Horse Quick Tips

Whether you are a novice or professional, there’s a lot the horse you are working with can teach you about communications. Keep it safe, fun, engaging and interesting for both of you and you’ll be amazed at how much more effective short and collaborative lessons can be than long sessions you dictate alone. Below are some tips for drawing out your horse and making the process easier and safer for you as you begin the challenge of preparing your horse for tack and a rider while you forge a foundation for an exciting human equine/partnership that encourages performance beyond expectations.

1. Stay away from formula approaches – customize a program – and each day – to respond to the horse’s proclivities with collaborate strategies (listen to your horse) designed to move forward vs. get you stuck in combative behavior.
2. Know your horse – recognize her moods and be ready to alter the day’s plan to strive for a good and quick end to the lesson. Choose approaches that your horse can understand and enjoy given his particular issues and personality.
3. There’s no such thing as too much ground work – the more you do prior to hopping aboard to gain the confidence, trust, understanding and cooperation of your horse before you begin to ride him, the easier this next phase will be for both of you.
4. Limit time in the round pen – drilling or exhausting a horse in a small circular pen will not only lead to frustration and boredom, but can also create permanent soundness issues.
5. Hit the trails – hills, varied terrain, wildlife, water and interesting scenery provide a great venue for building the confidence, trust and dependability of a young equine. This can be a wonderful early training approach once you have basic stop, steering and go cues understood.
6. Go it alone – while company can be an easy early training crutch, this tends to create a horse focused on other equines for direction and confidence, taking the focus off you. This can lead to later challenges with barn sour or herd bound behavior.
7. Patience and kindness trump egocentric demands – most horses will react better to someone who offers the time and understanding to process requests, responding to horse feedback over one who bullies them into compliance.
8. End quickly and on a good note – it’s best to keep early lessons brief (both on the ground and under saddle) in a way that encourages the horse to follow requests, rewards them for their effort and ends with a quick win prior to pushing the horse too hard toward frustration.
9. Belly over a horse for the first day or two – this keeps you safe and delays the added concern of you towering over the horse’s head (instinct can cause the horse to view you as a predator in this position). Getting your young horse used to carrying weight at a standstill and walking off with a moving load (many horses will react more dramatically to a person on their backs once they start moving than when they are still) in a way that is less threatening and easy for you to dismount unencumbered can ease the horse into harder lessons and save the time required to settle a horse that’s been traumatized.
10. Get them away from the herd – you want to set the stage for your young horse to view training time with his focus on you. This can be tougher if the herd is in sight. Find a place on your property (or move the other horses into the barn or further away from your working area) where you can reduce the distraction buddies provide.
11. Establish a training area that’s designated for work – don’t use the pasture you turn your horse out in as an arena for training. Conversely, don’t use your work area for recreation. Horses seem to appreciate a specified area that allows them to relax and another that signifies it’s time for your job.
12. Try to stick to a schedule – horses thrive best (because they’re most comfortable) with a routine that they can expect and embrace. Pick a time to train and try to stay consistent. If you make training fun, you’ll find your mount waiting at the gate excited about the expected training lesson.
13. Discover what your horse enjoys most – use this as a reward (try to avoid the temptation to offer treats for tricks) as praise for good work or an activity to end a session.
14. Show your horse you care enough to return the respect – respect goes both ways and that means you need to be able to show your horse you hear him, even if you don’t agree. Give him the courtesy of listening and acknowledging before you levy demands.#
15. Enjoy the ride – if you work toward trust and understanding in early lessons as you customize strategies to reach your horse in ways he understands and appreciates, you’ll be shocked at what he’ll do in return to please and protect you. Sometimes just a simple acknowledgement of the horse’s perspective can turn a frightened, frustrated or belligerent horse into a steed excited about pleasing and exceeding expectations. Pause the next time you have a ‘failure to communicate’ with your horse and consider the possibility he simply doesn’t understand. Corrections are fine when warranted, but most are too quick to blame the horse. Most equines will embrace your request if posed in a way that makes sense to them. Horses allowed to contribute to solutions will make you proud. Respect goes both ways.

There’s been a recent barrage of messages lately through blogs, online forums, DVDs and other platforms that lambaste those who use tactics that ignore the horse’s needs. Of course, most of these directives are worded in a techie fashion that excludes the neediest novices from the conversation. It’s also interesting that some of the more vocal horse advocates are rude to the people who chime in with limited understanding and questions in an effort to learn. It kind of makes you wonder how they really handle a confused or green horse when no one is looking (and sometimes, even when they have an audience). When it comes to horses, though, anyone who professes a single right answer to a challenge may benefit from some basic observation and the associated horse sense it generates – provided they’re open to learning.

What’s a horse novice to do?

That’s the beauty of the uninitiated equine enthusiast – and the danger. They’re sponges for knowledge and easily influenced by messages that seem to offer easy answers, but may be designed with a profit motive in mind that doesn’t serve either the horse or handler. It’s sad that some who may have the knowledge and the willingness to share what they’ve learned over decades of kind approaches to horse interaction make their words so esoteric, the most eager learners flee feeling too ignorant to grasp the ideas being offered or fearful of being judged  if they join the conversation. Those who really want to help the horse should consider how their buzz words and platforms designed to impress their peers alienate those they claim to want to help.

Let horses teach you

Horses are great at communicating – if you know how to listen. It’s hard for anyone who hasn’t had a good deal of experience with a variety of horses to be able to read what a horse is trying to tell you. Often, it’s equally hard for someone who’s learned to reach horses in a subliminal fashion to express to others how they do it. Sometimes, it seems those who hide behind words and concepts too abstract for the most basic learners to understand do so intentionally to hide their failings.

Draw from the experience of those willing to speak your language

So, how can the novice begin to learn how to structure a plan to consider the horse? Spend time watching your horse and seeing how he reacts to what you do. Mix it up and carefully observe what he responds to with eager enthusiasm. Try to find people you trust who speak to you in terms that are clear with an approach that is flexible and responsive to your horse’s learning and performance preferences. Seek out those who are able to express ideas in simple terms, and willing to demonstrate, graphically, how certain actions influence the horse’s behavior. Ask people who are getting good results and building great relationships with their horses how they did it – and see if you can observe them in action. Use your head on what seems right and fair and where tactics designed to create a compliant horse may not make a happy horse.

The truly successful are humble

Some of the most successful human leaders in the world are humble, accessible and able to speak to anyone of any status or education as a respected and appreciated peer in a language that is easy for them to process and implement. The same holds true for those working with horses in a stand-out fashion. Those who use communications to dominate, impress, posture, separate and/or put others in a place below their status are suspect – both when it comes to human and horse communications. Learning should be fun for all involved and those who can make it easy for both the horse and human to understand, implement and embrace are special.  Sometimes they lurk in the most unexpected places. Finding someone with truly selfless motives where both you and your horse are concerned (and some of these people may charge for their knowledge – but it’s clear early on that it’s not about profit, but satisfaction in improving the experience for both you and your horse) is a joy. If you haven’t discovered such a resource yet, keep looking. They’re out there.