An Exercise for a Rainy Day!

{!firstname_fix}, welcome to the April 2009 issue of "Lyons Training 101," written by John Lyons Certified Trainer Keith Hosman.

This month we go over a little something you can do on those rainy days when you can't ride, a little bit of work you can do from the ground with nothing but a horse, a halter - and a few feet of barn aisle space.

From the ground, we're going to quickly test your horse to see if you've got respect issues - and then learn how to go about fixing them if you do. It's simple stuff that'll have big ramifications from here on out when working near your horse.

Free! Print this article for absolutely nuttin' for the next thirty days. Pin it up at the stable, pull it out at the next boring meeting, give it to a rider friend or copy it off for the 4-H riders! (It's kind of a big file and will take a minute or two to appear on your screen after clicking that link.)

You'll find "Whoever Moves First Loses" sampled below. To read in its entirety or to print it out, follow the links provided. If they don't work or you're not getting the emails properly, see the bottom of this page.

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More articles you can print out and collect...
Save Large When You Do Your Own Training:

1) Teach Your Horse to Drop His Head
1) 6 Easy Ways to Improve Your Training
3) Train Your Horse to Travel Straight

Note: These large files can take several minutes to come up on your screen.

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Previous horse-training tips and articles can be found 24/7 at Horsemanship101.com/Articles. All can be printed out & saved for easy access later.

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"Whoever Moves First Loses"

Does your horse bang impatiently on the stall at feeding time? Or lead poorly or bite or buck or kick out during a speed transition or drop his head to eat grass or forget you exist when whinnying to his buddies or "get cinchy" or act the fool for the farrier...? Does your horse see you more as servant than lord of the manor?

Or maybe you're looking for some effective training to do on a rainy day? Maybe something you can teach in a barn aisle when somebody else is using the arena?

For those of you who answered "aye," I'm going to describe a test and then a fix. Some of you will test your horses, they'll pass and you can move on to something else. I hazard to guess, however, that the vast majority of you will find that a little tune up is necessary. The purpose of today's work is to diagnose just how much control we have versus what we think we have; to wrest back control we might have unconsciously ceded, to improve "manners," and to boost our training in general...

keep reading this article

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Well, Here's What I'd Do First

Here's an excerpt from an earlier article called "The First Thing I Do." Just as this month's featured article ("Whoever Moves First Loses") deals with ground work, the following also covers close-contact horse handling. If you've got a young horse - or you're not sure where to begin in your training, you'll find this helpful.

"What's the first thing I do when I meet a new horse? The same thing you should do with your horse today and everyday: Give them a "resistance test." If you have the typical horse – whether you'd call him a problem child or a horse with just "occasional challenges" – this is for you.

If you get one thing from reading this article, it should be this: Any resistance from your horse while he's hanging out, just standing next to you munching grass, will be many times worse when things get hairy. If it takes one pound of pressure today to get him leading (away from that grass), it'll take one hundred when he gets spooked on the trail.

You have to ferret out those "one pound moments" and eradicate them like weeds. They're seeds that can grow into major disasters very quickly on the trail. If your horse "only freaks out once or twice a year but is otherwise great" – then you're fooling yourself. You're overlooking slip ups from your horse, perhaps on a daily basis, that will sooner or later get you hurt. Remember, accidents are by their very nature "things we don't expect."

If your horse went ballistic out on the trail last week... it didn't "just happen out of the blue." He's been telling you for weeks or months that he was going to lose it when enough pressure was applied every time he resisted (however slightly) the pull from your lead rope or reins...."

Read the entire article by following the link or by visiting Horsemanship101.com/Articles.

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"Training by the Numbers" - more articles:

- "Four Things You Need to Train Your Horse"
- "Three Step Stop Exercise" (Stops/Transitions)
- "Reins: 5 Tips to Improve Their Use"
- "6 Easy Ways to Improve Your Training"

All articles are online and available 24/7.

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Thanks for reading - and regards,

Keith Hosman, John Lyons Certified Trainer
Horsemanship101.com

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