Teach your horse to lie down:D!!!

Hi! Here are some directions to teach your horse to lie down~

Teach Your Horse to Lie Down 4 different ways~

1^st Way~

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need~

1~Halter and lead

2~Clicker

Step1

Choose an area with plenty of room when you teach a horse to lie down. This will help to reduce the chance on injury if the horse looses its footing on the way down or shifts too far backwards when completing the maneuver.

Step2

Use a halter and lead to teach your horse to lie down. Grab the lead rope and bring it around to the side of the horse, behind its neck, to the spot where you are standing. Steady the horse and keep it still by placing your hands on the animal's shoulders.

Step3

Lift the horse's front foot (the one that is the closest to you) while pulling the lead away from your body, causing the nose of the horse to point away from where you are standing. This will cause the horse to shift its entire weight backward, toward its rear quarters.

Step4

Repeat this maneuver over and over until your horse sinks its body low enough to require putting its knee on the ground to steady itself. Ensure that you praise and reward the horse for executing this move successfully each time, using either a clicker or a brief scratch to the horse's favorite pleasure spot (such as on the withers). After completing this move, return the horse's foot to the ground, and continue the praise and stroking.

Step5

Push the horse gently to the ground once you have gained its trust through the repeated training, ensuring that you heap additional praise on the animal for completing the task. This may take some time, since the horse's instinct will be to resist falling to the ground. Once you have succeeded in your efforts to train your horse to lie down, you will have deepened the bond between you and the horse.

2^nd Way~

1) Asking him to bend his head around to the outside (away from you) as you stand on the other side
2) While you do that, pick up the front leg nearest to you
3) Use a cotton lead rope attached to the halter to go over the back near the withers, down to the leg.
4) One loops around the leg, just enough to keep a hold of it. You want to hold the leg so that the knee has a 45-degree angle.
5) Your horse WILL fight. He will strike to free his leg, and hop around. Just follow him around, but don't let him have that leg.
6) When he shows the first sign of submission, (stopping the struggling, and starts relaxing at all) release his leg, stop all cues and PRAISE PRAISE PRAISE
7) End session. Never have a session longer than 15 min
8) Practice daily if possible

3^rd Way~

1. Stand on the near side of your horse and pick up his hoof hold onto the hoof pretty tightly
2. With a halter and lead rope on the horse you pull the lead rope around from the off side to you and hold firmly
3. Grab the mane on the wither and slowly pull the front end down.
4. Once he is on his knees you need to push his hindquarters down onto the ground
5. Once down keep him relaxed and leave him down as long as he wants to, make sure he is comfortable and if he wants let him eat some grass if available.

4^th Way~

You really want to make sure that your horse is going well before you start to lay them down. You want them to know the seven games and do them well at liberty - you want to be sure that your horse trusts you. It also really helps if you have already taught your horse to bow, so they know what you are asking when you lower them down.

We use two ropes, and a hobble strap, one rope is the 22' lead and the other is the 12' lead.

Take one hobble strap (undo the other strap and the chain - we use breeding hobbles) and put it around the left front.

Then attach the rope (the 22') to the ring on the hobble and loop the rope up under the right side over the back and back through the ring on the hobble.

Then attach the 12' lead to the right foot - make a loop with it and put it around the fetlock.

Then take that rope and throw it over the back. Hold both ropes near the saddle horn.
This is where it comes in handy to have them know the bow, because you want to pick up the left foot and then get them to lower their head, preferably by bending their nose towards the chest. I give a treat (make sure it's long, like a carrot or you might not end up with all of your fingers when you're done!) and entice them to put their head down between the chest, shifting their weight back.

Then as soon as they kneel on the left knee, take up the slack in the ropes and when they shift their weight forward again, bend down with them and don't let them up.

 This is where some strength and agility come into play. You want them to almost fall forward, it gets them off balance enough that you can get the other leg tucked under like the left and then they are basically kneeling. Then you tip the nose back towards you and it shifts their weight just enough that they start to go over with their back end, and there you go! They're lying down.
Every horse that we have ever done this with goes over right away. It usually takes about 3 times of doing it and then all you have to do is pick up their left leg, ask them to put their head down and say "lay down", and down they go. Fable on the other hand, did not want to do it at all, but since we started, we had to get him down, because this is a horse that once he gets away with something once, it is so hard to get him to stop (or to get him to do what we're asking, depending on the situation!