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Training Tips

Training Tips
October 17, 2017

Training Tip: Personal Space and Safety

The safety category of respect refers to your personal hula hoop space. This space is a 4-foot circle that surrounds you and serves as your safety zone. Whenever you are working with a horse, always imagine that there’s a four foot circle drawn around you—almost like an invisible electric fence. Unless you invite the horse […]

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Training Tips
October 10, 2017

Training Tip: When Your Horse Spooks, be a Leader

When they’re on the trail, a lot of people put their horse on a big, loose rein and let their mind wander or gab with friends. They put their horse on what I call “autopilot” – he’s left on his own, which for a lot of horses means they go down the trail constantly looking […]

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Training Tips
October 3, 2017

Training Tip: Why Getting Two Eyes is Important

I have a saying: Two eyes are always better than two heels. If I want to teach you something, I need you to give me your eyes and your attention. If you’re looking out the window and staring at the people walking on the sidewalk or the cars going by on the street, all the […]

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Training Tips
September 26, 2017

Training Tip: Beat Fear

When a horse respects you as a leader and uses the thinking side of his brain rather than the reactive side, you can stop worrying about getting hurt or not being able to handle a dangerous situation. Horses are big animals, and it’s only natural to be scared of them. A lot of people come […]

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Training Tips
September 12, 2017

Training Tip: Symptoms of a Cause

The majority of horse “problems” aren’t really problems at all; they are really just symptoms of a cause. Ninety-five percent of all the problems you will ever have to deal with as a horse owner will fix themselves if you do the groundwork and earn your horse’s respect. Most people think that their horse’s problem […]

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Training Tips
September 9, 2017

Training Tip: Keep it Simple

It wasn’t until I started attending clinics and apprenticing under Australian horseman, Gordon McKinlay, that I realized that horses are just like humans – they don’t learn perfectly. When you first introduce a new lesson to a horse, he’s going to get confused, frustrated and maybe even agitated or nervous. And you know what? That’s […]

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Training Tips
September 5, 2017

Training Tip: It all Starts With Respect

Respect is like having money in the bank – it gives you more options. The more money you have in the bank, the more options you have. You can spend more time with your family, perfecting your hobbies or just enjoying life in general. If you don’t have much money, you are very limited on […]

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Training Tips
August 29, 2017

Training Tip: Drop the Excuses

Horses are phenomenal people trainers. They train us to do the goofiest things in the world. People make up the most ridiculous excuses for all the things their horses have trained them to do.

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Training Tips
August 22, 2017

Training Tip: A Great Partnership Requires Daily Maintenance

Unfortunately, respect is non-transferable. Just because I have earned a horse’s respect does not mean I can hand him over to you and he will respect you the same way. Each person is responsible for gaining each horse’s respect. That frustrates many people because they spend a lot of money on a well-trained horse and […]

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Training Tips
August 15, 2017

Training Tip: Emotions Don’t Belong Around Horses

Human emotions have no place in training horses. If you try to deal with a horse based on emotions, you won’t get the response you want because he won’t understand what you’re asking him to do. You have to be able to correct your horse and increase pressure without raising your emotion. Losing your temper […]

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