A horse that’s confident and relaxed thinks on a very simple level. When you tap your horse on the rump or touch him with your leg or spur, he moves forward and the tapping, leg or spur stops. Your horse soon learns how to make you stop tapping or spurring – just move forward and … Read more
At every stage of every horse’s education, you should always aim to improve. Even if you’re walking a circle, aim for a ‘perfect’ circle – where the horse walks the exact track you ask, at the exact speed you ask, with the exact bend you ask. This may sound easy but it’s actually very difficult. … Read more
Here’s a scenario to ponder: A person who’s never even been near a horse before, attends his first riding lesson. The teacher says, ‘Welcome, we’ll start by putting you on a horse that bucks. Don’t worry, just work your way through it. We’ll teach you coping skills and tomorrow you can do it again. After … Read more
We should try to use as little unpleasantness as possible at every phase of horse training. Everyone thinks horses stop when you pull on the reins. However, before you apply pressure on the bit, bring your legs on and sit in the stand and relax position. If your horse is ‘giving’ and ‘listening’, he’ll understand … Read more
A lady bought a horse to one of my clinics and said, ‘I’m having trouble with flying changes. Can you teach him to change leads for me. I’m doing dressage and I need flying changes.’ There are many steps that lead to a correct flying change. Your horse must be able to walk, trot and … Read more
When I trained horses for a living, I rode between eight and fifteen horses every day. Each horse was at a different stage of training and each horse reacted differently on any particular day. Half the time I couldn’t even remember where I was up to with them. It didn’t matter because each horse soon … Read more
Over the years, I’ve always read everything I could lay my hands on about horses and horse training. Many authors make horse training sound very complicated. Sometimes I can’t make head nor tail of the complicated explanations of how and why horses do certain things. Countless books and articles talk in depth about the anatomy … Read more
Training horses isn’t easy. When you set out to train a horse, the plain fact is that you’re going to have problems at some point. Different problems will arise at different stages with different horses. No two horses have the same experiences and handling. Every horse will react slightly differently in any given situation. You … Read more
Many horse people like to think they are at one with nature. They feel it’s perfectly natural to chase a horse in a round yard. They have a warm fuzzy feeling about being a member of the horse herd. When their horse eventually faces them or follows them, it appeals to their ‘inner spirit’ to … Read more
When you work with your horse, you must be very careful which behaviours you reward. It’s very easy to reward undesirable behaviours without even knowing that you’ve done so. At a recent campdraft, I watched a lady trotting her horse around in the warm-up area. When her horse slowed down to look at a garbage … Read more