Laying A Horse Down
Before I get into things, there are two types of laying a horse down. First there is teaching your horse to lay down as a trick often used with a combination of negative and positive refinforcement. I will be talking about laying a horse down using negative reinforcement. Laying a horse down is one of those controversial things that people either agree with and do, or really hate it. It is done for a variety of reasons; teaching a horse to give to pressure so the horse doesn't panic if ever caught in a fence etc, getting a spooky horse to calm down by building trust, getting your horse over an area they don't like touched, getting a belligerent horse to stop fighting and become a better partner and other uses. The most important thing is not to force a horse down. The horse needs to make the choice to go down in order to get the most benefit from this exercise. The end of this article shows a video on how I lay horses down. To understand it, you should read over this article in its entirety.
Before laying a horse down, the horse should be comfortable in a one leg hobble. You can simply let your horse wear this for a short period under supervision or you can slowly move your horse around so your horse realizes they can move. This will greatly reduce the amount of fighting against pressure your horse will do. You should also have a confined space such as a round pen. A circular area is ideal so your horse doesn't get caught in a corner. You will also need a long lunge line with a O ring large enough to thread the line back through. If you done have a long enough line, tie two lunge lines together securely. Whether you leave a halter on your horse is personal preference. Many times I prefer not to as it is one more thing to keep up with.
To start the process, you will first hobble one front leg. Then you will go to the opposite side of your horse to secure your second rope. Loop your rope around your horses pastern. Then toss your rope over your horses back, carefully get your rope and then toss it back over. This loops around the barrel once and your rope ends up being on the same side as the hobbled leg. This is the point I take the halter off my horse.
At this point, the process begins. You should stand several feet from your horse towards the hip. This gives you leverage on the front leg and keeps you safe from the front hooves. Gently apply pressure with your rope until your horse shifts their weight backwards to their hind legs. Your horse may fight this, rearing, running forward etc. keep pressure on the leg and stay in that same spot relative to your horse. Your horse is trying to see what he can do to get you to remove that pressure. As soon as he is standing and rocks back, release that pressure. Give him a few moments and ask again.
Keep asking your horse to rock back, asking for a bit more as your horse gets it. At some point your horse may bow down. As long as your horse is in this position leave him alone. He is contemplating going down. When he stands up, ask him to bow down again. This is often the point a horse will fight you. A horse doesn't want to lay down in front of us, it's a vulnerable position. Just keep calm and asking.
When your horse does go down, you can use your rope to apply pressure so your horse lies flat down. Then walk up to your horse and kneel on his jaw and neck. Pressure here will keep him from getting up.
Initially your horse will be quite anxious about this. Rub on your horse until you see his eye soften and he relaxes a little. Then go ahead and rub all over him. If you feel he will stay down, untie his legs so he is more comfortable. While he is down, make that a good place to be, rub him, give him scratches in his favorite spot etc. you can also use this time to work on tricky areas. If your horse is a little girthy, rub on him there. You can lay on your horses side while you rub so you can really feel his breathing while you rub.
When your horse is really relaxed, slide off of him towards his back and step back. Let him get up in his own time. Don't do any more work during this session.
I personally only day a horse down a few times until they go down pretty easily. This isn't a trick for me. It's getting a horse more broke on the ground so the horse is safe to handle and a step closer to riding.
https://youtu.be/ml1U5D6_GjQ