Things You'll Need
- Bridle
- Lead rope
- Lunge line
- Training bit and bridle
- Bareback saddle pad
- Training saddle
- Girth
- Saddle pad
- Lunge whip
- Treats (such as small amounts of sugar or grain)
Instructions
Expose young weanling Pasos to soft, weanling-sized halters as early as possible. These halters should be fitted to the young horse's head in the same fashion they are fitted to adult horses -- fitting loosely, with slack around the nose piece and enough room for three to four fingers around the throat latch. Simply leave the halter on the horse for several days at a time over the course of halter training, and practice taking it on and off intermittently. Luring the weanling's nose through the nose piece with treats is often the most effective way to place the halter on a headshy youngster, and over time, will build positive associations with being haltered.
Begin acclimating weanlings to being led, and to the weight of a lead rope, by cutting a used lead rope so only 12-18 inches hangs from the latch. Leave this abbreviated lead rope attached to the weanling's halter while stabled -- always and only under supervision -- and switch this smaller lead rope out for a traditional one to begin teaching the weanling to lead. When teaching the weanling to lead, move slowly and carefully so as not to frighten the animal. Fears developed at this stage can quickly become lifelong phobias. Hold the lead rope with your hand roughly 6 inches beneath the weanling's chin, facing the same direction as the horse (and that you wish to travel in) with your shoulder even with its cheek. Horses are prey animals, and cannot see directly ahead of them; standing towards their side allows them to see you and better estimate their course. Lead the weanling forward by luring it with treats as you walk, and expose the weanling to turns in both directions, stopping, and learning to match your pace. The best way to accomplish this is repetition in brief sessions; several times a day for four minutes the first four weeks of training, and then several times a week thereafter.
Accustom your growing horse to being handled in all the facilities a vet, farrier and owner may need. Handle your horse's mouth by rewarding it for gentle behavior, and accustom it to being groomed. Be especially sensitive to your horse's feet, using an assistant to reward it with treats for allowing you to inspect hooves, hocks and pasterns. This will undoubtedly be a long process, and will require small sessions done frequently -- ideally, several times a day. Using treats builds a positive association for the horse, which will (over time) begin to associate such activities with food and therefore a pleasant experience.
Begin acclimating your horse to the concept of being ridden as young as one by allowing it to watch other horses being saddled and ridden. If possible, allow the young horse to enter closed pens or arenas with familiar horses while they are being ridden. A horse should not be broken to ride until it is three because its bones have not matured to the point where they can accommodate a rider without the potential for long-term damage to the back, neck and legs; but this doesn't mean that all training has to cease. Acclimate your Paso to other areas of stable life; expose it to the farrier visits of other horses, to the procedure for being trailered, and to other animals. Use the same basic procedures for other types of training; use short, controlled sessions of no more than 5 minutes at a time, but done frequently. Minimize punishments unless your horse begins displaying aggressive or destructive habits because it can build fearful and negative associations that can be hazardous and hard to break. Reward calm and curious behavior with treats and quiet praise.
Break your horse to ride first by acclimating it to a bridle. First remove the bit, and place the training bridle over the head in place of a halter. Bridles are much tighter than halters and often made of stiffer, rougher materials which can be uncomfortable. As with the halter, simply leave it on while the horse is stabled or pastured, but take it off after a few hours every day. When your horse has become comfortable with the bridle, add the bit -- coating it with a thin layer of sugar to encourage your horse to accept it. Do not use reins during this time, and simply allow your horse to become comfortable with the feeling of the bit. Softer snaffles are recommended for this juncture, as they allow for tongue movement and freedom of the mouth.
Begin acclimating your horse to the saddle first by using a bareback pad (preferably an old or worn one), setting it over the horse's back and cinching it loosely. Since Pasos are a gaited breed, the saddle should be placed 2-3 inches behind the shoulders and further back than it would be on most other breeds of horse. Your horse may buck, or otherwise make its displeasure about this foreign object known. Try leading it around an arena or corral, luring it with treats. Saddle-training sessions should be long (an hour minimum) and should always be done under supervision. Over several sessions, your horse will begin to realize that this new object poses no restriction to its movement, and when it has clearly accepted the bareback pad, move on to using a training saddle and pad. These items should both be styled to accommodate your gaited horse. Your horse may roll to try and get these items off, so use old equipment whenever possible.
Allow an experienced rider or trainer to be the first to ride your horse. There should be no use of the reins at this stage, as the horse will undoubtedly need several sessions to acclimate to the weight of a rider. Instead, another handler familiar to the horse should lead it around an enclosed space at a sedate pace, rewarding it with treats for calm compliance.
Lunging should also begin at this stage. After tacking a horse up, it should be introduced to the lunge line and allowed into a round pen, where an instructor will use a lunge whip to encourage the horse into various gaits, and begin teaching the horse to associate vocal commands with different gaits and behaviors. These sessions should be fairly short -- 30 minutes to an hour -- and as before, the horse should be rewarded for successfully following commands and displaying good behavior. All other aspects of training should still be employed as well, and the horse slowly weaned off treats for haltering and leading.
Begin lunging the horse with a rider after the horse has demonstrated reliability with a saddled rider and successful grasp of basic lunging commands (such as whoa or stop, trot, fino, canter, left and right) and at this point, the reins will be incorporated. The rider will instruct the Paso on the accompanying leg and rein signals for each command.