Horse Training Guidelines

Horsemanship can be easy if you know some guidelines. In this article, you will find helpful guidelines that you can use in horse training.

Some horses are easily trained while others are extremely difficult to handle. There should be eagerness on the part of the horse and it will depend on the situation. For instance, if you got the horse during its infancy, it will be easier to train as compared to wild and older horse. Therefore, you need to look for training techniques that is suitable to the horse that you’re handling.

Horses have various uses. You can use the horse for transportation, for therapeutic ventures, sporting activities, and for farm operations. If you’re raising a small horse, make sure that you provide all the skills required like desensitization, longing, driving, and biting. Your horse needs to learn these things before you introduce riding lessons.

During the training process, familiarization is vital. Let your horse see the riding gear for familiarization. Start with the basic commands like turn around, stop, and go. When teaching commands, you can start with the ‘shhh’ sound. The sound is an effective way to reprimand the horse. Repetition is needed if your horse does not learn easily.

The diet is very important and you must pay attention to what your horses eat. If your horse is hot blooded, you need to give it food with less protein. Overfeeding can make your horse ‘high’. Get a bucket for your horse and use it when feeding because it’s not a good idea to feed it with your hand.

After you’ve established trust, you can now ride your horse. All your mind’s wishes will be transmitted to your horse’s mind when you’re together. There are even times when you hardly use the rein to steer or stop the horse. Never kick your horse because a simple body language can tell your horse to go.

If you’re handling spooky horses, you should be extra careful because they lack experience and confidence. You need to be very confident if you want to train a spooky horse. You can turn your horse’s fear into an asset if you employ the proper training techniques. If you have another horse, preferably a calm one, you can use it to settle the spooked horse. If the horse is dealing with a certain problem, try to distract it because the horse is like a child having a tantrum.

Horse trainers encounter different problems during the course of the training. Oftentimes, the problem is a result of ignorance or fear. You must have empathy and patience. Determine the fear of your horse and help him lovingly. If you’re dealing with a willful defiant horse, you should appropriately reprimand him so that he will feel uncomfortable. If the horse runs away from you, don’t scare it by acting as a predator; instead, approach him softly with non-threatening eyes.

If you want to trim or shoe your horse, massaging the foot is a good idea. You can also show your care by warming him up a little first on a cold weather.

These horse training guidelines will be able to help you somehow. Here’s the question to answer before you start horse training – do you have a new horse or one from infancy? After answering this question, you can now use the appropriate training techniques.

Horse Training – Four Lessons to Teach Your Horse

What are the four most important lessons in horse training? According to experts, you need to teach your horse about motivation, spot, direction, and reward.

Horse trainers who find it hard to handle horses will need to teach these four lessons to their horse. It doesn’t really matter if you’re training a performance horse or a colt because these lessons are essential to the training program. Don’t let your horse control you; you need to act as the leader of the herd.

Horse training is also about proper control. Training horses can be compared to building a brick house. It takes some time before you can finish building it. So you need to give your horse time in learning the various lessons of the training program. The different body parts of your horse should be easily controlled; you can start by controlling one part at a time. While doing this, you need to be an active rider, not a reactive one.

Motivation

This is the first lesson to introduce to your horse. Horses are wild animals by nature. They eat, play, groom, and sleep. However, they are also known as herd animals and a mare controls the whole herd. In order to effectively train your horse, you will need to act as the leader of the herd. Since you’re going to train your horse, it’s like asking your horse to work for you. You need to think of something that will motivate your horse to follow the training program you’ve set up for him. Horses don’t want to be led and that’s one fact that you should accept. But it doesn’t end there. You should not give up yet.

Spot

This is where ‘spot’ comes in. You need to find a particular spot that you can control so that your horse will follow. This may take time but just keep on trying to identify the right spot on the horse’s body.

Direction

After you’ve found a spot, you need to decide on the direction. Each part of the horse’s body can go in different directions – left, right, forward, backward, down, and up. Choose only one direction. Make sure that your horse understands your aids or signal so that he will not be confused.

Reward

This is the last lesson. When your horse follows your signals, don’t forget to give him a reward. You can give him a treat or you can simply pat him lightly and say ‘that’s a good boy/girl’.

The four lessons seem very easy but it’s different when you’re already on the training ground. Stubborn horses are difficult to handle and you will need a lot of time and patience. If you lack experience, don’t hesitate to consult the experts. Don’t be discouraged because not all horses are stubborn; there are also those who are easy to work with. The secret is to teach the four lessons one at a time. When your horse is familiar with the lessons, you will encounter fewer problems.

Identifying a motivating factor is not as easy as you think. Start out early. You should also be a good rider so that you won’t be confused in interpreting the horse’s moves. Learn all that you can about proper horse training. You must study the horse’s behavior and personality. Try to learn how to incorporate these four lessons to your training program and best of luck to you.