Little Things to Train Your Horse

Training a horse properly is a complicated process that takes significant time, energy, experience and effort. Every time you ride your horse, you are training him (for better or for worse). The many different concepts and ideas people employ when attempting to train a horse include several fairly simple and basic concepts.

  1. Equipment

    • Having the right equipment for what you want to accomplish is absolutely crucial for your ultimate training success. The more you improvise or try to make less than ideal equipment work, the more likely it is that problems will occur. You need to have the right equipment to train your horse properly, including the basics: safe and appropriate tack, and places to ride and exercise the horse. Small pieces of equipment that can make a big difference in some horses' responsiveness include lunge lines, lunge whips, training halters, lead ropes, crops, breast collars, martingales and spurs.

    Desensitization

    • Horses are flight animals whose natural response to new stimuli is to flee. This is where the spooking reaction comes from when someone uses a bright camera flash or opens an umbrella on the side of the show ring. As a trainer, it is your job to introduce your horse to a variety of stimuli, teaching him to react calmly to all manner of touch and strange objects. Do not allow your horse to flee from basic experiences, as this will confirm for your horse that fear and running away are the right reaction.

    Practice

    • Horses are fairly intelligent animals, but they still need several lessons to fully learn a concept, as well as continual reminders as to what they are supposed to do and how it is properly done. Practice what you are teaching your horse until he understands the maneuver or habit.

    Positive Reinforcement

    • Reward your horse when he does something right. A verbal praise, pat on the shoulder or a treat is often adequate positive reinforcement for a job well done. Horses need to know when they have correctly performed the task you are training them to do, and the best way to show them it was right is to provide a reward when it is done. For example, if you have practiced a maneuver (such as a turn on the haunches or a side pass) 15 times, and on time number 16 your horse does it properly you should praise him, pat him and generally make a fuss so he understands that what he just did is what you want him to do in response to your cues. Horses have an active memory and will recall the praise they received for the correct behavior, long after the end of the lesson. Your horse will be more likely to repeat behavior that earned a postive reaction than behavior that earned a negative reaction or no reaction.

    The Path of Least Resistance

    • Horses are not complicated creatures and will normally do whatever is easiest for them. You can make training easier by making what you want the horse to do the easiest thing for him to do. An entire training method is based on using the horse's natural instincts and reactions to accomplish training tasks. It is known as the Least Resistance Training Method (see Resources).