Q. What can you do about a barn sour horse?
A. Horses are herd animals. When in the wild, horses feel safe in their natural herd environment. They are aware that if they leave the herd, they might be eaten by a lion and die so the herd means safety. A horse that is considered “barn sour” is really just scared to leave the herd and its safety bubble. When we take him out on a trail ride alone or even into an arena, it is not natural for him because he is leaving the safety of the herd, or in some cases, if the horse does not have other horses in his herd it is the safety of his corral. So he starts acting like what people call “barn sour”. Which if we all really knew why he was acting this way (because he thinks he is going to die) we would be a lot more understanding, and instead of pulling and kicking and whipping (which is what most people do when a horse acts this way) we would take our time and build up his confidence to go out.
There may be many thresholds between his corral and the arena, stop at every one. The next time you take him out of his corral you will notice that there are fewer thresholds than there were the day before, and so on. There may be MANY thresholds on a trail ride, but if you teach your horse that he is going to be OK and you are going to wait on him until he is confidant then there won’t be as many on the next trail ride. Put your horse first, before your fun trail ride or before your friends saying they just want to ride. Your horse and his confidence in you is more important then anything else!
