Don't Worry Bout It

Some problems, if ignored, will go away by themselves.
This is something that I have discovered over the years. It's not so much that I ignored the problem is that I didn't worry about it.
The most major one was with my barrel horse, Santana, and bridling.
He didn't want the bridle going over his right eye. Like it was terrible. He had to be put in a stall or the trailer so that they could just get it on. He would rear and try to run away.
When I started riding him I never forced the issue. I just did it. I took my sweet ole time and got it done. In fact I took my sweet old time with everything I did with him. I took half an hour just to groom and tack him up. Not because he was a pain about it, just because I didn't have any need to go fast. That was what probably helped the most. I wasn't aggressive about anything I did with him.
When I put the bridle on I did is as stress less and painless as possible. I rode him almost every single day and did it once every single day. It went on, I rode, it came off.  I can't remember exactly how long it took him to get over his bridling issue, but I wanna say three to four months.
The other thing I can think of is Flicka. She would walk off when we tried to get on. All we did was tie her up to the trailer and get on while she was tied to the trailer. The halter was around her neck and we just leaned forward and undid it when we were on. We did that every single time we rode.
Three or four months later Aleythia walked her outside and got on. She didn't move.
Another is Ana's cribbing. We tried getting a cribbing halter, yelling her name, throwing dirt clods at her... nothing worked. Eventually Terry just put wire mesh all along the inside of her stall. She doesn't do it anymore. Or at least not nearly as often. She does it when you're handing out apples and she didn't get all of them.
Pawing works that way too. Pawing comes from a lack of patience. The horse wants to get moving. If he stood tied all day and you ignored everything he did he would eventually figure out that he's not going anywhere, the post will hold him, and he'll stand there like an old nag.
If you've ever read Mugwump Chronicles you'll see she uses a similar technique.
Let's put it this way. Your horse doesn't want to cross a bridge. You have to cross that bridge once every single time you ride. You try to get him as far as you can urging him across that bridge but most of the time you end up leading him across. Every single day you can urge him across a little further before leading him. Don't you think that eventually he'll be able to walk across that bridge without a problem?

Just do it and don't worry bout it,
Lydia Johnson