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Welcome to the June 2009 issue of "Lyons Training 101," written by John Lyons Certified Trainer Keith Hosman.
Teach your horse to neck rein!
It's not a matter of strapping on a big ol' bit and charging off like Butch Cassidy. Neck reining actually has to be taught. There's a rhyme and reason. A process and method. This month: Learn the proper way to guide your horse with one hand.
Free! Print this article for nada penny for the next 30 days. (Hurry, clock's ticking!) Hang it in the barn for your pals, bring it along to pass the time at work - or send copies to your boarders with their next billing! Best suggestion yet: Collect the articles and put 'em in a binder. (It's a big file and will take a moment to appear on your screen after clicking that link.)
You'll find "Neck Reining How-To" 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...
Do It Yourself Training:
1) When Buying a Horse - 5 First-Timer Tips
2) Whoever Moves First Loses: Rainy Day Training
3) 6 Easy Ways to Improve Your Training
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In the horse world, the word "cue" means something that signals the horse to do something. It doesn't "make" the horse do something, it asks. Kissing to the horse says "move" – but doesn't make it move, see? We cue the horse to do something (kiss, shift our weight, move our hands, etc.), then apply "motivation" should that cue be ignored. Example: If I kiss and the horse just stands there, I squeeze (or kick) with my legs. The legs say "Don't ignore the kiss or you get the boot."
Basic stuff, I know – but it's surprising how often folks tend to get the two concepts ("asking for something" versus "making something happen") mixed up. There is a very real difference between "requesting" and "enforcing" and it's critical that we understand this going forward – especially when teaching our horses to neck rein. This is because neck reining is simply teaching your horse an "associative cue," "When I move my hand, you move your shoulders and feet." It's not: "I move my hand and pull you through a turn." To illustrate: How many times have you seen cowboys in a John Wayne movie take their hands far across the horse's mane to turn the horse? Do their horses turn? Sure they do – but due to the use of shank bits and tie-downs and pain and not because they've been trained to associate a movement of the rider's hands with a turn of direction. See the difference between asking and forcing? Were the Black Hats to remove the hardware from their horse's mouths (replacing shank with snaffle) and try riding off, they'd find the horse choosing the direction. (Those after-robbery bank getaways would look like a billiard table seconds after first break.)...
keep reading this article
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"Your Foal: Essential Training"
- Step-by-step training for the 1st 2 years of your foal's life
- Body control, sacking out, haltering, leading, & bathing
- Bonus: Teach your foal to pick up its feet when you point!
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Here's an excerpt from a previous article called "The Clockwork Exercise." It teaches you to teach your horse "shoulder control" and it's an absolute must if you want to nail this month's work, as outlined above in "Neck Reining How To."
"Why You Want To Do This Exercise: This must-learn exercise teaches your horse to neck rein, side pass, back up, move diagonally, spin, or do reverse-arc circles. It's also a great way to teach your horse to not drop its shoulder through circles.
How You'll Do It: You'll teach your horse to move any of his four feet anywhere you please using either of the two reins. The combinations are virtually endless and give you excellent control over the movements of your horse.
There are two ways to teach this exercise: You can begin by walking forward or you can begin by backing up.
To get started, stand up. Look to the left. Keep your head in that position and sidestep to your right. Now, look to your right and sidestep to your right. It was easier to move to the right with your head to the left, wasn't it? Your horse finds the same thing. That's why you begin teaching your horse to move to the left by using the right, or "opposite," rein...."
Read the entire article by following the link or by visiting Horsemanship101.com/Articles.
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Further prerequisites for this month's work:
- "Steer the Tail"
- "Steer the Tail, Part II"
- "Hip-Shoulder-Shoulder Pt1", Pt2, Pt3
- "How to Teach a Horse to Pivot ... Hindquarters"
- "Train Your Horse to Travel Straight"
- "Simple Steps to Power Steering"
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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Bucking Horse?
My Downloadable Book "Stop Bucking" can help!
Here's a sample
from Day Five:
"Is this you? You think your horse is about to slow down so you give him a good kick? That makes sense to you - but the horse figures he got kicked for no good reason. You'll burn out your “move faster” cue quick that way. I need you to start thinking and riding differently.
Instead, continue this exercise by walking your horse forward and asking it to speed up; demand a “noticeable change of leg speed.” If your horse was traveling at 4 mph, ask for faster and make sure he does just that. It's not a maybe it's a definitely. If he doesn't speed up, kick until he does. If he breaks into the next higher gait, ease him back down and keep trying.
If your horse begins to slow down on his own when you travel 30 feet at the increased speed, then ask him to slow down the next time at 28 feet. It's key that you ask for the slow down - it's not supposed to be his idea. Remember, you don't want to be in the habit of kicking him when you “think” he's going to slow down so you've got to make the first move. Ask him to slow a moment before you think he was going to slow down anyway. You'll concentrate on...
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