How to Train With a Hackamore

Training a horse can be a long, tedious process, but the difficulty of the process largely depends on the relationship between the horse and its trainer. Trainers should understand the natures of their horses before attempting to train them. Hackamores are a type of harness used to train horses on how to obey basic commands while the trainer or rider leads the horse. To train a horse with a hackamore, the horse must already be familiar with groundwork basics. Ground work basics include general commands that the horse must follow without a harness or lead.

Things You'll Need

  • Enclosed area
  • Saddle
  • Hackamore
  • Surcingle
  • Long line
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Instructions

    • 1

      Train your horse to understand basic commands, such as how to move forward and backward and to stop before you attempt to train it with a hackamore. It is important that your horse understand simple commands first.

    • 2

      Place the hackamore onto your horse's head and check to see if it fits properly. The hackamore must rest near the horse's nose cartilage but never actually on the cartilage. Adjust the bosal, which is the nose-piece of the hackamore, so that it fits nicely to the horse's nose and does not move around when the horse moves.

    • 3

      Push gently on your horse's nose while it is wearing the bosal and give it the command to back up. This will teach the horse that pressure against its nose from the bosal means that it needs to step back. Keep practicing this with your horse until it obeys and understands the command.

    • 4

      Run long lines, or ropes, through a surcingle and connect them to the hackamore. A surcingle is a belt that goes around your horse's body. Reteach your horse basic commands, such as move forward and stop, by applying pressure to the ropes. This will pull the hackmore and bosal and train your horse how to respond to pressure on its nose.

    • 5

      Put a saddle on your horse's back and have an assistant lead it while you sit on it. This will help it to become accustomed to having a rider. Take a rein ni each of your hands and pull quickly to teach the horse to stop. It will remember that a tug on its bosal means you want it to stop.

    • 6

      Pull back on your horse's reins and apply pressure to its sides with your legs to let it know that it should move backward. Then, practice moving the horse left and right. To move left, lay the left rein against the horse,s neck and pull the right rein. To move it right, lay the right rein against its neck and pull the left rein. The pull of the reins will apply pressure to the hackamore's bosal.