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Posts Tagged ‘horse training’

Before the ultimate goal of saddle training can begin it is necessary to complete some important groundwork with your horse. You will need to take your horse from trailer or barn to the tack area, tack up, and then you’ll ride. There would be little point in teaching saddle training without first learning how to get to that point. The two of you can only act as a team if your horse cooperates with you. This cooperation begins with your ability to approach, catch, and halter him first. Only then can you lead your horse using a halter and lead rope.

With the primary objective of safety in mind, your horse needs to learn what is acceptable behaviour. You will need to address behaviours which come naturally to him, such as pulling against the lead rope. It’s important that your horse knows not to invade the personal space of the person holding the lead rope. Many an accident has occurred as a direct result of inattention to the importance of teaching your horse basic safety manners before attempting anything more advanced. Whilst a good equine insurance policy may cover you for accidents that happen in training, it’s obviously far more preferable not to have to find this out!

The three Ps of horse training – patience, persistence and positive reinforcement – come into play when leading your horse. If you have already achieved success at haltering, then you probably know all about the three Ps already.

Ideally you need to begin lead training with your horse when he is still a foal. A very young horse will not need to know just yet about saddles and riding, but basic ground manners training should begin early on. The young horse will need to cooperate for farrier and vet visits, as well as for the various people moving about the yard, stables or paddock.

Having the dam – the foal’s mother – on site can help dramatically when beginning training as the younger horse will naturally copy her behaviours. Don’t worry if the dam is not present, as it works as well with any horse which the foal spends time with. The young learn naturally from the elder. For example, you don’t need to teach a horse in the pasture how to graze or go to the water and drink. They watch the other horses to learn these things. If your student is older, you can still use another horse’s example by haltering and leading the other horse first. Your student will be observing this as horses like to know what is going on around them, especially when it involves one of their own herd.

A good place to start is to lead a more experienced horse along with the foal; lead them simultaneously with you in the middle. The safest place for you to stand is to the left of your student’s shoulder, with the older horse to your left. A young horse could suddenly decide to bolt or to kick his heels, so make sure that you don’t wrap the lead rope around your hand or anywhere else that makes you vunerable. The last thing you need at this stage is complicating the process with an injury for which you may need to claim on your horse insurance.

If you have a calm horse which you think the foal will follow you could also use the pony method. This is done by simply towing the student horse behind using a longer lead rope. This is actually a logical method for teaching the lead, as it’s natural for the young to follow the elders behaviour.

If there are no other horses around to help your student out here, you will need to rely only on patience, persistence and positive reinforcement. Don’t be discouraged if it takes longer than you would like for your horse to understand what it is that’s expected of him.

After satisfactory progress, it’s time to try it alone. Again, standing to the left of your young horse’s shoulder and with both of you looking straight ahead, gently walk forward and as you step out, tug very gently forward, then release any pressure on the rope as soon as the horse makes any motion to go forward. Understanding that release is a reward to your horse is a valuable tip used by professional trainers. This lets your horse know that you are happy with his behaviour.

Once he has mastered walking with you in a straight line you can then attempt a small turn to the left while still maintaining the space between you. If he crowds you, use your right hand to push him out away from you and hold your arm out to the appropriate distance. Then try turning to the right with the same safety distance between the two of you, still using your right hand to guide him into the correct zone. Remember to release pressure on the lead rope and reward him every time he shows a step in the right direction.

Lead training can really try your patience. Stay with it and you will see great improvement. Do a little work every day if you can and this will put you closer to the day you can finally saddle up for a ride.

This is basic ground manners explained. Simply put, your horse should do what you ask. The horse’s movements should be performed safely no matter how simple or routine the task may be. Your horse needs to know that to push, step on or endanger you in any way – either intentionally or not – is unacceptable. These may seem like simple annoyances, perhaps, but you can see that there is definitely potential for someone to be seriously hurt. Since horses outweigh you by a ton, literally, a misplaced hoof can break your foot. Better not to find out the hard way whether your equine insurance will cover you for this! Your very own personal space bubble can be established and then maintained to best avoid this problem.

A nuzzle into your pocket to search for a tasty treat could leave you with a nasty – if well-meaning – nibble. These love nibbles will not feel as such when made by teeth as big as those of your horse. Horses in a herd treat each other differently than they must treat us. Horses are somewhat more robust and durable than humans and it’s OK to them if they sometimes nip, bite or crowd each other.

Many people have unfortunately learned the space bubble lesson the hard way. My first, and subsequently the last, experience with the concept of crowding occurred when I bought my first horse years ago. My wonderful new four-legged friend liked to “help” me with the paddock cleaning. He would put his nose into the manure cart as I placed the manure into it. Then one day he actually lifted his front hoof and put it into the cart when I put a rake full of manure in. He knocked the cart over, which spooked him, which in turn spooked the other three horses in the paddock. Hooves and tails were flying around all over, with me stuck in the middle. Thankfully I was not hurt, but this could have been a mild or even a serious disaster – and may have even necessitated a claim on my horse insurance.

This was in the basic learning curve time period for both of us. I was so amused at his trying to help me with my chores that I didn’t think about the potential consequences. That was the day on which I learned hoe important it is to teach a horse basic manners. It was then that I realised the importance of teaching him how to respect my space when I was in the paddock attending to chores. If he wanted to play cute he could still do this during the time we spent together learning cues and training.

Basic safety manners can be taught by utilising the three Ps of horse training. The three Ps of horse training – patience, persistence and positive reinforcement – are crucial to the developing relationship between you and any horse you ride or are training for someone else.

Patience. Your horse doesn’t instinctively know what you want. You need to show patience in showing your equine what to do, then patience in letting him practice until he gets it right; this is key to building trust. Allow your mind to become clear of stresses and strain before you start a training session. Take a deep breath and relax. It is part of the natural learning process for your horse to test the waters. He needs to check and see if what he thinks you want is correct. This can occur several times before the horse has confirmed his correct assessment of the task.

Persistence. You musn’t be tempted to give up after a few goes. At first it is hard to communicate. After all, you don’t speak the same language yet! Stay with it and be consistent in your cues. Horses are very perceptive to even the slightest cue. Cooperation will follow when your horse understands what the cue means.

Positive reinforcement. Whenever your horse does something correctly, show him a signal. It’s not always necessary to use a tasty morsel as a reward. Horse love to be released when they have done a job correctly. Imagine the “whoa!” or “stop” cue. This is a pull on the bit within his mouth. When the horse exhibits the signs that he understands that you want him to stop, release the bit immediately. That tells him he’s doing the right thing.

Horses need to know their limits. How close can he stand to you before you feel crowded? Can he pull on the lead rope if he doesn’t want to go the way you are leading him? If he doesn’t feel inclined to pick up his foot, will you allow him to get away with this? What may to us seem like common sense are not necessarily things which come naturally to a horse. A correctly and carefully trained horse will forever be both a most pleasing companion and could also represent a lower liability when it comes to renewing your horse insurance policy.

When looking to buy a horse, one of the first decisions is whether to get one which is untrained, partly trained, or fully trained. Most people, especially if it is there first horse, will be better off getting a horse which is already trained for whatever they intend to use if for. For example, if one intends to use the horse for basic riding it should already be trained for riding, whereas if you are using it for show jumping, it should already be trained in show jumping.

Of course, after looking at horses for sale, one can purchase an untrained horse or a partly trained horse. Such a horse will be less expensive to buy. Also, you can instruct a trainer on exactly how you want the horse trained, and you can have the experience and pleasure of participating in this. However, against these advantages, there are a number of disadvantages:

• Cost of Training. The cost of training depends on individual circumstances and is hard to estimate, but it is under-estimated far more often than over-estimated. Aside from the direct trainer costs, unless the trainer comes to you, there are the additional costs of either stabling the horse with the trainer, or transporting the horse to the trainer for each lesson. Many people find that by the time the horse is fully trained to the level they require, it would have been cheaper to have bought an already trained horse.
• Accidents. Occasionally there are accidents during training, even with good trainers, especially during early training when the horse is less predictable. Even in the case of minor accidents, there may be vet costs.
• Mis-Training. Trainers vary both in terms of approach and in quality. Furthermore, in order to secure the training contract at an economical level, trainers may rush the training or under-estimate the amount required. If this occurs, at best you end up with an incompletely trained horse and at worse a horse which has been mis-trained, resulting in undesirable behaviors.
• Feel. Two horses, trained in exactly the same way, will provide a different riding experience due to individual differences. Horses differ due to breed, build, training and individual genetics. Consequently, how comfortable you will be riding a horse is more predictable with an already trained horse than with an untrained one.
• Health Examination. A trained horse is easier to evaluate for injuries or other defects as one can ride it and one can watch it carefully while being ridden in each gait. Although one can examine an untrained horse, the examination by necessity is less complete.

Due to these considerations, buying untrained (or partly trained) horse can be both more expensive and more risky than buying a fully trained horse.

Although some people purchase a horse with the idea of training it themselves, this is inadvisable unless one is an experienced trainer (or working closely with one). Novice trainers can easily give the horse bad behaviors or habits, which are expensive and difficult to correct.

Also be careful of buying a partly trained horse based on the seller’s promise to complete the training. After the sale is made, it is too tempting for the seller to rush the training, in order to reduce costs and get payments as quickly as possible. Make the final commitment to buy only after the horse competes its training and you have ridden it to confirm that you are completely happy.