Changing a horses temperment

[TallPinesTraining]

Here's a question for all you experienced trainers out there.
How do you increase /change a horses temperment?
I've noticed that some of my horses temperments do change along the way through training but I can not figure out why/how this happens. Right now it's just a happy accident.
I would like to be able to control this if it is at all possible. What are your suggestions?
Thanks for your help.

[jl1106]

Here's a question for all you experienced trainers out there.
How do you increase /change a horses temperment?
I've noticed that some of my horses temperments do change along the way through training but I can not figure out why/how this happens. Right now it's just a happy accident.
I would like to be able to control this if it is at all possible. What are your suggestions?
Thanks for your help.

You can change and control a horses temperament by what you feed it. If you want to change a horse with bombproof temperament into a horse with high strung temperament then feed it lots of sugar. If you want to do it the other way around, high strung - bombproof then feed your horse lots of fiber. No all horses temperament will change though, once in awhile you'll get a stubborn horse who just won't change lol.
If anyone wants to add, or correct me please do I'm not the expert at temperaments . Hope this helps!

[TallPinesTraining]

Here's a question for all you experienced trainers out there.
How do you increase /change a horses temperment?
I've noticed that some of my horses temperments do change along the way through training but I can not figure out why/how this happens. Right now it's just a happy accident.
I would like to be able to control this if it is at all possible. What are your suggestions?
Thanks for your help.

You can change and control a horses temperament by what you feed it. If you want to change a horse with bombproof temperament into a horse with high strung temperament then feed it lots of sugar. If you want to do it the other way around, high strung - bombproof then feed your horse lots of fiber. No all horses temperament will change though, once in awhile you'll get a stubborn horse who just won't change lol.
If anyone wants to add, or correct me please do I'm not the expert at temperaments . Hope this helps!

Yes thank you so much for your answer. It does help explain a lot. Mostly i want to change some of the bombproof ones to spirited/high strung. I have been keeping all my horses outside and have been just feeding corn to them all; keeping grass at 100% and corn amounts at under $2 per turn to save money. I guess I will have to stop being such a cheapskate and spend a few more $$ on their food to "sweeten" them up some more and maybe mow the fields more often to keep down the fiber. I will do some experimenting with the amounts. You have been a terrific help and if anyone else has more to add please do. Thanks again!

[Silverine]

Yes thank you so much for your answer. It does help explain a lot. Mostly i want to change some of the bombproof ones to spirited/high strung. I have been keeping all my horses outside and have been just feeding corn to them all; keeping grass at 100% and corn amounts at under $2 per turn to save money. I guess I will have to stop being such a cheapskate and spend a few more $$ on their food to "sweeten" them up some more and maybe mow the fields more often to keep down the fiber. I will do some experimenting with the amounts. You have been a terrific help and if anyone else has more to add please do. Thanks again!

The best way to switch a horse from Bombproof to a "higher" temperament is to put them in a barn and then have them on 100% of either Performance Mix or Sweet Feed. Performance mix and sweet feed are better because of their added protein content - it generally helps to accelerate the rate of change. When the horse is at the temperament that you would like it to stay at the best mix is somewhere around 30% Alfalfa Cubes and 70% Performance Mix - or any mix you can find that keeps the level of sugar equal to the level of fiber. But you'll still have to keep an eye on them, because even with apparently even levels it will still be slightly off and will most likely change eventually.

It's a good idea to take note of your horses' temperament at birth. I've found that horses born Bombproof are more likely to be stuck on that specific temperament than any other. In my herd, any horse that is born Bombproof is rather likely to stay there, but any horse born with a different temperament will be changeable, even if it takes a long time.

[TallPinesTraining]

Yes thank you so much for your answer. It does help explain a lot. Mostly i want to change some of the bombproof ones to spirited/high strung. I have been keeping all my horses outside and have been just feeding corn to them all; keeping grass at 100% and corn amounts at under $2 per turn to save money. I guess I will have to stop being such a cheapskate and spend a few more $$ on their food to "sweeten" them up some more and maybe mow the fields more often to keep down the fiber. I will do some experimenting with the amounts. You have been a terrific help and if anyone else has more to add please do. Thanks again!

The best way to switch a horse from Bombproof to a "higher" temperament is to put them in a barn and then have them on 100% of either Performance Mix or Sweet Feed. Performance mix and sweet feed are better because of their added protein content - it generally helps to accelerate the rate of change. When the horse is at the temperament that you would like it to stay at the best mix is somewhere around 30% Alfalfa Cubes and 70% Performance Mix - or any mix you can find that keeps the level of sugar equal to the level of fiber. But you'll still have to keep an eye on them, because even with apparently even levels it will still be slightly off and will most likely change eventually.

It's a good idea to take note of your horses' temperament at birth. I've found that horses born Bombproof are more likely to be stuck on that specific temperament than any other. In my herd, any horse that is born Bombproof is rather likely to stay there, but any horse born with a different temperament will be changeable, even if it takes a long time.

Thank you! I appreciate all the help I can get I will start keeping trac of my foals temperments at birth. This might be a silly question...but... Do you keep the horses in the barn throughout all their traing from the very begining? or just bring them up to ideal temperment when they are fully trained and ready to show?
Does the temperment or breed of the parents have any effect on the foals? or does it just depend on the way they are housed and fed? Thanks again everyone.

[Tisha]

Thank you! I appreciate all the help I can get I will start keeping track of my foals temperaments at birth. This might be a silly question...but... Do you keep the horses in the barn throughout all their training from the very begining? or just bring them up to ideal temperaments when they are fully trained and ready to show?
Does the temperment or breed of the parents have any effect on the foals? or does it just depend on the way they are housed and fed? Thanks again everyone.

Personally, I'll put the horse's birth temperament in its notes. It's efficient and it works for me, which is all that matters.

When foals are born, their source of energy will be from milk. When they are placed in barns, with feed, more often than not, they end up losing weight and energy. Which is detrimental for training. At six months, they are weaned. However, they do not eat enough feed for you to be able to put it in a barn with 100% Weight gain mix. (The "lightest") This method works when you have to finish training a horse by a time frame along with the temperament. (Eg. By 3 years, from Calm to High Strung)

My advice is to leave the foals in a pasture till ten months and adjust the feed accordingly. Then, put it in a barn till the end of training.

Of course, if you're in no rush, you can just leave it in a pasture till you have finished and then adjust the temperament. Do note that it can take a pretty long time to change the temperament.

Temperament is linked to genetics, but I think someone else might be able to explain this better.

Also, there are already similar questions that have been answered in the Gameplay Questions & Help forum, I recommend you to search it up.

[Silverine]

Thank you! I appreciate all the help I can get I will start keeping track of my foals temperaments at birth. This might be a silly question...but... Do you keep the horses in the barn throughout all their training from the very begining? or just bring them up to ideal temperaments when they are fully trained and ready to show?
Does the temperment or breed of the parents have any effect on the foals? or does it just depend on the way they are housed and fed? Thanks again everyone.

Personally, I'll put the horse's birth temperament in its notes. It's efficient and it works for me, which is all that matters.

When foals are born, their source of energy will be from milk. When they are placed in barns, with feed, more often than not, they end up losing weight and energy. Which is detrimental for training. At six months, they are weaned. However, they do not eat enough feed for you to be able to put it in a barn with 100% Weight gain mix. (The "lightest") This method works when you have to finish training a horse by a time frame along with the temperament. (Eg. By 3 years, from Calm to High Strung)

My advice is to leave the foals in a pasture till ten months and adjust the feed accordingly. Then, put it in a barn till the end of training.

Of course, if you're in no rush, you can just leave it in a pasture till you have finished and then adjust the temperament. Do note that it can take a pretty long time to change the temperament.

Temperament is linked to genetics, but I think someone else might be able to explain this better.

Also, there are already similar questions that have been answered in the Gameplay Questions & Help forum, I recommend you to search it up.

As Champion said, it can be very difficult to keep weight and energy on a young horse that is in a barn. For my part, I leave them in the field until they are two years old, at which point their food consumption should stabilize. Before that point they will have a major change in their eating habits at ten months, and then will fluctuate from ten months to twenty-four months.

I mostly train dressage horses and aim for Even-Tempered with Moderate weight. For my horses, if I leave them in the field while they are foals/yearlings and have them on Performance Mix along with their grass they generally do not dip below Calm after weaning unless they were born Bombproof. However, this will vary greatly between horses.

Again as Champion said, temperament is highly affected by genetics. You can get an idea of how malleable a foal's temperament will be by looking at their parents (though of course this doesn't help if you didn't try to change the parent's temperament). I have a line of horses that tend to be stuck at Bombproof, and a line that changes. My line that changes tends to be pretty volatile as far as their changes go, but there are other horses out there that change much more slowly - some can even take game years to move one level. Overall, changing temperament is a lot of guesswork and crossing your fingers.

[TallPinesTraining]

Personally, I'll put the horse's birth temperament in its notes. It's efficient and it works for me, which is all that matters.

When foals are born, their source of energy will be from milk. When they are placed in barns, with feed, more often than not, they end up losing weight and energy. Which is detrimental for training. At six months, they are weaned. However, they do not eat enough feed for you to be able to put it in a barn with 100% Weight gain mix. (The "lightest") This method works when you have to finish training a horse by a time frame along with the temperament. (Eg. By 3 years, from Calm to High Strung)

My advice is to leave the foals in a pasture till ten months and adjust the feed accordingly. Then, put it in a barn till the end of training.

Of course, if you're in no rush, you can just leave it in a pasture till you have finished and then adjust the temperament. Do note that it can take a pretty long time to change the temperament.

Temperament is linked to genetics, but I think someone else might be able to explain this better.

Also, there are already similar questions that have been answered in the Gameplay Questions & Help forum, I recommend you to search it up.

As Champion said, it can be very difficult to keep weight and energy on a young horse that is in a barn. For my part, I leave them in the field until they are two years old, at which point their food consumption should stabilize. Before that point they will have a major change in their eating habits at ten months, and then will fluctuate from ten months to twenty-four months.

I mostly train dressage horses and aim for Even-Tempered with Moderate weight. For my horses, if I leave them in the field while they are foals/yearlings and have them on Performance Mix along with their grass they generally do not dip below Calm after weaning unless they were born Bombproof. However, this will vary greatly between horses.

Again as Champion said, temperament is highly affected by genetics. You can get an idea of how malleable a foal's temperament will be by looking at their parents (though of course this doesn't help if you didn't try to change the parent's temperament). I have a line of horses that tend to be stuck at Bombproof, and a line that changes. My line that changes tends to be pretty volatile as far as their changes go, but there are other horses out there that change much more slowly - some can even take game years to move one level. Overall, changing temperament is a lot of guesswork and crossing your fingers.

This is a new challenge for me (changing temperments) so I appreciate all the input everyone is giving. I'm sure it will frustrate me at times but it will be fun Right now i only have 4 "race" horses i will be experimenting with... 1 is already high strung, one is even tempered(both nearly fully trained) and the other 2 are bombproof and about 3/4 trained. I have moved them all into a barn to begin working on this. Also a new arabian foal came out today calm so she will be an experiment to see how quickly (or slowly) i can elevate her temperment, her stats are not what i was hoping for but she will help my education until i am ready to sell or rehome her. I also have a few fully trained horses that i show in endurance, barrels,poles etc. that are bombproof and have moved them into a barn and changed their feed to high sugar also to see if temperments will change.