Leading Or Herding Horses Into The Barn?

Nikki Salo · Grand Prix

Leading Or Herding Horses Into The Barn?

sedonasilver · Advanced

I worked for several months at the stables where I agist/board my boy - we lead our horses from their paddocks in to their stables individually.

It is a great opportunity to enforce polite ground manners and to ensure the horses are regularly handled if they're on spell. Also, we are able to check their movement for soundness etc.

It works for us, but then again, we only have 9 horses to worry about :)

prospect · Advanced

We don't do a free for all but we let them in one at a time and they are "supposed" to go into their stall - we open the stall for each horse as they come in.

We have a gathering corral that is right outside the barn door and each paddock has access to the corral - so we let one paddock in at a time (usually 4-5 horses) and then they are let individually into the barn. Once they know the routine - even our weanling - they usually go to their stall - unless it is one of those days where they all want to be idiots. Then we just grab a lead shank and through it around their neck to take them to their stall.

Our horses don't wear halters very often and all will lead with a hand on their face and I also use a lunge whip as a directional stick if I need to.

But this really only works because we are a private facility and it usually takes a new horse about a week or two to understand the routine - new horses are haltered for the first little while but they catch on pretty quick when it is feeding time.

We let them out one at a time - open the stall - the barn door is usually open and out they go individually and then the corral group goes into their selected paddock.

As I said it works for us but our horses are used to it and pretty good about it.

shaiarabs · Well Schooled

seen it done both ways.. would always lead in...the accidents from horses challenging one another at doors.. or taking hips out on the way through is not worth it..

Horse-hearted · Advanced

I am a fan of leading in. As was said, it reinforces ground manners and is simply safer for all involved. When you are low on time, the opprotunity of spending a few one-on-one minutes with your horse twice a day is extremely beneficial.

cjroyg · Well Schooled

We lead them in one by one. The facility is not made to herd them in all together. We sometimes do two at a time just to get everything going faster but only with the horses we really trust. We have 20+ horses and half of them don't get grain. For us the one by one is better. We are getting new horses almost every month and some of them are not that nice with horses or humans and bringing them one by one gives us the posibility to train these horses.

sedonasilver · Advanced

I dont think the horses i worked with would let me lead them in 2 at a time. They have perfect groundmanners when they're on their own but get them next to each other when they know their dinner is waiting for them in the stables, its all of a sudden on.

Yet they are perfectly well mannered to each other once in their stables.

Horse-hearted · Advanced

Yes, everything changes once food is involved!

sedonasilver · Advanced

You would really think we starved them the way they can act sometimes. Add a little bit of wind and some rain and its like trying to stable a wild horse.

Fortunately Lorenzo tends to have nice manners, cant speak for the others however ;)

SoftTouchTraining · Well Schooled

We do both. If they go to a stall we lead them in. If they just come up out of pasture to the catch lot, we herd them in.