Horsemanship Pro Q&A

What would you like to ask a natural horsemanship professional?

Our Horsemanship Pro Q&A is our newest feature, and offers the opportunity to learn for different natural horsemanship professionals as they explain how they would solve common horsemanship issues. We’re looking forward to getting a few different takes on solutions to natural horsemanship techniques!

We posed our first Horsemanship Pro Q&A question to two Canadian natural horsemen, Glenn Stewart and Paul Dufresne. Now Frank Bell has also offered his own, very different, solution.

Question: What can you do to help a horse that pulls back?

Glenn Stewart’s Answer: Contrary to some people's way of thinking, horses do not enjoy, like, or think it is fun to pull back. It hurts and they are very worried, scared and claustrophobic-feeling when they pull back. It is much more difficult to teach a horse not to pull after he has started pulling than for you to learn some exercises and then use them with your horse to avoid the pulling in the first place. View the whole article.

Paul Dufresne’s Answer: Tying is one of the most important Foundation skills there is and may well be one of the most underdeveloped by people in general. Why should people learn to tie their horse? Because it is necessary in case of emergency, veterinary care, basic grooming and tacking in heavy traffic facilities, trail riding, trailering and horse shows just to name a few. But have you considered that tying also helps your horse to learn to yield to the reins? View the whole article.

NEW! Frank Bell's answer: I learned to use a belly rope for pull back horses and it has worked predictably on dozens of serious pull back cases. Using a minimum ½” poly rope 24’ in length, I tie a loop in one end and run it around the horse’s girth, up between the front legs, and through the ring on a web halter. The key is not tying the horse hard and fast to begin, but instead leading the horse by applying a bit of forward pressure and releasing the moment the horse complies. View the whole article.

Suggest a question for our next Horsemanship Pro Q&A! Please contact us with your suggestion - we'd love to hear from you!