Top 10 Tips for Training Your Horse

Top Ten Tips for Training your Horse

1. Build a relationship with your horse. He needs to trust you before he can relax. You will build relationship by talking to him and brushing him along with many other simple daily actions.

2. Teach your horse by your actions that he can trust you. Don’t ask him to do more than he is physically and emotionally capable of doing. Take your training in steps rather than expecting to accomplish everything in a day. Be sure your body is telling him the same thing – your mouth and your leg aids are telling him. Otherwise he will get confused and will not know what you want him to do. He will begin to mistrust you if all your commands are not congruent.

3. Drive your horse in order to build up muscle, build trust and relaxation. Teach him cues and voice commands from the ground before you ever get on his back.  You can also use Driving as a way to exercise him to release excess energy before you get on his back. Use Driving instead of lunging him. With Driving your are teaching him while releasing excess energy unlike just allowing him to run around the arena on a  lunge line.

4. Jerking on a horses mouth and pulling him back as a way to train him to slow down is silly and doesn’t work. Jerking on a horses mouth does nothing to teach him to slow his body and round up to use his natural power source. So instead allow him to slow down naturally by working his body using a series of different exercises.

5. Teach your horse to side pass. Cue him by using your hands and your leg aids. Not only are you teaching him to listen to your leg aids but you are building body muscle at the same time.

6. Teach your horse to pivot on his forehand and his haunches. Your end goal is to have your horse so well trained to your leg aids that if you lost your reins you would still be able to ride your horse.

7. Teach your horse to quietly and easily transition from a jog to a lope and from a lope to a jog. Teach your horse to pivot to set him up for success in his transitions.

8. Ride your horse in the Figure 8. Teach him to listen to your leg aids and move his body in the direction you ask him.

9. Strengthen your horse by backing him up. Not only will your horse build muscle but he will learn to release and get up off his front end.

10. Teach your horse to respect you. While there is no need for him to fear you, he does need to have a healthy respect for you. This keeps you more safe and him as well.