Invest one weekend to get the horse you've always wanted! Learn the simple, objective Lyons methods. For riding clinic locations click here. John Lyons Training Issue One: Get Control of Your Horse featured exercise: "Steer the Tail" written by Josh Lyons and Keith Hosman

When you pull left, does your horse go right? Are you starting a colt or looking to lay a strong foundation? Have you got a stiff-necked horse that won't slow down? Do you have bucking, rearing or bolting problems? Read on! This issue is for you!

Issue Number One:

• Part 1: Four Things You Need To Train Your Horse: Motivation, Spot, Direction, Reward

• Part 2: How To Get Your Horse's Attention: Recognition, Response, Control

• Part 3: An Exercise For When You Can't Ride: Teach Yourself What A Give Really Feels Like

• Part 4: Featured Riding Exercise: Steer The Tail

If your horse frequently controls you (instead of the other way around), if you've reached a training plateau, if you're starting a colt, or if you're building a true performance horse, then bookmark this issue and refer to it often.

Training a horse is all about control. It's about taking control one body part at a time and it's about being an active, rather than reactive rider. The concepts we've included here, along with our featured exercise "Steer the Tail," teach you the concepts you'll need to create the horse you've always wanted.

And, remember: As John Lyons says, you don't build a house in a day. You build it brick by brick. Give your horse—and yourself—time to digest the information and practice the exercises that follow.

- Josh Lyons and Keith Hosman

- part 1 -

Four Things You Need To Train Your Horse:
Motivation, Spot, Direction, Reward

Training a horse is pretty simple. It's four things: motivator, spot, direction, reward. That's all training a horse is. First, motivation. Do you have a job? What if I asked you to quit your job? What if I said I was going to hire you and give you two bucks an hour. Would you do it? Working with a horse is very similar. You're asking the horse to quit his job and come work for you. Their job is to get out of that arena as fast as they can, or to get back to that stall or to their buddy horse or find food. They have all kinds of jobs – and their jobs keep changing.

Our job is to create a motivator that tells the horse to quit his job and come work for us. Quit trying to get out of the gate; quit trying to get to the other horse. Quit trying to pick up your left lead and come work for me. Some horses you can hire for two bucks an hour and some horses you have to pay forty an hour. That's just the way it happens. Some horses you really gotta motivate; you gotta say, "No, I really want you to come work for me."

It's important that you understand that I'm not asking them to come work for me. I'm not thinking that they "want to" or they "should." They don't want to; I can promise you that. They'd much rather be left alone. So, I have to find a way to motivate them.

The second thing I'll work with is a spot, a part of the horse. Not the whole horse, but a specific part of the horse. If I can control that particular part, then all of a sudden the feet start to follow. The third part of training a horse is direction. Where do I want the horse – or that part of the horse – to go? Each part of the horse can go six different directions: right, left, forward, backward, up and down. The fourth and final thing when training a horse is reward. When the horse finally moves the correct direction, how do I say "Yes, that's what I want"?

You have to keep horse training just that simple. What makes training hard is when you let everything else interfere, other people, other horses, noises, moving objects, etcetera. It gets hard when you let anything else take your attention away from training. Don't let that happen. You've got to stay focused and actively riding your horse. The moment you look up and look at another horse, you're riding that horse, not your horse. If your horse acts up and threatens to buck, the moment you look at the ground and stop riding, then you've chosen the spot where you'll hit the ground. You must ride your horse.

- end of part 1 -

Issue Number One (cont'd):

• Part 1: Four Things You Need To Train Your Horse: Motivation, Spot, Direction, Reward

• Part 2: How To Get Your Horse's Attention: Recognition, Response, Control

• Part 3: An Exercise For When You Can't Ride: Teach Yourself What A Give Really Feels Like

• Part 4: Featured Riding Exercise: Steer The Tail

See more articles in our archive of past issues

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Disclaimer: Equine training can be a hazardous activity which may subject the participants to possible serious injury. Keith Hosman, Josh Lyons, Patrick Benson and their associates will not assume any liability for your activities. Our newsletter, books and videos provide general information, instruction and techniques that may not be suitable for everyone. No warranty is given regarding the suitability of this information, the instructions, and techniques to you or other individuals acting under your instructions.

This newsletter was written by Josh Lyons and Keith Hosman.
All Rights Reserved (TM) 2006, Keith Hosman and Josh Lyons
No part of this website or our newsletter(s) may be reproduced without our express written permission.

Make big changes in your riding when you attend a clinic with John Lyons Certified Trainer Keith Hosman. Find a clinic near you and reserve your spot!

Lyons Fact #843: If you start with your goal, you start with a wreck. Lyons Fact #54: A horse is only as good as we expect it to be. Always raise your expectations.

Lyons Fact #123:
Don't make it happen; let it happen.

Lyons Fact #102:
A "give" is three things: recognition, response and control.

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