
Well I'm not sure if I'm any good or its what your are meaning. But health and safety on a long line. If there too long they drop on the floor and get wrapped round your feet. Highly dangerous if your horse then gets silly and takes of whilst your trying to untangle yourself. Pro for long lining would be that the horse can be trained at distance using voice commands.
 
Well I can tell you (based on recent experience) that it is very easy for hands and fingers to get injured or even broken if a horse pulls away when you are holding onto it's lead rope or headcollar. Theoretically you shouldn't hold the horse directly by the headcollar because if your fingers are wrapped round it, particularly if threaded through one of the metal buckles, they could be snapped. Likewise, you shouldn't wrap the lead rope around your hand because again your hand could get crushed if the horse pulls away - a panicked or determined horse pulling away is a very strong force! Even if you are holding the lead rope correctly you are likely to suffer a rope burn if not wearing gloves. Of course in real life people get lax (like I did last week) because their horses are normally so quiet and from time to time accidents happen (like when our old horse got charged at by another horse when I was fetching hi in, jjerking his head away and hurting my finger because I'd let the lead rope drape over it). Thankfully most accidents, like mine, are not serious, just silly.
 
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I've had several rope burns and dislocated fingers from lead ropes, I've also had a horse wrap the lead around my neck spooking at something and then trying to shoot backwards, they have to be handled correctly. It can also be made worse if you wear rings/bracelets as those can get caught. A bridle/bit poses little risk to the handler, but the attached reins pose similar risk to lead ropes. A lunge line can def get around your feet and trip you if incorrectly handled and give rope burns etc.

Halter + kind to the horse, gives reasonable control if the horse is respectful - can injure the horse if it gets caught on something solid
Bridle + gives good control if the horse is trained to it - can injure the horse if it gets caught on something solid or if the rider is not kind with their hands
Lunge line + enables the handler to control the horses direction from a safe distance, but the horse needs to be trained to work off voice commands for speed etc - control is limited
 
What course is it? Why would you pick something that you don't know much about?

Training aids are not what you've described. That's just basic handling equipment to be honest.
It's only ever a safe and kind as the person at the other end. All of that can be both cruel and kind.
 
On long lines one thing a trainer told me
"Always have a whip to be able to send the
Horse forward "
She told me this after a bad accident.


If your not careful you or the horse can get tangled. Or worse.

She broke her rule a horse freaked and threw itself over backwards.

It did serious back damage and ultimately had to be put down.
 
In these circumstances I don't think we really need to be too pedantic about the exact definition of a "training aid" :p Considering it's a general animal care course rather than an equine course I would guess it doesn't really matter that much!

@van Wolf do you mean "halter" in general terms (as in headcollar) or specifically a rope halter?
 
hmmm, not really being pedantic but there are definite health and safety risks involved with using most actual training aids. A halter and a bridle are basic handling tools and therefore you can’t evaluate them the same way. For eg the advantages/disadvantages of using a halter - as opposed to what? what else are you going to catch and handle the horse with? Im not being funny OP but I would go back to your college tutor and ask for clarification - OR , explain this in your essay and include a couple of others that you can properly evaluate.
 
CharliesAngel said:
hmmm, not really being pedantic but there are definite health and safety risks involved with using most actual training aids. A halter and a bridle are basic handling tools and therefore you can’t evaluate them the same way. For eg the advantages/disadvantages of using a halter - as opposed to what? what else are you going to catch and handle the horse with? Im not being funny OP but I would go back to your college tutor and ask for clarification - OR , explain this in your essay and include a couple of others that you can properly evaluate.
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You could compare them to training your horse at liberty because if you don't need any tool (aid) then that is what you would do, or a halter as opposed to a bridle. It is a common and widely accepted piece of must have equipment but it is still an aid to your training.
 
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true - but then you wouldn't train at liberty from the outset, or would you? In a very basic level if starting out with an unhandled horse you could compare herding them; say in terms of wanting to load a horse, you could evaluate the risks etc of herding them in with barriers either side, leading them in a halter and leading in a bridle... it would assume that some halter training had already taken place though. I really think it’s a terrible question for a college tutor to set at any level.
 
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CharliesAngel said:
true - but then you wouldn't train at liberty from the outset, or would you?
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I think most babies are started at liberty, you don't halter them at an hour/day old and start leading them about, you let them learn to follow loose with mama, its just normal practice at a few weeks or months that you start to halter them because we feel the need to restrain them, and I'm no fluffy bunny you shouldn't halter a horse person, just observing what we equestrians normally do. If we really questioned why, could any of us come up with a really good answer other than we want to accelerate training? Sorry OP, getting a bit off track here :)
 
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ah yes but im not talking about a foal - i was talking about a grown, blank canvass unhandled horse that you wish to begin training. There are too many variables with the items we use for every day handling as opposed to actual training aids which can be applied to a specific scenario.
 
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