How to House-Train Your Horse

Farfetched though it seems, it's possible to keep a horse indoors - of course, the idea is not for every horse or horse owner. The author of this eHow speaks from personal experience of the special effort and accommodations necessary and the magical bond that comes from sharing your living room with your horse. Here are a few of the steps involved in a vital part of the process: housebreaking.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Lead Ropes

1. Start with a horse 6 months old or younger.
2. Walk her inside the house on a lead and halter.
3. Praise the foal when she's standing in the kitchen or living room. Applaud her, talk to her, reward her with food. Let her know how much you love having her in your home.
4. Tie her lead rope loosely to something sturdy like the refrigerator door or a furniture leg. Reward her again, then let her settle in. Soon she'll start to doze.
5. Stay near her, but don't fuss over her. She needs to learn that just because she's in the house with you doesn't mean she'll constantly be the center of attention.
6. Wake her up by talking to her and stroking her after she's been inside for three hours.
7. Turn her around to face the outside door.
8. Lead her out the door to a special "pooping" spot you've previously picked out just for toilet training purposes.
9. Stand with her on that spot and ask her to "poop" and "pee." Don't return her to the house until she does both.
10. Clap and squeal with joy after she does each of her businesses. Let her know by the excitement in your voice and by your animated body language that she has accomplished a stupendous feat.
11. Lead her into the house and reward her with her favorite treats. As you're rewarding her, repeat over and over again, "What a good girl. What a good girl."
12. Repeat this process every three hours. Within a month, she'll be telling you when she needs to go out.

Tips & Warnings

• When you first start bringing your young horse into the house, try to minimize household chaos. Until the horse is fully housebroken, keep the TV and radio turned off or muted. Avoid loud, sudden noises and strong odors, like those of fried foods, air fresheners and deodorants.
• Keep the part of the house where the horse stands spotlessly clean. If the horse smells fresh soapy smells under her feet, she'll understand that where she is standing is not a place she is permitted to soil.
• For the first few months, keep a plastic wastebasket near the horse. If it looks as if your horse is going to have an "accident," stick the waste can under her.
• Use the accident to teach her a lesson. Don't punish your horse. Use your voice to express your enormous disappointment in her. Then act completely disgusted by what she put in the waste can as you walk the waste can outside. It won't take more than one or two accidents before the horse will also be repulsed by a dirtied waste can inside the house.
• Once your horse gets the hang of being housebroken, keep a close eye on her. If she needs to go outside to do her business, she'll try to tell you by turning and pointing herself toward the door. Make sure you aren't so busy doing something else that you forget to pay attention to her signals. Being attentive will help her to succeed.
• Of course, this is complicated and you should talk to owners who have kept a horse indoors. Read books on the subject.
• Horses are big animals and need protection from hazardous household items (such as windows, lamps, fans) - as do those same items need horse protection.