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Training Tips

Training Tips
May 6, 2025

Training Tip: Teach Your Horse to Lower His Head for Bridling

Anytime I’m haltering or bridling a horse, I want him to lower his head and slightly look in at me. That’s the complete opposite of a horse throwing his head up in the air, trying to get away from you, while you have to get on your tiptoes to reach his face. I teach my […]

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Training Tips
April 29, 2025

Training Tip: Horse Only Backs Short Distances

Question: I’ve taught my horse all of the Fundamentals backing up exercises and she does them pretty well for five or six steps, but if I ask her to continue, she pins her ears and tries to run me over. What do I do? Answer: Without watching you back your mare up, it’s difficult to […]

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Training Tips
April 22, 2025

Training Tip: Feeding a Horse Before a Training Session

If your mother was anything like mine, you probably heard, “Don’t eat an hour before you swim or you’ll sink to the bottom of the pool!” more than a few times while growing up. A lot of people have the same sentiment when it comes to feeding horses before a training session. Just like my […]

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Training Tips
April 15, 2025

Training Tip: Yielding the Forequarters Trouble

Question: When doing the starting point of Yield the Forequarters, I have applied pressure in the one-to-four rhythm from soft to high pressure with my stick being horizontal and my belly button being under the horse’s eye. My horse will not move an inch of her body no matter the pressure. Even with high pressure, […]

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Training Tips
April 8, 2025

Training Tip: Is Your Horse’s Focus on the Puzzle or the Trouble?

Ian Francis used to tell me, “Training a horse is all about putting him in a mental or physical bind and allowing him to figure out the puzzle.” The only way the horse can work on figuring out the puzzle is if he’s using the thinking side of his brain and is relaxed. If a […]

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Training Tips
April 1, 2025

Training Tip: Horse is Scared of the Bit

Question: I just got a new horse and she is scared of the bit. Her old owner told me she was trained through abuse. She is also shy around her ears.

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Training Tips
March 25, 2025

Training Tip: Drop the Excuses Around Your Horse

When I was teaching clinics, especially at the beginning of my career, the following scenario would happen often. “Clinton, I just wanted to come find you and talk about my horse.” The demeanor of the woman standing in front of me would be timid, almost apologetic, and her overall manner would be very soft-spoken. It’d […]

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Training Tips
March 18, 2025

Training Tip: Pushy Mustang Won’t Roundpen

Question: I have a 3-year-old mustang mare, and I’ve always had problems with her pushing her chest into stall doors, attempting to run me over and shaking her head, which has resulted in her hitting her head against mine twice. She’s very belligerent and cannot focus on anything I ask her to do. I tried […]

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Training Tips
March 11, 2025

Training Tip: Human Emotions Won’t Train Your Horse

People who take on horses that have had a traumatic past often get caught up in putting their emotions on the horse. It never works and it leads to trouble, often making the horse frustrated and confused about what’s expected of him. Human emotions have no place in training horses, whether you’re working with a […]

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Training Tips
March 4, 2025

Training Tip: What to do When a Foal Rears

Question: I’ve been following the Foal Training Series, and my foal has started to rear. What should I do to stop this behavior? I backed him up a couple steps and that worked for a while, but he started doing it again today, so I backed him up and scared him away.

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