Take your left hand and hold the lead rope as if it's the left rein. Pull the halter slowly toward yourself.
"Concentrate. Feel how much pressure it takes to bring that rope toward you. You should feel on your pinky how many ounces it takes. Throw it back out and do it again. This time close your eyes and really concentrate. If you get this lesson, horse training gets a whole lot easier. Really focus on what it feels like. How many ounces is it taking to bring that halter back to you? Think of a specific number. How many pounds? How many ounces? One or two? 5 pounds or 5 ounces?
"How would you like your horse to be that soft? A pound or two doesn't seem so bad, does it? Actually, it's terrible. Having to put a pound or two of pressure on the rein to get it to "come back to you" is just terrible. Take the halter off the lead rope now and throw the rope back out, snap end first.
"Do the same thing, drag the snap back to you. How does that feel? It feels pretty light, right? You feel a big difference. But that's still terrible. Now take the lead rope and throw the opposite end out, the end without the snap. That feels really light. It feels like nothing. It's still terrible.
Our final step - and do not try this piece of business if you have any doubts that your horse might kick or jump unexpectedly - is this: Take a lunge line and clip it to your horse's halter. Stand on the horse's left side, lift the line up and over his head, bringing the rope back towards his tail on the opposite side (your arm reaching across the horse). Step back, bringing the rope with you. The line should drop against the horse's back legs and the horse should turn away from you, to his right, following the pull of the rope before turning to face you. The purpose? We're teaching the horse to follow pressure and to not simply follow us around like a puppy dog. Do this three or four times on each side, being careful to reward any softening of the horse's neck with a corresponding release of pressure on your end.
If you've taken the time to sack out the horse as I've described so far, then you should be facing a horse that doesn't flinch regardless of how or where you touch it, a horse that you believe will not kick. But, if that little voice says there's still a chance that he'll kick you or flinch or stiffen up at your touch, fall back and revisit previous steps where his training requires a bit of "shoring up." Get him rock solid - you'll be glad you did.
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Issue Three, Part 2 of 3
Teaching Your Horse To Stand Still
If you simply want your horse to stand still, and you keep picking up the reins to try and stop him - then the only thing that happens is that the horse gets aggravated. There's no possible way to make your horse stand still if he does not want to stand still. What if you tie him up? Can he still move? Of course he can. How about if you put him in a small two-horse trailer? There's no way the horse can move then, right? Wrong, guaranteed he can still move. What about cross-ties? Can he move around when he's cross-tied? Yes, he can. There is no way for you or I to physically to make this horse stand still. On the plus side, training is a lot easier with a horse that wants to move.
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• crossing water, jigging
• spooking, rearing, kicking
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Training is all about control. Learning how to get control or gain control of your horse. So, let's say I want the horse to stand still but he starts moving. I've lost control, haven't I? How can I regain control if we know I can't make him stand still? Answer: Ask him to do something, even if it's just change directions or even to speed up.
If the horse is going at two miles an hour and I speed him up to four, then the movement has suddenly become my idea, hasn't it? He wants to think about everything else, and the longer I let him think about other things, the more he's going to do just that. So what I'm going to do is work my horse. I'm going to practice changing directions or changing leg speed. I'll say "Hey, give me your nose and change directions." The more adamant he gets about going his direction, the more adamant I'm going to get about going my direction. I'll drive him forward, work his neck and start to move faster.
Remember, we couldn't get the horse to stand still, but in about ten minutes you can have a horse that wants to stand still. In your training, work on being still by telling him to go. Say to your horse: "If you want to work on go, then let's go. Let's work on forward. Let's work on softening your neck, changing directions and following your nose.
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There are certain products that every long-time Lyons fan carries in his equine tool kit. They're the "gotta haves." Here are a few essentials - as recommended by this John Lyons Certified Trainer, Keith Hosman.
