Housebreaking a horse

Housebreaking horses is similar to the training done with dogs.  The Burleson’s Guide Horse prototype, Twinkie, was fully house trained in less than a week. 

Janet Burleson explains that in working with the Miniatures she and Don realized that the horses can learn to empty themselves at appropriate times and can hold elimination for up to six hours.  They can also develop a habit of eliminating in a specific area.

“There’s lots of difference between these small horses and the larger ones,” she says.  While large horses tend to eliminate approximately every 45 minutes, Miniature Horses tend to eliminate every three to four hours.  “It’s normal for them,” she says, and that makes house training for longer periods of five to six hours possible.  The horses are taught to paw at a door or nicker when they need to eliminate.

Guide horses are so successfully housebroken that they commonly fly in the passenger cabin of commercial aircraft and can reliably go on trips for up to six hours.