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Training Tips

Training Tips
October 16, 2018

Training Tip: Water Crossings: Practice Makes Perfect

The key to teaching your horse to navigate any obstacle, including water, is to give him enough practice so that he gains confidence. Go over a stream or through a pond a hundred times. Go over it again and again, from different angles, at different speeds, and from all sides. At the ranch, we end […]

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Training Tips
October 9, 2018

Training Tip: Understand Why Your Horse is Fearful of Gullies

One of the main reasons horses find gullies so frightening is because of their vision. Horses have monocular vision, which means that they use each eye separately. That’s why your horse may spook at something that he’s already walked past and reacted to once: He’s seeing it for the first time with his other eye. […]

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Training Tips
October 2, 2018

Ask Clinton: Older Horse Expectations

Q: I have a 23-year-old Quarter Horse that is very pushy on the ground and can be disrespectful. I started working him in the roundpen, but since he’s older and out of shape, I’m not sure if I should ask him to canter. He’s a fancy, high-stepping old man and really hates to keep that […]

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Training Tips
September 25, 2018

Training Tip: Pay Attention to Your Position When Riding Hills

The rider’s position makes a difference in how well a horse can go up and down the hill. Your horse has to balance his weight and your weight negotiating a hill, and by sitting properly, you can help him out. When I’m going down a hill, I lean back a little bit on my horse […]

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Training Tips
September 18, 2018

Training Tip: Ask Clinton: Stay in the Lope

Q: How do I keep my green horse loping without kicking or squeezing him constantly? – Jaydyn H.  A: It’s no fun to ride a horse that constantly makes you babysit him. You need to teach your horse to be responsible for his own feet so that when you tell him to lope, he keeps […]

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Training Tips
September 11, 2018

Training Tip: Train Your Horse to Negotiate Hills Solo

Ideally, you don’t want to be practicing going up or down a hill when there is a big group of horses riding on ahead of you. That’s just setting yourself and your horse up for disappointment (and possibly disaster). Your horse will be too focused on staying with the herd to slow down and think […]

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Training Tips
September 4, 2018

Ask Clinton: Buddy-Sour Horses

Q: I have two horses that are buddy sour. It is to the point where I can’t go out on the trail without taking the other horse. I am not at a barn where I can separate them.

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Training Tips
August 28, 2018

Training Tip: Why Speed Isn’t a Good Idea When Riding Hills

How a horse handles hills is as much a reflection of your own skills and know-how as it is of your horse’s. A well-trained trail horse creeps up and down hills, moving like molasses as he carefully picks his way over the terrain. Regardless of why a horse isn’t negotiating a hill in that manner, […]

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Training Tips
August 21, 2018

Ask Clinton: Asking More of a Horse

Q: My horse does everything I ask of him, but he takes his own sweet time doing it. So I amped up the pressure and he went berserk. What did I do wrong?

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Training Tips
August 14, 2018

Training Tip: Handle a Refusal Under Saddle

If you’re on the trail and your horse is reacting badly about going over an obstacle and you feel unsafe, don’t hesitate to get off him and send him over it from the ground. Dismounting is not a “cop out.” It doesn’t mean that you are letting the horse get away with disrespectful behavior. Rather, […]

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