De-stress the Situation
If you have a horse who gets crabby when it’s time to groom him, you’ve probably already learned that trying to “discipline” him into cooperating doesn’t work… or it doesn’t work for very long. You have to take a different approach, one that will set you and your horse up for success.

To find a good starting point, you want as many things working in your favor as possible. Choose a time when your horse is most likely to be relaxed. Avoid busy or confusing times, such as when the tractor is picking up manure, at mealtime, or when horses are going in and out of the barn. Consider working with your horse after he’s had some turn-out, or after a ride, when he’s relaxed and not brimming with energy or nervousness like he might be when he first steps out of his stall.

Then find a good “classroom” for the first stand-for-grooming lesson. If you normally groom in the barn and that’s the scene of your horse’s restlessness, try beginning the lesson out in the pasture, or maybe in his stall. Later, you can move from the classroom into the real world of the barn aisle.

Clarify the Signals
Next, consider specifically what you want your horse to do. Though it may seem obvious, it isn’t to him. You have to be able to tell the horse where to move his head and feet. You can’t just tell him when he did the wrong thing.

When I’m grooming a horse, I want his head at a relaxed level-not too high, as if he’s on alert, and not too low, so that I have to bend down to brush his face. I like him to stand relatively square so that he can stand relaxed for a while. I want him to move around easily when I request it, such as to shift his weight or to pick up a foot. And I want him to do all of that in a trusting, rather than a defensive or aggressive, manner. Everything I do has to build that trust.

Let’s take the parts individually.

Begin by leading your horse to the classroom. We ask the horse to move forward by telling his hip to move forward. We don’t pull him along. We want him moving on his own steam; we’re not dragging him.

Standing still is hard for some horses. We can’t force them to stand still. We can only offer them the opportunity and show them that standing still is an okay-and even safe thing for them to do. Don’t punish your horse; just give him an alternate activity.

You may need to work on leading lessons for a few minutes, then offer the horse the chance to stand. If he doesn’t accept it, work on leading lessons for a few minutes more. When he makes the mental connection that moving around sent him back to work, he’ll stand for longer periods.

Build Confidence

The key to teaching a horse to be comfortable about standing for grooming is to spend lots of time working on his head. It’s not uncommon for a horse to be defensive of his sides, so the more you build a horse’s confidence by stroking his head, the more he’s going to allow you to do with his body without getting tense.

We want to get our horse past the point of just tolerating being groomed. We want him to love it, so we have to get him to the point where he’s willing to relax and let his head hang naturally. We can give him that idea by telling him to drop his head, and then we can reward him by releasing the lead and smooching with him when his head is down.

Once you’ve told your horse to drop his head, you can begin to pet him for very short periods, a second or two at a time. If he tries to pull away as your hand approaches, drop your hand and use the lead rope to ask him to bring his head back to you. When he learns that you won’t “chase” his head with your hand, he’ll be more accepting of your petting.

Timing and Patterns Matter
Setting up a pattern will also build the horse’s confidence, especially when it comes to getting past his head and neck.

In time, you can build up to grooming more of the horse, each time beginning with and returning to his head. When the horse gets familiar with the pattern, he’s much more likely to allow you to do additional things, such as rub his belly or lift his tail.

If the horse is not accepting of you petting his ears, for instance, then start by petting his forehead. When you feel he’s okay with that, then zoom your hand lightly but firmly up over his head. He’s likely to shoot his head up with a “What was that?” type of response. That’s okay because your hand will have been long gone by then.

A few times like that and he learns that he can live through his ears being stroked. If you use the opposite approach, creeping up to try to touch his ear, you’ll be all day with him playing “keep away.”

Be Patient

When we first ask the horse to stand, we’ll accept him standing for a moment or two. We can teach the horse to stand for longer periods by not trying to make him stand for longer than he’s comfortable.

When it comes time to pick up the horse’s feet, don’t hold the foot so long that the horse pulls it away. Initially, horses may only tolerate you lifting the heel off the ground momentarily. That’s fine because if you put the foot down before the horse feels he has to pull it away, he’ll begin to wait longer and longer periods for you to put it down, which means he’s allowing you to pick it up more often and to hold it for longer periods.

When the Horse Messes Up

Notice that we said “when,” not “if.” Training is a process, and we’re looking for improvement. Your horse will seem to understand what you want, and then seem to not have a clue. That’s normal, and he’s not being ornery. It’s just part of the learning cycle.

You can minimize the times the horse makes a mistake by setting him up to be successful, as we’ve described. You can also watch closely for improvements and reward the horse’s good efforts.

Allow minor corrections to just seem to happen naturally. Let’s say that your horse reaches around to give you an ugly look as you brush his belly. (Of course, be sure you’re standing so he can’t “cow-kick” you.) Unless he’s threatening to bite, ignore the ugly look and continue with the lesson. If he swings his nose around, raise your elbow to hit his nose, as if it just happened naturally and you had nothing to do with it.

The idea is to discourage the behavior, not scold the horse for it. Don’t let the horse change your focus from what you’re trying to do (brush his belly).

Stay Consistent

If you’re picking his feet and he pulls his foot away, forget about it. You misjudged when to put the foot down. Pick it up again, and put it down right away. Reteach the lesson until the horse is comfortable with you handling his feet.

Keep your grooming sessions short, perhaps grooming for a minute or two, then do some leading work, then groom again. Remember that for the moment, you are training. Actually getting the horse groomed is secondary.

It only takes a few training sessions to overcome the grooming grumpies, but it does take dedicated effort and positive training. Your horse doesn’t want to be a grump, so help him learn to be a happy camper.