Trail Horse Training

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"Give Your Horse A Want-To Attitude," Issue 4, part 1 of our FREE monthly newsletter

From our Learning to Ride a Horse Series:

"I treat the horse the same way. If I ask him to standstill, that's cleaning his room. I say "Clean your room." He says "No." I say "Fine." Now, what can I do that requires movement? It doesn't matter if I'm in the arena or the trail. In either place I can work on change of directions. I can work on his headset. I can get the horse working better off my legs or seat. And I can always work on speed control. I could do all kinds of different things. I can work on all those things when my horse wants to move. If my horse wants to move, I say, great, let's do it. Let's work on breaking at the poll, softening up your neck or following your nose; let's work on your leg speed; let's work on you moving off my legs. Let's do all these different things, and then, when I'm done, I'm going to ask the horse: "Do you want to clean your room, the garage and the patio? Or, do you want to just stand still?" These are all things I would have wanted to work on anyway…"

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Lyons Training 101 Issue Number:  Eleven Responsibility written by Josh Lyons & Keith Hosman

Issue Eleven, Part 1 of 2

Seeing Red... Ribbons
Horses That Kick On The Trail

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Have you ever seen a red ribbon tied to a horse's tail? What does that ribbon mean? It means "Stay away from me. My horse will kick your horse."

Does that make you mad? Maybe it should. You've gone to a lot of time and trouble to train your horse, to teach it that it is never okay to act up or kick somebody else's horse – but the guy next to you with the ribbon skipped the whole process. The days you worked on gaining control over your horse, he spent going to the movies. You put in the hard work it takes to build a safe horse; they skipped the process entirely.

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How about I take a rope and throw it at that red ribbon? Their horse might kick and it might buck. And it might make the rider turn around and say "What the devil did you do that for?" And I might just answer "I'm telling your horse's butt to stay away from the end of my rope."

But here's the bottom line: While the guy with the ribbon should have trained his horse better before hitting the trail, you should train your own horse to deal with other, poorly trained horses. If their horse can run backwards kicking at your horse, then you need the control it takes to duck out of the way. Teach your horse to focus on you, to stay out of fights and to behave itself by being steadfast in your training.

It is our responsibility to train our horses and make them safe under all circumstances. If your horse jumps at the sight of a tractor, don't get mad at the farmer. Spend more time training your horse.

End of Issue Eleven, Part 1
 
 

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