From John Lyons Trainer Keith Hosman

Round Pen First Steps
A Downloadable Book

A sample from Day 1:

"If, despite your best efforts, your horse refuses to move around the pen, bring in another horse, one he gets along with and concentrate on getting the second horse to move. The second horse will give the first horse the proper idea: move. Before long you'll be able to remove horse number two.

Get the horse trotting around the pen, it doesn't matter which direction, clockwise or counter clockwise, as long as you pick a direction and stick with it (for now). Use the least amount of pressure it's takes to get the horse moving, then relax and stand in the center, the horse traveling around the perimeter. If your horse wants to turn back in to you or stand near you, do what it takes to get him to move off. Let the horse turn in and hang out with you now and you're teaching him from the start that he's the boss. Don't let that happen. See if for what it is – and it ain't obedience. If your horse is winging around at mach 60, so be it. Sooner or later every horse will slow down. Just stare off and listen to the beat."

- Print out from home
- 5 Days, 5 chapters
- Learn at your own pace

Just $5.99

For more info:
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Available Downloads:
"Stop Bucking"
"Rein/Speed" (for Nervous Horse Owners)
"Round Pen First Steps"
"Trailer Training"

Sample Our Newsletter
"How to Halter a Horse," from my FREE monthly newsletter

From the Basic Horse Training Series:

"Is he head shy? Does he have a cow when you touch his ears or chin or block his vision? Then put the halter down and use your hands to desensitize him to your touch. (Use a dressage whip at first if you feel he might throw his head about and strike you. This would be a silly way to lose your front teeth. Stand at the point of his shoulder if you feel there's any chance he might try to kick or walk into you.) Begin by finding the spots where he doesn't like to be touched and do what any bratty older sister would do: Keep touching him there. If you can't touch his ears, rub the area you can rub, edging ever closer to the ears as the horse grows bored, being careful to only remove our rubs when the horse pauses. There's only one way to screw this up and that is for you to pause when he moves away. If he moves, you move with him. Remember, you "sensitize" the horse (that is, make him more likely to move) when you remove your pressure as he moves; you "desensitize" the horse (dull him to something) when you remove your pressure when he stops doing something.

If you're saying, "Yeah, but he moves his ears the second I touch them," that's fine. If you can bring your hand up and over his ears even for a tenth of a second, you would have accomplished your immediate objective of touching his ears. (Our long term goal is haltering the horse and we never start with our goal, right?) All you need to do is repeat this over and over and over, slowing your hand above his ears as he begins to grow bored. The horse has either grown sensitive to having his ears touched because people backed off as he pitched his head ("sensitizing him") – or no one's ever worked with him period (as in the case of a youngster). Either way, our response is the same."

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